Weekly server maintenance has ended and the race has begun. World of Warcraft Dragonflight season one is here, and for the first time, that also means that the Race to World First has also started.
To account for the upcoming holiday season, Blizzard decided to release Dragonflight’s first raid, Vault of the Incarnates, on all three difficulties in the same week. Typically, the developer staggers their release so that Normal and Heroic come out a week earlier.
But with Mythic coming out in the same week, that means the popular grassroots esports event known as the Race to World First will look a little bit different than normal. Instead of the top guilds in the world having a full week to prepare their characters through split runs, everyone is starting from ground zero.
While season one has just gone live in North America, European guilds will have to wait a few more hours before they can start their season. The EU reset that will kick off season one and unlock Vault of the Incarnates will happen at 10pm CT.
Despite the delayed start, the EU guild Echo comes into this RWF as the frontrunner after taking home World First victories in each of the last two raids. Their biggest competition will likely come from Team Liquid (formerly Limit). Since the RWF was popularized as a broadcasted esport in 2018, the core group of Echo players has only lost a main raiding tier race to the North American Liquid group.
