Break the Meta is Back!
It’s back! You asked, we listened, and we’re bringing you another Break the Meta competition! We’ve made a few adjustments to the methodology based on community feedback, so we hope this second iteration of the Break the Meta event will be even better than the last one. Get ready to bring out your off-specs and alts this coming reset, October 5/6 - 12/13 (NA/EU), and push those keystones...Let’s put the spotlight on those lesser-seen classes and specs and show the world what they can do!
*Note: To enter this competition, you will need to join the #break-the-meta channel of our Discord - more directions on How To Enter can be found below!
Table of Contents
How it Works:
While we are not requiring registered teams for this competition, we do want to format it around the bracket system that we use for team leaderboards. While we want to encourage people to play their off-meta classes and specs or break out their alts, we still aim to maintain our bracket format to allow for multiple different levels of competition.
After the Competition Week is over, we will be awarding prizes to the teams that complete the highest scoring keystone on the Timed Run Leaderboards of any dungeon for the US/OCE Region, as well as the EU Region at the following bracket levels:
| Bracket | Keystone Levels |
|---|---|
 Diamond | +26 and up |
 Platinum | +21 - 25 |
 Gold | +16 - 20 |
 Silver | +11 - 15 |
 Bronze | +2 - 10 |
.......but there’s a catch!
Okay, What’s the Catch?
In order for any run on the Timed Run Leaderboards to be considered eligible for this competition, it must be made up of ONLY the following eligible specs:
| DPS | Healers | Tanks |
|---|---|---|
| Arcane Mage | Holy Priest | Blood Death Knight |
| Assassination Rogue | Mistweaver Monk | Protection Paladin |
| Beast Mastery Hunter | Restoration Druid | Protection Warrior |
| Demonology Warlock | ||
| Destruction Warlock | ||
| Enhancement Shaman | ||
| Feral Druid | ||
| Frost Death Knight | ||
| Fury Warrior | ||
| Havoc Demon Hunter | ||
| Retribution Paladin | ||
| Shadow Priest | ||
| Survival Hunter | ||
| Unholy Death Knight |
Methodology
The last Break the Meta event was an experiment on our part, and we asked participants and other community members for feedback on the event itself, and the eligible specializations. Based on this feedback, we have made some modifications to our methodology. The goal was to get a better snapshot of which classes are considered "Meta" and "Off-Meta" by the community at large.
Rather than looking at the entirety of Season 2, we are focusing on only the last 8 weeks. The purpose of this was to try and avoid any 'bleed-over' from the Season 1 "Meta" that would have inevitably informed key participation and group composition in the first few weeks of Season 2. The Season-specific "Meta" takes some time to develop, so we took that into consideration.
We then sorted our database by class frequency and reviewed the participation numbers for every spec in Mythic+ keystones at levels 25 and higher on the Timed Run Leaderboards. Last event, we sorted by levels 10 and higher, but based on feedback, we have decided to bump that up to 25. We looked at each role separately (tank, healer, DPS) and took the bottom half of participating specs per role. The graph above represents the bottom 50% of participating specs, with the exception of the addition of both Arcane Mage and Havoc Demon Hunter, which we opted to include despite both specs being in the top 50% of participation. We want each class to have at least one spec available in the competition, and Arcane and Havoc had the lowest participation by spec of their respective classes. We hope that this revised methodology will create a better representation of the classes and specs that are viewed as "Off-Meta" or lesser-used by the community at large!
Break the Meta Leaderboard
One of the biggest pieces of feedback we received from the first Break the Meta event was a desire for a Leaderboard that would filter to only show runs that were eligible for the competition. As our first iteration of this event was an experiment and we were testing things out, we did not have that available at that time...but we do now!
We are happy to be able to bring you a Break the Meta specific Leaderboard that will only show Timed Runs that are made up entirely of the eligible specs listed above. You can also filter the Leaderboard by all of the usual selections, such as Timed, Maps, Factions, etc.
You can find that Leaderboard here!
At this time we are unable to provide prizes for players from the Korea, Taiwan, and China Regions, so they are unfortunately not eligible to win anything. However, we’ve included those regions on the Break the Meta Leaderboard so that those players can still play along and compete for Break the Meta bragging rights!
Competition Prizes:
We will be awarding prizes to each member of the groups that earn the highest scoring keystone within each of the above brackets, in both the US/OCE and EU Regions, that are made up entirely of the listed classes. Prizes will consist of Blizzard store mounts, Blizzard store pets, and World of Warcraft game time. The prize value for each bracket increases as you climb into higher brackets, so you will be rewarded for pushing into the highest bracket your team can reach!
| Bracket | Prizes per Player |
|---|---|
| Diamond | 60 days WoW game time & 1 store mount |
| Platinum | 60 days WoW game time, 1 store pet |
| Gold | 60 days WoW game time |
| Silver | 1 store mount |
| Bronze | 1 store pet |
Each Blizzard Account is only eligible for a single prize.
Player Eligibility:
We strongly recommend that you run with the Raider.IO Live Tracking enabled in your client to ensure that all your runs are properly tracked and verified! Read more about this feature here.
- Players must be in either the Americas & Oceania region or the Europe region.
- All members of the winning teams must have completed the winning runs in one of the eligible specializations.
- Each Blizzard Account is only eligible for a single prize.
- Winning dungeon runs must be properly entered into the Competition (see below).
- In order to facilitate prizing, please have each member of your group link their Discord and BattleTag IDs to their Raider.IO User Profile. If we cannot get in touch with you, we cannot award you prizes!
The competition period lasts for the entire in-game weekly reset:
Americas & Oceania: October 5 - October 12
Europe: October 6 - October 13
Winners will be announced by October 20.
How To Enter
As mentioned previously, the event will not require Team registration, as we do not wish for players to be potentially held back by Team membership when putting together full groups of "Off-Meta" players. Therefore, entry for this competition will be based on the specific Dungeon Run that you and your group complete. In order to enter the Break the Meta event, please follow these 5 steps:
- Join the Raider.IO Discord and make your way to the #break-the-meta-registration channel.
- Link the URL of your Completed Dungeon Run in the registration channel*.
- Make sure each member of your party has their Discord and BattleTag IDs linked to their Raider.IO User Profiles, or your entry will not be accepted.
- Once the Warchief Bot has confirmed your entry, you are good to go!
- If you improve your score for any previously entered runs, simply enter again with the newer, higher-scoring run.
*In order to link the URL of your Completed Dungeon Run, click on either the Rank, Dungeon, Level, or Time column in your specific run, and it will bring up the run-specific page. Example: https://raider.io/mythic-plus-runs/season-sl-2/9802408-27-the-necrotic-wake
Time to dust off those off-meta characters and show the world that unconventional group comps can still smash keys! Get out there and Break the Meta!
Questions? Join us on our Discord server in the #break-the-meta channel.
Looking for a Group to play with? The Mythic Plus Friends Discord has created a special channel specifically for this competition! Go check it out here!
Good luck to all competitors!
