Esports organization Team Liquid has secured a coveted world's first completion of World of Warcraft's latest raid, Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible. Liquid came out on top over rivals Echo and Method, and as reported by Dot Esports, the team has ended a three-year drought since their last world's first completion, Shadowlands' Castle Nathria.
The race to be the first team to clear a new WoW raid is a vaunted tradition, with it taking days or even weeks for professional esports teams to master complicated new encounter mechanics. Team sizes vary from raid to raid, but Liquid came into Aberrus with a 20-person roster including 13 DPS players, five healers, and two tanks.
The race for Aberrus began last Tuesday, and the teams were tasked with clearing all nine bosses of Dragonflight's second raid on Mythic difficulty. Liquid started putting up an impressive showing from the halfway point, being the first to beat the last five of those bosses. It's now left to Echo and Method to duke it out for the second place spot.
The final boss of the raid, Scalecommander Sarkareth, is an expectedly challenging encounter, with this paragon of WoW's new Dracthyr race requiring 114 attempts and even off-stream practice before Liquid's victory. According to Raider.io, Liquid got the big man to within 15% of his health bar on one such practice run before taking him on at prime time.
Congratulations are rolling in from Team Liquid's friends and rivals in the community, as well as the official World of Warcraft Twitter account. Team Liquid DPS player JPC has particular cause for celebration: this was the streamer's first time participating in a world's first-winning team.
FINALLY A WORLD FIRST RAIDER BABYYYYYYYYYY 🏆May 15, 2023
GG, well played! 👏🎉May 15, 2023
The winning moments of our Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible World First champions.WE DID IT 🏆 pic.twitter.com/fBCIp6OwKIMay 15, 2023
Congratulations gamers🧡May 15, 2023
