Echo Achieve Sanctum of Domination World First Victory

European World of Warcraft guild Echo has won the Sanctum of Domination World First race. The guild has taken down Sylvanus Windrunner, claiming victory on the final day before the region’s reset.

The Sanctum of Domination World First race has been one of the closest races in World First events since they began in the first tier of BFA (Battle For Azeroth). With many guilds having access to live venues worldwide, broadcasting their raiders’ perspective to fans was a spectacle, especially with how close the race was all through the week.

Many guilds hit a mid-raid wall during the race, with Painsmith Raznal being an interesting mid-raid block for many guilds. It allowed the competition to catch up, with the best filtering through. Then, when the very best guilds cleared the hurdle, it became a neck-and-neck race between five guilds: Echo (EU-Tarren Mill), Complexity Limit (NA – Illidan), Method (EU – Twisting Nether), Pieces (EU-Stormscale), and Big Dumb Golden Guardians (NA – Illidan).

Sylvanus Windrunner

Throughout the race, the two main guilds fighting for the World First title were Echo and Limit. Echo was the first guild to take Sylvanus past the 50% HP threshold, which was initially thought to be the health percentage needed to beat her (just like on Normal and Heroic difficulties). To the surprise of many, Echo felt they had achieved the World First victory then and there. However, it turned out that 45% was the Mythic requirement to claim the victory, leading to absolute iconic moments such as in the image above.

After that, Echo tried a few new strategies, one of which even resulted in Blizzard hot fixing the fight, causing the boss to one-shot the entire raid. It led some to believe that Blizzard wanted the boss to go down in a particular manner, one that many suggested would require a weekly reset and yet more gear to beat.

However, North America’s Complexity Limit managed a few final attempts before heading to sleep, ready for the reset. The closest Limit managed was a 45.3% attempt, proving it is possible to get the kill in the first week if only they had more time. In a closing message before heading to sleep, the Limit Guild Leader said on Twitter:

gave it everything we had so we can live with that very fun trying to meet that check, wish we had more time to do it. Whether Echo kills or not gg you all played insane this raid waking up in a few hours to blast her to oblivion

— max (@maximum) July 20, 2021

 

With Echo’s closest competitor heading to bed, it was Echo’s time to shine, and at roughly 13:00 CEST server time, Echo achieved victory.  With Sylvanus Windrunner down, Echo became the Sanctum of Domination World First victors. Echo and Limit are now tied at one World First apiece during World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion period. The rivalry is proving to be great storytelling, and we look forward to update 9.2 when the storyline between both guilds undoubtedly gets hotter. Of course, this is not the only big PvE WoW esport event Echo has won in Shadowlands, with the guild recently taking the MDI Season 1 trophy home. Echo guild is only growing from strength to strength.