The World First winner for Destiny 2’s Root of Nightmares raid has been officially crowned

An almost record-breaking run to take home the trophy.

Image via Bungie

Barely over two hours after the Root of Nightmares raid went live in Destiny 2 today, one fireteam was able to fell Nezarec in an impressively efficient clear. They completed it long before most other teams had even reached the final encounter.

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After a lengthy validation process, Bungie has confirmed that the squad known as Team Hard in the Paint is the official World First winners for Root of Nightmares and have earned the coveted raid belt for Lightfall.

Team HITP, comprised of the players Roen, Osiris, Punz, Kai, SK, and Grangalf, had some stiff competition in the closing moments before their victory. Despite popular contenders such as three-time World First winner Saltagreppo and content creator Datto being stuck on the third encounter, another team led by All_The_Players managed to reach the final showdown against Nezarec at the same time as HITP.

For a while, both teams were neck and neck. But HITP scored the final blow on Nezarec the fastest, claiming the final chest and returning to orbit to set their World First time in stone. In total, it took the team around two hours and 25 minutes to complete the full raid, making Root of Nightmares one of the shortest raid races in Destiny 2’s history.

Related: Who won the Destiny 2 Lightfall Root of Nightmares World First race?

Despite how close All_The_Players had come to snagging World First themselves, it was over an hour before another team was seen defeating Nezarec and completing the raid after HITP’s success—one led by axsD2. It took even longer for Bungie to complete its verification process, only crowning HITP as the raid race victors around two hours after the final blow was delivered onto the Witness’ Disciple.

Contest Mode will remain active in the Root of Nightmares raid for 48 hours after its launch, meaning that casual players wanting to dive in and experience the raid for themselves will have to wait until Sunday, March 12 to experience it at its intended Power level.

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Alexis Walker
Alexis is a freelance journalist hailing from the UK. After a number of years competing on international esports stages, she transitioned into writing about the industry in 2021 and quickly found a home to call her own within the vibrant communities of the looter shooter genre. Now she provides coverage for games such as Destiny 2, Halo Infinite and Apex Legends.