Echo guild win WoW Race for World First despite Blizzard Sylvanas hotfix almost ruining it

Lauren Bergin

Midway through Echo Guild’s World of Warcraft: Race for World First run, Blizzard hotfixed the WoW Shadowlands Sylvanas Mythic raid, in turn ruining their game. 

Every year fans of WoW’s esports scene gather together to watch the Race for World First. With the likes of Echo Guild, Method and many more pro teams trying to leave each other in the dust, the tournament is quite unlike other esports events.

This time around the tournament takes place in WoW Shadowlands’ newest raid location, the Sanctum of Domination. With the series’ main antagonist, Sylvanas Windrunner, featuring as the final boss, players everywhere have been desperate to watch their favorite teams face off against the Banshee Queen herself.

However, during Echo’s World First run, Blizzard decided to patch the Sylvanas showdown mid-raid, which ruined Echo’s dominant performance.

Sylvanas shoots the Jailer WoW ShadowlandsWhile Sylvanas and the Jailer’s accord is at an end, she remains the Sanctum of Dominations main boss.

Blizzard patch Sylvanas raid mid World First run

In the middle of Echo’s World First run, Robin ‘Naowh’ Gabay could be seen solo-tanking one of the mobs during the intermission stage of the fight. During this time, the rest of Echo could focus on bringing down the Banshee once and for all.

Midway through the fight, though, Blizzard appear to have taken umbrage at Naowh’s strategy, as they casually added an enraged mob mid-fight which, in turn, allowed Sylvanas to one shot him.

With one member exclaiming “they fixed it,” the team are completely taken aback, and as a result lose the Raid due to this random hotfix.

“You’re f**king kidding me dude,” says one, followed by an angry “go f**k yourself” quite clearly aimed at the devs for making this spontaneous decision.

Echo call out Blizzard for “sabotage”

As you can imagine, the response to this random hotfix has been overwhelmingly negative. Not only did it disrupt this one attempt at the raid, it added an unnecessary hurdle to the team’s dominant run.

The org themselves tweeted out a now iconic meme from the final of the Euros 2020. The Italian player is seen pulling an English player back in a blatant foul, however Echo have replaced the Italian’s head with Blizzard’s logo and the Englishman’s with their own.

Echo’s co-CEO Rogerbrown called the hotfix “sabotage,” a sentiment that echoes the in-game coms.

Blizzard have remained silent regarding the situation, and while the World First title eventually went to Echo Guild, the celebration is slightly dampened by this bizarre turn of events.

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About The Author

Lauren was formerly Dexerto's Features Editor and resident Diablo Sorceress. With two Master's degrees under her belt and a lot more Steam achievements, she specializes in all things Blizzard and Riot Games, with some Lost Ark and FFXIV on the side.