MDI Last Stand: Overview, Group Recaps, and Predictions

The Shadowlands Season 2 MDI is chugging along at full steam, and we have two major events left until a Champion team is crowned! The first of those two remaining competitions is the Last Stand, taking place this weekend. The Last Stand is part of the Season 2 format revamp and will be an exciting twist to the standard MDI format.

This Season, the MDI got a big format revamp, and so far it has seen fantastic feedback from both players, fans, and casters alike.


The new MDI format has essentially 6 stages:

• Group Stage Time Trials
  
• Group Stage Tournaments
  
• China Finals
  
• Last Stand Time Trials
  
• Last Stand Tournament
  
• Global Finals

We’re looking forward to watching the teams play! To get you ready for this weekend, we’ll bring you up to speed on everything that has taken place in the MDI so far, and share our Last Stand expectations and predictions!

Table of Contents

Group Stage Time Trials

Back in August, teams in the Global Region (NA and EU) competed in a Time Trial that lasted one week. Unlike the last few MDIs, there were only 2 dungeons as opposed to 3. More importantly, the concept of “practice mode” was removed. In past Time Trials, teams could practice as much as they wanted, but they had only 5 official attempts at each dungeon. There existed a “practice mode” aura that they would then turn off to have the run count as an official attempt. The WoW Esports team wanted to do away with this approach, and so “practice mode” was removed, as was the limit of official attempts. Thus, every single timed dungeon on the Tournament Realm was recorded on the Leaderboards during the Time Trial window this Season. The last change we saw to the Time Trial stage was a variance in keystone levels. Instead of the dungeons being at one set level, they started at a +16, and capped out at +21. This meant the teams had to first climb the keystone level to the maximum of +21, and only then would completion time become a factor.

We saw a big spike in Time Trial participation this Season and we believe this new format played a big part in that. Additionally, instead of last Season’s format which saw alternating Time Trials and Cups, this Season had only one Time Trial stage, with the top 24 teams qualifying for the Group Stage, as opposed to only 8 teams.

The top 24 teams from the Time Trials moved on to the Group Stages, where they were sorted into 3 Groups: A, B and C, based on their Time Trial seeding.

Group Stage Tournaments

Once the top 24 teams were sorted into Groups A, B, and C, each group had one tournament weekend. These competitions followed standard MDI format in a double elimination tournament. The Group Stage weekends each had a prize pool of $20,000 total split amongst the participating teams, but the true prize the teams were fighting for were the two qualifying spots for the Global Finals, awarded to the 1st and 2nd place teams from each Group Stage Tournament.



Here’s a quick recap of each of the tournament weekends that have transpired so far.

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Group A Recap

The first of the Group Stage tournaments, Group A, took place on the weekend of September 3rd - 5th. It was a fairly quick weekend of games, as all but two of the best-of-3 series were won in a 2-0 sweep. Perplexed, the top seed in the Time Trials, surprised nobody by emerging as the champions of Group A. However, the team to snag second place was not quite what was expected. Going into the weekend, the second highest seeded team from the Time Trials was Sheeesh, at seed 6. They started out strong with a 2-0 victory in their first matchup on Friday, but ultimately got knocked down to the lower bracket in the Quarter Finals by the 7th seed Team Name. Sheeesh eliminated Soniqs Imperative in a 2-0 sweep but then fell to Evolving in the Lower Semi-Finals, in a hard-fought 2-1 series. Going into this first Group weekend, we predicted that Sheeesh and Team Name would be competing against each other for that spot in the Group A Finals vs. Perplexed, so we were ultimately surprised when Sheeesh did not even make it to the Lower Finals.

Team Name eliminated Evolving in a fairly decisive 2-0 Lower Finals, earning themselves that coveted berth to the Global Finals at the end of the Season. They then moved on to face Perplexed in the Group A Finals, where they surprisingly did take one game from the top seeded team. Perplexed finished off the weekend with an incredible 12 minute 26 second victory in Plaguefall with 0 deaths, earning themselves the lion’s share of the $20,000 prize pool, and a spot in the Global Finals.

To check out videos of each dungeon, team compositions, and player information, head on over to our interactive Group A Bracket page here, and make sure to check out our review of the Big Brain Strats the Group A teams showcased during the tournament.

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Group B Recap

If you were expecting the finals standings in the Group Stage tournaments to follow the seeding from the Time Trials, Group B certainly strayed from that. Group B had the 3rd and 4th seeded teams, Complexity and Ambition, and the next highest seed was Obey Alliance, at 9th place. In our preview of the Group B tournament, we predicted that, if any team could upset the top two seeds of Complexity and Ambition, it would be Obey Alliance...and that is precisely what ended up happening!

Ambition and Obey Alliance had their first matchup in the Upper Quarter Finals on Saturday. Both teams had defeated their much lower seeded opponents of Cri Hard and The Goose Club in 2-0 sweeps the day before. The series went to 3 games, with Obey Alliance emerging victorious. Ambition was thus faced with a long road through the Lower Bracket to make their way back. They made quick work of their next opponents, Baguette and Practice?, and found themselves in the Lower Finals vs. Obey Alliance. With revenge on their minds, Ambition took the first map from Obey Alliance in Sanguine Depths, the same dungeon that secured Obey Alliance’s victory over Ambition the day before. Unfortunately the Ambition train stopped there, as Obey Alliance was able to win the next two dungeons. Obey Alliance finished the tournament in 2nd place, losing 2-0 to Complexity in the Group B Finals, but they earned themselves one of the coveted qualifying spots in the Global Finals!

This was the second weekend in a row where the team coming in with the second highest seed did not end up in the Championship series, and therefore did not earn a berth to the Global Finals. Ambition is not out of it yet though, as this new format gives teams another chance to earn a spot in the Global Finals, as we will soon see.

To check out videos of each dungeon, team compositions, and player information, head on over to our interactive Group B Bracket page here, and make sure to check out our review of the Big Brain Strats the Group B teams showcased during the tournament.

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Group C Recap

The remaining 8 teams that qualified to the Group Stage from the Time Trials competed against each other in the Group C tournament that took place on September 17-19. Among the competitors was Echo, the reigning MDI champions. Echo had a pretty big roster swap take place after the Time Trials, but before the Group C tournament...with Meeres being moved into a “6th man” coaching position, and Naowh returning to tank. After the RWF was over, Naowh had announced that he would be sitting out this MDI Season, and the Echo team moved Meeres over to tank, and picked up guildmate Clickz as their last DPS. It would appear the pull of the MDI is too strong, however, as Naowh returned to the roster as soon as the Time Trials were over.

Having finished the Time Trials in the 2nd seed behind only Perplexed, the expectation going into the Group C weekend was that Echo would surely win the whole thing. Their biggest competition was the 5th seeded team Omega Pump, so it looked to be a pretty easy path to the top spot. Incarnation had something to say about any and all expectations as they absolutely dominated their way through the bracket and ultimately defeated Echo in the Group C Finals!

Incarnation, one of the two MDI teams sponsored by the brand GGWoW (the other being Group B’s Ambition), finished the Time Trials in the 8th seed. We anticipated that with both Echo and Omega Pump in their way, Incarnation would have an uphill battle all weekend if they wanted to try and earn one of the two berths to the Global Finals. They certainly proved us wrong, as they coasted their way through the Upper Bracket with 2-0 sweeps until the Group C Finals. In fact, they swept Echo 2-0 in the Semi-Finals, forcing the reigning champions down to the Lower Bracket where they had to defeat Reload Esports before coming back to face Incarnation again.

Echo managed to take the first map, but Incarnation sealed the deal with victories in Mists of Tirna Scithe and Sanguine Depths. Their win in Sanguine Depths was quite a dramatic finish, as Echo actually defeated General Kaal first and Incarnation had a 10 second death penalty, BUT unfortunately for Echo, at some point during the dungeon, they missed a trash mob that they intended to pull. Seeing that they were at 99% trash, Echo frantically turned around and ran back through the now-empty gauntlet trying to find something to kill for that last 1%. They were racing against the clock, as Incarnation was getting General Kaal to that 50% mark. Unfortunately for Echo, Incarnation was able to get Kaal to 50%, have the RP finish, and the 10 second death penalty timer expired before Echo was able to find some trash to make up the 1% difference. Check out the clip below to watch the dramatic ending for yourself:



Echo still earned themselves a berth to the Global Finals with their second place finish, but we do not yet know if their seeding in that competition will be affected by their placement in the Group Stage. All eyes will definitely be on Incarnation, however, as they were able to take 2 series from the back-to-back-to-back MDI champions!

To check out videos of each dungeon, team compositions, and player information, head on over to our interactive Group C Bracket page here.

China Finals

Running simultaneously with the Group Stage tournaments was the China Finals. The Chinese Region did not have a full format revamp of their own, instead their MDI Season was fairly similar to the last one, but they are being folded into the new format in the later stages. China had their own separate Time Trials, from which 8 teams qualified to the China Finals. This tournament was the same format as the Group Stage weekends in the Global Region, with best-of-3 matchups and double elimination. However, unlike the Group Stage tournaments, only one team from the China Finals earned a berth to the Global Finals at the end of the Season. Aster, the new high-profile guild that made quite an impact during the RWF, had multiple teams in the tournament under their banner. The team known as Aster.Y ended up winning the tournament, edging out long-time favourites Skyline. This earned Aster.Y that one coveted qualifying spot for China in the Global Finals.

Last Stand Time Trials

New to the MDI this Season is a separate weekend competition known as the The Last Stand. As we have seen, 2 teams from each of the Group Stage tournaments qualified for the Global Finals, and the top team from the China Finals have joined them. However, that only equates to 7 teams, and the Global Finals have 8 spots. Blizzard has created the Last Stand as a way to determine the 8th and final team to take part in the Global Finals at the end of the Season. Even more than just another tournament to decide the 8th qualifying team, it’s an opportunity for teams that have already competed in the Group Stages but did not earn a berth, to have a second chance!

Instead of the Last Stand being only a second chance for the 18 teams from Groups A, B, and C that did not qualify for the Global Finals, Blizzard wanted the Last Stand to be an opportunity for anyone to have one more chance at making it. Even brand new teams were eligible to sign up and compete, and teams from the China Region were also included. However, in order to determine the 6 teams that will be competing in the Last Stand, another Time Trial was held. This was a shorter Time Trial, taking place just this past weekend. It mirrored the earlier Time Trials this Season, with 2 dungeons and varying keystone levels. As expected, most of the teams from the Group Stages that did not qualify for the Global Finals were in attendance, as were a couple of Chinese teams. Noticeably absent was Skyline, however, as it would appear that they opted out of another shot at entering the Global Finals.

The Last Stand will take place this coming weekend, and will be following a format similar to The Great Push. The top 6 teams from the Time Trials will have 15 hours total over 3 days to run keystones in multiple dungeons as fast as possible, with their score being evaluated by total time taken across all dungeons. The affixes and keystone levels of the dungeons will be preset by Blizzard, and revealed only at the start of the tournament itself. As expected, the 6 teams that qualified and will be taking part in the Last Stand are teams that had qualified for the Group Stages (or the China Finals), but fell short of a Global Finals berth.

The 6 qualifying teams all put up hard fights throughout the MDI Season, so we are very excited to see what happens in the Last Stand tournament this weekend! Here are the teams you will see this weekend in the Last Stand, in order of seeding from this past weekend's Time Trials:

Last Stand Preview and Predictions

We have three main data points for each of these teams when setting expectations and determining who is coming in as a favorite versus an underdog. The first is their performance in the Last Stand Time Trials — this is the most recent data point as well as mirroring the actual Last Stand tournament format reasonably well. The second is their performance in the initial Group Stage Time Trials. This happened a couple of months ago and might, therefore, have missed a team's improvement since then. Finally, we have their results from the Group Stage Tournament they played in. Each of our six Last Stand teams tried and failed to earn a qualification from a tournament already, but some were eliminated earlier than others, which may help us identify strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the high pressure tournament environment — or instead, it may lead us astray if a team had an uncharacteristic defeat!

Team	Last Stand Time Trial	First Time Trial	Tournament Result
Ambition	1st	4th	Lost in Lower Finals
Omega Pump	2nd	5th	Lost in Lower Semis
Aster.A	3rd	3rd in China*	Lost in Lower Finals
Reload Esports	4th	11th	Lost in Lower Finals
Practice?	5th	10th	Lost in Lower Semis
Evolving	6th	12th	Lost in Lower Finals

*Aster.A would have placed 9th in the Global Region


Synthesizing these three predictors, Ambition jumps out as a frontrunner. They had the fastest times in both Time Trials, and their tournament result was as good as it could have been without actually qualifying for the Global Finals — though notably all four teams for whom that’s true are in the Last Stand with them. Omega Pump’s Time Trials are just a hair slower than Ambition’s but their tournament results were more disappointing with a defeat one round earlier. Aster.A are much more of a question mark to the western audience, as the Last Stand tournament will be the first time this season that a Chinese team will battle against teams from the rest of the global region.

In the initial Group Stage Time Trials, there’s quite a gap between Ambition/Omega Pump and the bottom three teams. This gap is largely full of the teams that upset Ambition, Omega Pump, and Sheesh (who aren’t playing in this tournament) to secure their Global Finals spots during the Group weekends. The Last Stand Time Trials times were much closer, with less than 3 minutes separating Evolving’s times at the bottom from Ambition’s at the top. For this reason, it’s dangerous to count out any of these teams. It will be crucial for the teams to not only put out the fastest times possible in each dungeon, but to get to that point as quickly as possible as their time will be much more limited in the actual tournament. There are hopeful signs for all three of our bottom seeded teams — Reload Esports, who almost took several maps off of Echo in their Group weekend; Practice?, whose team is full of some of the highest level raiders in the game; and Evolving, whose innovative strategies might well position them to capitalize on this new Last Stand format!

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