World of Warcraft’s biggest esports event, the Race to World First, is back. With the launch of each new raid in WoW, the greatest guilds in the world battle it out and run through the raid at a scorching pace for the coveted title of “World First.”
The Vault of the Incarnates, the first raid of the game’s newest expansion, Dragonflight, ushers in a new age for Mythic raiding. After several guilds across the world disbanded following Shadowlands, only a handful of titans will enter this expansion’s first race with a genuine chance to come out on top.
Plus, the change to make Mythic difficulty raids launch at the same time as Normal and Heroic difficulty will likely affect how top guilds approach their clearing strategy, especially during the early portions of the race.
Here, you’ll be able to keep up with the race as it unfolds over the course of the next week-plus (or however long it goes on).
Vault of the Incarnates Race to World First – live updates
Friday, Dec. 23
- 4:18pm CT – Liquid have defeated Raszageth, claiming second place in the Race to World First.
- 1:22pm CT – It’s become clear that some nerfs were applied to Raszageth prior to Echo’s World First kill. The boss’ Raging Storm ability, which acts as a soft-enrage that slowly closes the radius of the encounter’s room, was nerfed so that it closes at a slower pace. The nerf has also assisted Liquid, who immediately grabbed seven percentage points of progress on their first pull of the day.
- 11:45am CT – Echo have won the Vault of the Incarnates Race to World First, taking down Raszageth after 265 pulls. This victory marks the guild’s third straight RWF title.
- 10:11am CT – Echo and Liquid have both taken advantage of the nerfs that hit Raszageth earlier in the week and progress on the boss is now coming in droves. Echo are marginally closer to a kill than Liquid. Their best pull on the boss was a sub-nine-percent attempt, while Liquid’s sits at 14 percent.
Thursday, Dec. 22
- 11:15am CT – Blizzard nerfed Raszageth last night, taking a five-percent chunk out of the boss’ health and reducing its Stormsurge damage. Echo and Liquid have shown strides on the boss since with each getting the boss below 50 percent. Echo have reverted to a four-healer composition after experimenting with five healers for some time yesterday, and they have the lead in progression with a best pull that got them into the stage two intermission.
Wednesday, Dec. 21
- 4:16pm CT – Liquid have crested the 200-pull threshold on Raszageth, while Echo appear to be done pulling for the day. The defending champions played WoW for an astonishing 18-straight hours today and slightly pushed the needle past where they were prior to the weekly reset. Now, the quest for more gear continues heading into the final stretch of the race.
- 4:13pm CT – Echo and Liquid have both switched up their compositions following the weekly resets, with both teams slowly progressing past the first intermission. The two teams are making slow progress on Raszageth, although progress is still progress.
- 1:04pm CT – Echo started their day with more Raszageth pulls and immediately broke the wall that’s been in front of them all weekend. On their second pull of the day, Echo were able to get past the first intermission of the fight, securing a new best attempt in the process.
Tuesday, Dec. 20
- 2:15pm CT – North America’s weekly reset was this morning, and Liquid has started side-by-side Heroic split raids. Echo finished off its first week efforts by killing early Mythic bosses in split raids to try to get gear for characters that might be used in Raszageth progression after the upcoming European region reset.
Monday, Dec. 19
- 2:51pm CT – Echo have pulled ahead of Liquid slightly, taking Raszageth down to 64 percent while Liquid currently sits at 70 percent. They are the only two guilds to pull the final boss of the raid thus far. No other guild in the world has even made an attempt on Broodkeeper Diurna yet.
Sunday, Dec. 18
- 5:41pm CT – After two sub-one percent pulls, Liquid have claimed World First on Broodkeeper Diurna. Echo’s best pull on the penultimate boss was just above one percent. North America’s top representatives will have the advantage heading into the final boss of the raid.
- 3:00pm CT – Echo and Liquid have both brought Diruna down to 11 percent HP. Five days after the opening of the raid, the race is as close as it’s been. The two best teams in the world are deadlocked in a practical tie where the difference is less than one percentage point.
- 1:46pm CT – Liquid’s 40th pull of Diurna is their best yet, as they’ve brought the raid’s penultimate boss below the 20 percent HP threshold. Echo, who hold a slight item level advantage over Liquid, are continuing to make progress on the boss with a few hours left in their raiding schedule for the day.
- 12:02pm CT – Echo have tied Liquid at 6/8 bosses, taking down Kurog Grimtotem after just 26 pulls. Additionally, more European guilds began Mythic progression today, with Method firmly staking their claim on the race. They currently sit at 4/8.
- 12:06pm CT – China has entered the race. The top two guilds in the region—Skyline and Huo Guo Chao Jie—are both at 4/8, and are currently progressing on Dathea.
Saturday, Dec. 17
- 5:04pm CT – Liquid narrowly escape an enrage timer and claim World First on Kurog Grimtotem after a down-to-the-wire pull. They move to 6/8 with plenty of time left on today’s raid schedule.
- 4:36pm CT – Echo have taken down Dathea, knotting up the race at 5/8 alongside Liquid, whose best Kurog pull sits just below three percent.
- 2:03pm CT – Echo are continuing to progress on Dathea, with their best attempt reaching the sub-15 percent threshold. Meanwhile, Liquid have gotten Kurog Grimtotem down to 10 percent HP. For now, Liquid hold a firm one-boss lead.
- 10:47am CT – Liquid have awoken to find their lead evaporated. Echo have begun to clear Mythic bosses at a rapid pace, pulling within one boss of Liquid. BDGG have also reached the 4/8 threshold.
Friday, Dec. 16
- 8:38pm CT – Liquid are the first guild in the world to defeat Dathea. They’re also the first guild to clear five bosses in the Vault, as they’ve extended their lead over North American rivals BDGG by two bosses.
Thursday, Dec. 15
- 9:00pm CT – Liquid took firm control of the lead by downing the first four bosses in a relatively short amount of time after spending the first two days of the race preparing with split raids and dungeon runs. Their delayed start worked well for the group as they took out both of the first two bosses without wiping.
- 1:21am CT – Liquid successfully took down Raszageth the Storm-Eater on Heroic difficulty, making them the first guild to down the boss. They will presumably head into Mythic in the morning.
- 12am CT – Nascent, DMG, and Idiot all downed the first boss on Mythic but lost World First to Vesper.
Wednesday, Dec. 14
- 10:28pm CT – Vesper drew first and second blood in Mythic Vault of the Incarnates, taking down Eranog and The Primal Council in quick succession. The North American guild opted for a standard setup with two tanks, four healers, seven melee, and seven ranged.
- 6:30am CT – Echo downed Heroic Broodkeeper Diurna following a night of raiding.
- 2am CT – After successfully clearing Vault of the Incarnates on Normal difficulty, acquiring tier pieces for core players, and running splits, Liquid kicked off with Heroic. The North American guild have yet to touch the raid on Mythic and are instead prioritizing gearing up for the weeks ahead.
Tuesday, Dec. 13
- 11:30pm CT – On the first day of the race, BDGG, Imperative, Country Club, and Echo reached as far as Vault of the Incarnates’ penultimate boss, Broodkeeper Diurna, on Heroic difficulty. The leaders of the race have yet to step into Mythic.
Vault of the Incarnates leaderboard
- Echo 8/8
- Liquid 8/8
- BDGG 7/8
- Method 7/8
- Skyline 6/8
- Instant Dollars 6/8
- Jitianhong 6/8
- Huo Guo Chao Jie 6/8
- KeaHoarl 6/8
- Aversion 5/8
- Eranog: Vesper
- The Primal Council: Vesper
- Terros: Liquid
- Sennarth, The Cold Breath: Liquid
- Kurog Grimtotem: Liquid
- Dathea, Ascended: Liquid
- Broodkeeper Diurna: Liquid
- Raszageth the Storm-Eater: Echo
Changes to the race
The Vault of the Incarnates Race to World First will differ from races in the past. The biggest change coming to the event will revolve around the rollout of the raid on various difficulties. In previous years, teams had the chance to farm Normal and Heroic difficulties in an effort to grab gear and get used to the mechanics of the raid on a lower difficulty before jumping into Mythic the following week.
That won’t be the case this time around, though. Teams will have to decide whether to split their time on lower difficulties looking for extra pieces of gear or to head directly into the Mythic race.
Teams to watch
All of WoW’s usual suspects will be in play at the Vault of the Incarnates Race to World First, but no two teams will be at the race’s center more so than Team Liquid and Echo—the two top squads out of North America and Europe, respectively. Echo and Liquid have been trading blows on the RWF stage since 2020. Over the last four races, the two guilds sit in a tie with two wins apiece, with Echo winning the previous two.
Other contenders include the longstanding European guild Method, who finished second in the Sepulcher of the First Ones race, BDGG, who are partnered with North American esports org Golden Guardians, and Northern Sky, a German guild whose roster sports the highest average item level among all guilds going into the race, according to WoW stats site WoWprogress.
How long should we expect the race to last?
The Sepulcher of the First Ones race lasted 19 days, making it the longest event of its kind in five years. Very rarely do World First races extend beyond the second week, so we shouldn’t expect a second straight race to last exceptionally long.
On average, World First races last somewhere between seven and nine days, with a weekly reset usually enough of a catalyst to push most teams over the edge.
