Echo narrowly tops Liquid in historically close WoW Dragonflight Amirdrassil Race to World First

The WoW Dragonflight Amirdrassil Race to World First has come to a close after nearly two weeks of endless boss-pulling, and it’s Echo Esports that’s come out on top.

The race immediately enters the history books as a classic, as both Liquid and Echo brought their progression on Fyrakk down to the wire. The two groups traded pulls throughout the race’s final two days and were even pulling side-by-side at many points in the final stages. In the midnight hours of the race, Liquid and Echo sat within one-tenth of a percentage point, with their best pulls reaching the sub-two percent mark prior to Echo’s eventual kill.

In total, it took 344 pulls to down Fyrakk and close out WoW Dragonflight with their second Race to World First victory of the expansion.

Coming into this race, the Echo/Liquid rivalry was at a historic boiling point, with each having three Race to World First victories (all-time) ahead of this edition. Furthermore, Liquid and Echo were evened up in their Dragonflight race victories, with Echo having won the opening race of the expansion in the Vault of the Incarnates, and Liquid taking the second race back in Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible. Amirdrassil served as the tiebreaker for not just the expansion, but a rivalry that dates back to the start of the decade.

For at least the next 12 months, Echo will hold the advantage in that head-to-head, winning the proverbial “game seven” between the two WoW guilds.

WoW Race to World First winners, since 2020

The Amirdrassil race was incredibly back-loaded when it came to effort and difficulty, with the final two bosses—Tindral Sageswift and Fyrakk—serving as brick walls in comparison to the first seven bosses of the raid. Between Liquid’s world first Tindral Sageswift kill and Echo’s world first Fyrakk kill, it took nearly 800 pulls for the top two guilds to smash down the final two walls.

Both Liquid and Echo turned in nailbiting performances in the last few days of the thrilling race, with the finale on Fyrakk easily the most competitive, real-time race professional WoW raiding has ever seen. Never before have two teams been so close in terms of progression, with a serious “any given pull” mentality circulating throughout both teams’ camps. Even despite nearly two weeks of raiding, the race very clearly came down to the final minutes, with either team being candidates for a last-second victory. 

Now, there’s going to be at least a year-long gap between the conclusion of this race and the inaugural race of WoW’s next expansion, The War Within, which is set to release in Fall 2024. Until then, Europe’s top guild, Echo, sits back on top of the competitive WoW sphere, having won three of the last four world first races.