Team Spotlight China: Skyline
Today marks the commencement of the long-awaited MDI: The Great Push (TGP) tournament. After coming out of the Proving Grounds as the #1 seed, Skyline is a team of talented Mythic+ players from China who are a force to be reckoned with in the Mythic+ scene. For the past few years, Mythic+ in China has been somewhat mysterious to much of the world, due to China’s separate mainland publishing partner, Netease, and a different API. After seeing the impressive video of Skyline’s +29 Necrotic Wake in the Proving Grounds of TGP, we were able to conduct a quick interview with several of Skyline’s team members to help everyone get to know them a little better.
Thank you to Anuo, QingXin, Yeluo (小红手叶落), and Yemar (狂小阳) of Skyline for making time to do this interview in the midst of a tournament. Another big thanks to Neo for all his hard work as a liaison and translator in this process.
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Table of Contents
“I think one of the most important values of IO score is that the players are constantly improving the level of Mythic+ dungeon development so that the general public can learn and benefit from it.”
—QingXin
Q: Let’s start with some introductions. What is your name, main class (or favorite class), and how long have you been playing WoW? What else do you like to do outside of the game?
Anuo: My name is Anuo. My favorite classes in World of Warcraft are all classes with a tank spec, but for Shadowlands, I mainly play Vengeance Demon Hunter. I love playing PUBG when I’m done with the day of World of Warcraft. I’m also a full-time streamer.
QingXin: Hi, my name is QingXin. I’m 22 years old and currently still a student. My main is Mage and my favorite content of WoW is mainly Mythic+, but I also participate in my guild’s raiding. Other than World of Warcraft, I enjoy FPS games like CS:GO.
Yeluo (小红手叶落): I’m Yeluo. My main class and also favorite class is Rogue. I play World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft only. I love hard core raiding and Mythic+ high key pushing. Now I’m a full-time streamer.
Yemar (狂小阳): Hello everyone, my name is Yemar, aka 小太阳 (Little Sun). My main and also my favorite class is Holy Paladin. Well, the only class I know how to play is Holy Paladin xD. I come from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province and I just graduated from college. Other than World of Warcraft, I also enjoy playing Dota 2, Arknights, and some new games on Steam.
Q: How long have you been doing Mythic+? What inspired you to push more challenging keys?
Anuo: I started doing Mythic+ back in Legion. As for what inspired me to push more high keys, I just wanted to see what the limit was of Mythic+.
QingXin: From BFA 8.3 when I first tried pushing keys until now. For me, the original inspiration was to pursue a higher level of difficulty, and now it's more about wanting to live up to the expectations of those who support us.
Yeluo (小红手叶落): I started doing Mythic+ around BFA Patch 8.3. At the beginning of Mythic+ back in Legion, getting titanforged and warforged gear was my only desire out of Mythic+, but after they removed that in BFA, pushing high keys became the only goal of Mythic+ for me.
Yemar (狂小阳): It's been a long time. I have been playing World of Warcraft since Legion. In 7.1, I was a casual player having fun in Mythic+ with the LFG tool. In 7.2, I started pushing higher keys. At the beginning, I felt that my teammates were all fierce and detail-oriented, and I just enjoyed playing with them. Later on, I realized that when I put in enough effort, I could push my limits further and further, and within that I felt great satisfaction each time I reached a higher limit.
Q: Since some of you are previous MDI competitors, how do you like the Great Push compared to the MDI format? What things do you like most or least about each tournament format?
Anuo: I prefer the Great Push rather than MDI. The Great Push offers a short event schedule. MDI on the other hand requires at least 3 months.
QingXin: I haven’t participated in an MDI tournament before, but in my opinion, the Great Push is more like an extended version of these speed-racing tournaments with the same concentration, but from ten to twenty minutes to thirty, forty minutes.
Yeluo (小红手叶落): The entire MDI event takes too long. Also, the preparation for it requires month and month non-stop Mythic+ practicing. It is very tiring to participate in MDI. But for the Great Push, it is similar to what we do in retail WoW, so I’m relatively relaxed while doing it.
Yemar (狂小阳): I would say that MDI takes more time to prepare, and the level of keys is relatively low. But personally, I would like to have more challenges at the higher keys. The higher the better. However, the current system of the Great Push is not perfect. It would be nice if the format of the Great Push could develop a little better.
Q: How long have you been playing with each other as a team and how long did it take you to gain synergy with each other?
Anuo: I met Yeluo (the Rogue) and QingXin (the mage) back in BFA 8.3 and we do constantly change teammates.
QingXin: Anuo and Yeluo have been my teammates since BFA 8.3. Annie and Yemar recently joined in the past one or two months. It's hard to define whether we gain synergy or not, but our process through it is much better than I expected.
Yeluo (小红手叶落): I met QingXin (the mage) and Anuo (the tank) back in BFA 8.3. It took us 2 months to get along and become familiar with each other. We recently recruited our Druid and Paladin, so we are still in the process of gaining synergy with each other.
Yemar (狂小阳): I actually joined team Skyline at the end of April because the tank of my previous team had to go to work, so we couldn't push higher keys for the time being. I spent about a week and, after the high frequency and high intensity of practicing high keys on the Mythic dungeon realm, I was able to adapt to their (Skyline’s) rhythm and thinking.
Q: We know that your teams are using the Raider.IO Client to assist in recording your keys for the Great Push as well as live keys. Do you like being able to see your keys displayed against the other regions on the global leaderboards?
Anuo: I enjoy using Raider.IO to display our team and compete with teams in other regions.
QingXin: I don't like or dislike the comparison between IO scores. From my perspective, it's a process of mutual learning and observing between teams. I think one of the most important values of IO score is that the players are constantly improving the level of Mythic+ dungeon development so that the general public can learn and benefit from it.
Yeluo (小红手叶落): We love using Raider.IO to see and know more teams in other regions. We also love to show the world how we do in Mythic+ and raiding.
Yemar (狂小阳): Yeah, I like it! There are a lot of competitors, and Raider.IO makes our team’s record more valuable.
Q: What do you think are the biggest challenges towards pushing keys in Shadowlands? Are there any dungeons or affixes that are particularly difficult? What do you do to overcome these challenges?
Anuo: In my opinion, the biggest challenge towards pushing keys in Shadowlands is Prideful. For affixes, Bolstering is particularly hard. For dungeon and bosses, I would say that Hakkar in De Other Side and Sanguine Depths as a whole are a bit difficult.
QingXin: I think the biggest challenge of this expansion’s key pushing is the development of dungeons. Afterall, we are currently at a point zero expansion, and these eight non-discovered dungeons have so many details and tricks waiting to be discovered. I think Tyrannical and Prideful are two particularly difficult affixes, and Sanguine Depths is the most difficult dungeon in my opinion. I'm sure anyone who got interviewed would have the same answer to this.
Yeluo (小红手叶落): Some boss fights in Shadowland Dungeon have the soft-rage mechanic, so when we fight them in high-level Mythic+ or Tyrannical weeks, it can be very tough. For example De Other Side and Sanguine Depths on Tyrannical weeks are particularly difficult. We overcome these challenges by doing more and more practice.
Yemar (狂小阳): In my opinion, the biggest challenge is Prideful. Prideful’s design significantly reduces the limit of the highest keystone player could reach for the entire first Mythic+ season of Shadowlands. With the higher level we get, the Prideful costs far outweigh its benefits, limiting your performance in the dungeon. For dungeons, I think De Other Side and Sanguine Depths are particularly difficult.
Q: Who on your team does most of the shotcalling? Is your group’s voice communication distributed evenly, or do certain people speak more than others?
Anuo: Normally it is the tank who does the shotcalling, but when the tank is under a lot of pressure or busy tanking, our Rogue or Mage will handle the shotcalling as well.
QingXin: We have different people to do the shotcalling in different situations. We have a lot of info communication in the voice chat while doing Mythic+.
Yeluo (小红手叶落): We don’t really have a specific shotcaller, so our voice communication is distributed relatively evenly. We like to remind each other what to look out for next. We like to discuss and analyze some good Mythic+ tactics and routes when we have time. We also work as a team to find out why we fail or deplete a key.
Yemar (狂小阳): Anuo and Yeluo do most of the shotcalling on our team. They talk a lot and arrange specific interrupt chains and timeline of the dungeon. In the whole raiding process, Anuo as the tank is leading the team. He deals with each wave and boss skills, and we adjust our ability timeline accordingly. While Yeluo takes the lead before and after the Mythic+ key, he determines MDT in advance and arranges everyone's tasks, including when to use my Ashen Hallow. After the dungeon, he analyzes everyone's data and compares it with other teams to find out everyone's problems in order to make improvements.
Q: If you could consider one team in The Great Push your rival, who would they be and why?
Anuo: I would say Echo. Echo could be our strongest rival because they are a REALLY strong and good team to compete against.
QingXin: I would pick Team D, even though they didn’t get top 6. I don't think the Battle of Proving Ground has shown their stronger side. If we play against them, I think it will be a close performance.
Yemar (狂小阳): I would pick Echo. They are really competitive and talented!
Q: What are your personal or team goals for Mythic+ tournaments in the future? Do you see yourselves sticking to live key pushing and the Great Push, or have you considered competing in the MDI again?
Anuo: I will keep participating in Mythic+ tournaments and maybe consider doing MDI in the future.
QingXin: I’m not so sure if I will participate in future tournaments or not, but if I get the opportunity to participate in more tournaments, I hope I can achieve a satisfactory result.
Yeluo (小红手叶落): I think our team would like to continue retail WoW high key pushing in the future because this is our favorite “tournament” for Mythic+ so far.
Yemar (狂小阳): I hope there will be more high-end Mythic+ tournaments in the future, and of course these tournaments will require a lot of time to participate and prepare. If I could choose, I would prefer doing more casual retail WoW high key pushing.
Links
- Find Anuo on Raider.IO
- Watch Anuo LIVE on Huya
- Find Anniebird on Raider.IO
- Find QingXin on Raider.IO
- Watch QingXin LIVE on DouYu
- Find QingXin on Bilibili
- Find Yeluo (小红手叶落) on Raider.IO
- Watch Yeluo LIVE on DouYu
- Find Yeluo on Bilibili
- Find Yemar (狂小阳) on Raider.IO
- Watch Yemar LIVE on DouYu
- Find Yemar on Bilibili
About the Authors
Vitaminpee specializes in tanking classes in WoW and other MMORPGs and loves doing competitive Mythic+. She is the Editor and Assistant Producer of Raider.IO and is currently pursuing her Masters of Business Administration. She is a partnered Twitch streamer and Discord Partner. Feel free to message her via Twitter for any business-related inquiries.
Neo, Aka Soulawaken is a Chinese World of Warcraft streamer that streams on DouYu, and Neo is also the Raider.IO Chinese Community Liaison. Neo has been working with Raider.IO for more than 4 years to synchronize data from CN WoW servers with other servers around the world. Neo has long hoped that one day Netease will re-enable the player armory API so that players in China will have free and easy access to Raider.IO and other World of Warcraft third-party sites. He plays Warriors in World of Warcraft for 5 years and has mastered a unique technique known in Chinese as "整蛊". His favorite catch phrase is “真对啊哥”, which is "that's so true" in English.
