Team Liquid claim Race to World First raid victory in WoW: The War Within

James Lynch
Queen Ansurek waits for more victims in Nerub-ar Palace in WoW: The War Within

The release of World of Warcraft: The War Within‘s initial raid tier also served as the starting gun for the Race to World First. Now, after 11 days of struggle, Team Liquid has come out on top as the first to conquer the halls of Mythic Nerub’ar Palace.

The journey to this point has been long and arduous, with plenty of intervening drama keeping viewers glued to livestreams. After the first four bosses were cleared on the first pull, it seemed, at first, that the race would prove uneventful.

However, things quickly ramped up from there. The first major obstacle to overcome was Broodtwister, an encounter that took Team Liquid a total of 120 pulls to overcome. Things became even more dicey when they reached Nexus-Princess, where the team became stuck for 304 separate engagements.

171 attempts at The Silken Court served as the final staging post before they attempted to take on the concluding fight against Queen Ansurek. After more than a day of strife, three guilds were vying for the crown, with Liquid coming close as they battled against Method and Echo for the win.

Unfortunately, none of those teams could churn out enough DPS to defeat Queen Ansurek before her enrage wiped the party. As such, Blizzard rolled out several nerfs designed to make the victory more achievable, and it was here that Liquid would claim the win.

At the time of writing, other teams are still locked in a battle for second place, with more nerfs to Ansurek likely before the end. Method, Echo, and Huoguo Hero are all on the final boss, while teams like ZboX, Instant Dollars, and End Myth are one behind, at The Silken Court.