wow Is Echo Playing on NA Servers for the Amirdrassil Race to World First?

[Starym 3,725]

 

The "Global Release" drama/movement has been going on pretty much since the Race to World First existed, and today there was a big announcement related to it. A very interesting and mysterious tweet seemed to indicate that EU RWF guild Echo would be playing on NA servers for Amirdrassil!  However, that's both absolutely true, but also quite a bit misleading.

First off, let's see the tease, featuring a totally real Ion Hazzikostas:

ITS HAPPENING

FREEEEDOOOOOOOOM pic.twitter.com/yCfrQAOMif

— Echo (@EchoGuild) November 13, 2023

In addition to that, Gingi also discussed the announcement on his stream, explaining that the guild had been prepping characters on NA servers and would be raiding there tomorrow, November 14th, when the raid releases. Gingi didn't really add any details, but did add a lot of emphasis on the "tomorrow" part specifically.

So what's actually happening?

Are Echo really going to be raiding on NA servers for the Amirdrassil race? Well, yes and no. While we don't have any explicit confirmation from the guild, it seems very obvious what the plan is. They will be raiding on NA servers for the first day, when they can't really do anything else but watch streams anyway, trying out the raid hands-on. Whether that will be Mythic or only Heroic is left to be seen, and just how much of their strats will be broadcast is also up in the air.

However, the main point is that for the rest of the race they will almost certainly be back to their regular EU characters and guild. When players who signed up as helpers for their split teams asked what this announcement meant for them, they were basically told "not to worry about it". The Echo RWF stream event is also still happening in Sweden, and any ideas of late-booked flights to the US or similar are pretty absurd. No, what's happening here is a simple switch from watching NA guilds progress on day 1 (or rather watching them do splits) to actually having a guild on NA servers to try out some things a little ahead of the EU release. This won't be a huge amount of time either, as NA servers are scheduled to go up around 8 PM CET, and the EU raid opens at 5 AM. So that doesn't leave too much time to try things out without seriously impacting sleep schedules.

And so the announcement was both true and a bit of a troll at the same time! We will be seeing Echo raiding on NA servers, but just for a short time. They may use that guild and those characters for other purposes during the race as well, but that remains to be seen.

In any case, we'll be seeing both top guilds going at it at the same time tomorrow, and you can watch them live here, with Liquid's RWF stream event and Echo's. The Amirdrassil Race to World First starts tomorrow, with maintenance scheduled to end at 11AM PST / 8 PM CET, but it could finish earlier or much later as well. We'll be covering the race with both daily recaps and separate posts for the big news as well. 

[TheRagingwolf 193]

I did the progression raiding thing for some time and it was stressful considering this is "just a game". Given that experience, I can't imagine the stress and anxiety felt while attempting a world first.

[Starym 3,725]

1 hour ago, TheRagingwolf said:

I did the progression raiding thing for some time and it was stressful considering this is "just a game". Given that experience, I can't imagine the stress and anxiety felt while attempting a world first.

It's... a lot. Even back when all eyes weren't literally on you cos of the streaming. I remember calling my friend up every hour while I was at work to find out if Death and Taxes had killed Kel'Thuzad before we could get back in there (this was before 16 hour days of raiding became the norm).