The second raid of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight—Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible—is here, which means the game’s best players will be participating in another edition of WoW’s most prominent and prestigious esports event: the Race to World First.
In this raid tier, the top guilds in WoW will buckle up for what’s likely to be a heated battle, with the race being more open for new competitors to slide up the ranks, particularly once you look past the top two teams in the world. Beyond heavyweights Liquid and Echo—the latter of whom are gunning for their fourth-straight RWF title—the field of competitors is more closely stacked than it’s been coming into recent races.
In recent expansions, the middle raid has seen extremely competitive races, with Battle for Azeroth’s Battle of Dazar’alor and Shadowlands’ Sanctum of Domination both coming down to the wire. At the start of Dragonflight, the Vault of the Incarnates race was marred by a controversial nerf to the final boss at the end of the event (likely due to time constraints imposed upon the race by the then-looming Christmas holiday). But with a wide-open summer to play with, Aberrus could be a playground for unlimited tuning and power-creeping.
WoW fans should expect this race to be longer than ones in the past as its nine bosses are the most since Shadowlands and the simultaneous release of the raid on all difficulties should keep top guilds in split raids for longer than usual. While races tend to last anywhere between eight and 10 days, we could see more of Aberrus than we did of other raids. The longest Race to World First in recent memory was the Sepulcher of the First Ones race last March, which lasted 19 days.
Here, you’ll be able to keep up with all things RWF, as we’ll continuously keep you posted with live updates, a real-time leaderboard, and in-race analysis.
Aberrus Race to World First updates
Monday, May 15
- 1:02pm CT – Liquid have won the Race to World First, defeating Scalecommander Sarkareth in 114 pulls. It’s the first title for the North American guild since they won the Castle Nathria race in December 2020 as Complexity Limit, and the first since signing on with the Liquid organization in 2022.
- 10:03am CT – Liquid replicated their sub-five-percent pull, coming inches away from a championship once again. Meanwhile, Echo are creeping up on them and have taken the boss below 20 percent on their most recent attempt. Both guilds are quickly approaching the 100-pull threshold.
- 9:02am CT – Liquid ended up making some strong progress during their off-stream pulls last night and started the day with a sub-five-percent attempt on Sarkareth. The boss could go down within the next handful of pulls, if history is any indicator. Meanwhile, Echo’s best attempt sits at 28 percent; Method’s at 44 percent.
Sunday, May 14
- 10pm CT – Liquid have concluded their stream for the evening and are pulling the boss off-stream before ending their raid day. “Everything we do after this point tonight is only going to directly benefit our competition,” said Liquid raid leader Maximum.
- 6:46pm CT – Liquid have passed Echo’s percentage mark in fewer pulls and have re-established a lead in the Race to World First. All three of the top guilds are within 20 percentage points of each other on Sarkareth, and a kill prior to the weekly reset looks extremely doable.
- 2:03pm CT – Also of note, FatSharkYes are the first guild outside of the top three contenders to get past Zskarn and advance to the final third of the raid.
- 2:01pm CT – Liquid and Echo are trading blows on Sarkareth, with both teams bringing the boss below the 60 percent threshold. Meanwhile, Method have taken down Neltharion and will soon join the race’s top two contenders on its final boss.
- 10:53am CT – Liquid’s world first kill on Neltharion marked the first time since Halondrus in the Sepulcher of the First Ones race that the team grabbed a world first before Echo and in fewer pulls than their European rivals. Traditionally, Liquid tends to own the higher pull count during RWF events, but this time around, the NA squad appears to be running at peak efficiency.
- 9:04am CT – Liquid claimed world first on Echo of Neltharion before ending their raid day, and Echo followed up shortly after by getting world second just a few hours into theirs. Both teams are expected to spend today making sizable progress on the final boss of the raid, Scalecommander Sarkareth.
Saturday, May 13
- 2:52pm CT – Echo have taken their first real lead of the race. They’re 40 percent deeper into Echo of Neltharion than Method, and 50 percent further along in the fight than Liquid. With a few hours left in their raiding schedule for the day, it’s entirely possible that the boss goes down at some point today.
- 10:02am CT – Liquid took a commanding lead in the race after claiming world first kills on Zskarn and Magmorax, but Echo have quickly caught up. Both guilds currently sit at the seven-of-nine mark.
Friday, May 12
- 4:05pm CT – Echo have entered the race and they’ve immediately caught up to Liquid, grabbing the world’s second Rashok kill. The two favorites are atop the leaderboard for the first time since the race began and could likely stay there until its conclusion.
- 12:26pm CT – Liquid opened their raiding day and immediately took down Rashok. They’re the first team in the world to hit the five-of-nine mark.
- 9:40am CT – To start day four of the race, 10 teams are at the four-of-nine threshold, with the Forgotten Experiments firmly in the rearview mirror. Last night, Liquid entered the race and immediately cruised through the first four bosses of the raid in just eight total pulls. The team snagged a less-than-one-percent pull on Rashok and are poised to take down the boss sometime today.
Thursday, May 11
- 7:02pm CT – Top guilds have entered the race, with European perennials FatSharkYes being the first team to down the Forgotten Experiments and move to the four-of-nine mark. They were shortly followed by BDG of North America. Both teams are currently progressing on Rashok, the Elder.
- 2:26pm CT – We’ve reached a temporary standstill in the race. After a blistering start to the event, many of the underdog guilds have hit a wall in their progress, while the top contenders are continuing to farm gear through split raids and Mythic+ dungeons. With how much gear the favorites have gotten through splits, though, we expect them to push through the raid’s first few bosses with ease, and the leaderboard should look vastly different whenever they decide to pull the trigger and start making Mythic progression.
- 10:05am CT – Coming into day three of the race, it appears as though the three-of-nine mark is the first major roadblock for the field’s underdogs. Seventeen guilds have reached this threshold, and the Forgotten Experiments are looking to be a roadblock. Revolutionist, Nerd Crew, and Nascent are the furthest along in their progress, and a kill on the fourth boss could possibly happen today.
Wednesday, May 10
- 4:39pm CT – More teams have made significant progress, with Revolutionist and Honolulu joining Nerd Crew at the three-of-nine threshold. The race’s heavy favorites will likely dive into Mythic at some point in the next 24 to 48 hours, but for now, the top 10 is comprised entirely of underdogs—all of whom are getting their moment in the sun here in the early stages of the race.
- 8:28am CT – Overnight, several North American teams continued to progress through the raid, while European servers came online. Eight guilds have downed Kazzara at this point.
Tuesday, May 9
- 10:21pm CT – A third team, Unleashed, has taken down Aberrus’ opening boss on Mythic difficulty. The world’s top guilds are continuing to run split raids ahead of their own Mythic-level progression.
- 10:12pm CT – Seemingly out of nowhere, deep underdog guild Nerd Crew have taken two straight world first kills on the Assault of the Zaqali and the Amalgamation Chamber. Nerd Crew, who have now cleared a third of the raid’s bosses, have opened up a commanding two-boss lead over The Early Shift—they are the only two guilds in the world to defeat a Mythic boss at this time.
- 2:51pm CT – Just a few hours after servers came online, The Early Shift, who stole the opening boss of the Sepulcher of the First Ones race last March, have done it again. They defeated the opening boss of Aberrus, Kazzara, in just 23 attempts.
Aberrus Race to World First leaderboard
- Liquid 9/9
- Echo 8/9
- Method 8/9
- BDG 7/9
- Instant Dollars 7/9
- FatSharkYes 7/9
- Conspiracy 7/9
- Skyline 6/9
- 火鍋超界 ((Huo Guo Chao Jie) 6/9
- Banhammer 5/9
- Kazzara, the Hellforged: The Early Shift
- The Amalgamation Chamber: Nerd Crew
- Assault of the Zaqali: Nerd Crew
- The Forgotten Experiments: FatSharkYes
- Rashok, the Elder: Liquid
- Zskarn, the Vigilant Steward: Liquid
- Magmorax: Liquid
- Echo of Neltharion: Liquid
- Scalecommander Sarkareth: Liquid
Teams to watch in the Aberrus race
Coming into the Aberrus race, Echo and Liquid still stand tall as the favorites to walk away with a victory. Both teams experienced heavy roster turnover following the Vault of the Incarnates race, with Echo losing big names like Naowh and Lorgokz, and Liquid bidding farewell to top talents such as Ben and Trill. While the two teams have both made signings in the last five months to fill those gaps (among others), fans should expect the scene’s two top teams to look slightly different this race.
Beyond the heavy favorites, Method and BDG remain constant threats on the flank and could potentially usurp a spot in the top two should Echo or Liquid take a step back. These two guilds are the next-best options for their respective regions and will most definitely hold their top competitors’ feet to the fire throughout the race.
Chinese guild Skyline have placed in the top five in three of the last four races, while their best finish came during the Sepulcher of the First Ones race in March 2022, where they finished third. North American underdogs Instant Dollars are a longshot to finish in the top five, although the team still sports a solid, dedicated roster of veterans who could easily put together a best-yet run if they get hot.
The Race to World First for Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible will begin on May 9 alongside the launch of WoW Dragonflight season two.
