MDI 2023: Group C Preview
The 2023 Mythic Dungeon International is back! Of the 24 teams that successfully passed the Time Trials, we got to watch sixteen of them battle it out over the last two weeks already. Four of those sixteen have guaranteed themselves spots for the Global Finals, and we have two more to hand out to the best teams of Group C, which will happen this weekend!
Only two teams can prevail in each group and earn themselves a spot at the Global Finals, and, in this first MDI season of Dragonflight, the competition is tougher and tensions are higher than ever before! In order to help you familiarize yourself with the names and faces of Group C and its teams, we bring you our Group C Preview with a brief introduction for each team as well as our predictions for this weekend’s matches.
The MDI starts at 10am PST / 7pm CET and you can watch it live over on the Warcraft YouTube Channel, or Warcraft Twitch Channel. If you aren’t able to tune in, we’ve got you covered with LIVE updates and highlights all weekend long over on the MDI Highlights page!
Table of Contents
MDI 2023 Format
The current format of the MDI is continuing the structure that was implemented in Season 2 of Shadowlands. We’ll provide a quick rundown of how the tournament Season works for those of you that might be new to the esport!
Earlier this month, the Time Trials took place, which is a qualifying round on the Tournament Realm. Teams were given two Mythic+ keystones, with predetermined dungeons and affixes. In order to qualify for the Group stage, they had 6 days, and unlimited attempts, to be one of the 24 fastest teams. The dungeons started at level +15, capped out at +21, and from that point forward, completion time was used as the differentiating factor.
The Time Trial Leaderboards were hosted here on Raider.IO; check out the Teams Leaderboard and the Dungeons Leaderboard if you want to take a look at how quickly some of these teams steamrolled through the two Time Trials dungeons.
The 24 teams with the combined lowest completion time for both dungeons qualified for the Group weekends. This next stage of the tournament splits the teams into three groups of eight, labeled Groups A, B, and C. The teams compete only on their Group weekend, and only against their Group competitors in a double-elimination style bracket. Each match consists of two teams racing head-to-head in a series of maps, or games, with the victor for each map being the team that completes the dungeon first. Each match is a best-of-3 with the finals being a best-of-5. At the end of the weekend, the top two teams earn a qualifying spot in the Global Finals that will take place later this season.
Six teams will qualify for the Global Finals from the Group stage, which leaves two more spots available. These spots will be filled by the top two teams from The Last Stand. This is a second-chance opportunity for teams to qualify, whether or not they were part of the Group stage or Time Trials. Teams sign up for The Last Stand and participate in a separate Time Trials over three days. The top six teams from those Time Trials will then compete in The Last Stand, which uses a tournament format similar to The Great Push.
In a departure from head-to-head dungeon races, teams will have five hours each day to speedrun a set of predetermined keystones over the weekend. The Keystone level will not increase when completing these runs. Instead, at the end of each competition day, the combined time across all dungeons will be added up and the slowest team on Day 1 and Day 2 will be eliminated. On the final day, only four teams remain, and the two teams sporting the fastest combined times across all dungeons will move on to join the other six contestants in the MDI Global Finals!
Group C Teams Preview
Group C is filled to the brim with teams that already have previous MDI experience – only one of the eight teams has not yet played in an MDI during Legion, BFA or Shadowlands. As a result, many familiar faces will show up during this week’s event, with MDI champions such as Fragnance or Yoda, who are once again trying to claim the final victory themselves, as well as Echo’s strongest challenger of the last MDI and TGP: Monka. Monka have shown that they are more than capable of going toe to toe with the five-times champions of Echo, and will be looking to finally claim a championship title for themselves.
While Monka are the favorites coming into this group, many of the other teams that are present have come close to victory themselves at some point in the past; MDI veteran teams such asCheese and Thunderstruck are eyeing a Global Finals spot of their own. Read on for a brief introduction to each team, including their MDI history, and what they’re thinking heading into this weekend’s competition!
Monka has quickly become one of the most well known teams of the entire MDI and TGP circuit. The players of Monka started their journey in different teams in the past: Skylarked with Obey Alliance and Ethical, Maystine with team Omega Pump, and Moadmoad with Does Gargoyle Stream?. They joined forces with Crims and Rx for the first time in Season 3 of Shadowlands, immediately managing to surprise the entire competition by forcing Echo into the Lower Bracket during the Season Finals. While they did not manage to win the championship, everybody realized that there was a new crew in town, and they meant business from the very first second…
Monka kept up their incredible performance, coming in second behind Echo once again during The Great Push, where they showcased not only their proficiency in playing fast keys, but also how to efficiently push them as high as possible. During the current season’s Time Trials, they started topping the leaderboard with an entirely new composition of DPS classes, which was quickly adopted by many other teams. They ended up coming in second, behind Echo, after being ahead of the five-times champions for most of the Time Trials thanks to their innovative ideas and willingness to pioneer new specs and strategies.
Moadmoad (you can find our player spotlight with him here) and Maystine are long-time friends and two of the big-brains of the team, and they are well known for coming up with interesting strategies and niche-usage of utility skills, especially when it comes to mind-controlling trash mobs. With Shadowpriest being meta right now, we hope that they have a few tricks up their sleeve that the competition will force them to showcase!
“We expect to win if we play clean and focus on ourselves, and we aren't intimidated by any of the other teams. Whether we win or lose is up to our performance and whether we play to the best of our abilities.
Skylarked sometimes has a poor connection, as he has to tank with 200MS regularly. While that's something he has to deal with personally, we don't notice it that much as a team. However, we often have to heavily adjust our sleeping schedules to be able to practice, and that does affect all of us. Most often we practice from 6/7 PM EU time til deep at night, but that's a sacrifice we're more than happy to make to be able to play with Skylarked.” —Moadmoad
The second highest seed of group C is Cheese, a team full of MDI veterans that have banded together to claim the championship title. The team came in fifth in the Time Trials, ending 1 minute and 25 seconds slower than Monka. According to the team, they did not have much time to play during the Time Trials, so they are not only looking to get the second ticket to the Global Finals out of their group, but to challenge and beat Monka for the better seed as well!
With players like Fragnance, who previously earned himself multiple MDI championships with Echo, and Ricky, who came in third in the last MDI in Shadowlands, they are one of the most experienced teams in all of the MDI. Cheese also marks the return of one of the best-known tanks in Mythic+: Fem has picked up his sword and shield once again, and he is ready to rumble, reuniting with Ricky after already playing together in Paint for Fem back in BFA.
Cheese is a new team that completed their roster after picking up two esteemed RWF competitors, with Drenaco from Liquid joining as the third DPS player, and Zhatzi from Echo as their Healer. Both players have previous MDI experience of their own, having played for Practice? and Yeppers in MDI Season 2 and 3 of Shadowlands.
“We think that the group stage will be fun to watch and to play. We think that all the groups have looked good so far and group C is looking to be very competitive. Especially the top teams like Monka!
Our biggest challenge this Cup will probably be our games vs Monka and Thunderstruck, they are both looking very strong with players such as Drjay and Moadmoad! We have practiced all the dungeons so hopefully, we perform well in all of them!” —Fem
Thunderstruck is yet another team with a lot of name recognition. Coming in almost 3 minutes slower than Cheese, they claimed the eighth seed during the Time Trials, but they’re no doubt yearning for more.
While many are referring to the team as “Drjay’s new team”, it is a bit of a misnomer, as many players in the team have a long competitive history. While Drjay has established himself as an institution of the MDI, having participated in every single event since Legion, the team is filled with incredibly experienced players of the competitive Raiding and Mythic+ scene.
The sky's the limit for Thunderstruck, as Drjay has once again teamed up with Lemike, after claiming a third place finish together in the Season Finals of MDI Season 3 in Shadowlands with W Omegalul already. They are joined by Yoda, who has won an MDI Championship of his own back in 2019 as part of Method NA, and who has a long history in competitive gaming. Soda and Velo, two RWF competitors for Echo and Method with plenty of Mythic+ experience too, complete the roster. While the team’s initial Time Trial performance did not get them as far as they had hoped, this weekend’s event will allow them to unleash their full potential.
“I would say group C is a competitive group with multiple good teams in it, particularly Monka who finished in second place in MDI Season 3 Global Finals of Shadowlands.
The biggest challenge for us is the same as for every other team: being consistent and not having any mistakes happening in the matches. Any +23 key, for example, will automatically be more of a challenge since it is an actual high key.
The team has zero pressure to make it to Globals, as we have both our group to qualify from and The Last Stand, and we fully expect to make it through in at least one of those.” —Lemike
Thundered is a group of French players that have also played in previous MDIs already. Alex, Bazook and
“Since the keystone levels are a bit high, I feel like everything can happen. Our goal as a team is to make it to the Global Finals, but, talking for myself here, I also just want to have some fun, especially since it's my first time ever competing. I don't think we're looking out for any teams specifically, but we know Monka is by far the scariest, so we're aiming at 2nd place at best :)” —Subkrys
In a group with many amazing team-logos, Bone Buds are definitely the standout for us! Previously named Soundproof during MDI Season 3 of Shadowlands, they did not manage to take home a series back then, but their Time Trial results show that they have grown a lot since then, coming in as the 14th seed of the tournament.
While Group C is stacked with veteran teams and well known players, Bone Buds have the advantage of coming in as the underdogs, but still have experienced what it feels like to play at a tournament like this. With the improvements they’ve made over the past few months, they could easily steal away a victory from one of the group’s favorites. Let's hope they can just play at their own pace and not focus too much on what other teams are doing.
“I’ll be honest: When we first looked at our group stage, it felt hella stacked with Drjays team, Monka, and Cheese. However, we're going in with the mentality to mostly have fun and see how far we can get.
We're mostly guildies who raid together and love doing challenging keys, so we figured to try to give the MDI a shot with this roster. We joined MDI back in Shadowlands Season 3 under the name Soundproof, but got in last place. This time, however, we brought another dps (Luffer) and we're looking to try harder this time, maybe even win a series or two!” —Chippy
The Mythic Meme Dream Team is back! Having arguably the best name of the entire event, this team has quite some experience in the competition already.
Having competed in multiple Time Trials, and barely missing a qualification in BFA, the team qualified for the Group Stage of the MDI for the first time in Season 3 of Shadowlands. They did not manage to win a series that weekend, but, just like Bone Buds, they are back with a vengeance. Coming in only one minute behind Bone Buds, they are definitely capable of taking a series or two in the Lower Bracket, which is where we expect to see them as they have to go up against Thunderstruck in their first series of the event.
“MDI is all about big pulls on top of bosses and speedrunning, and right now, some of the keys feel like we’re just timing them with nothing special going on. I really feel the format has changed a lot lately, and with the dungeons being as they are, you cannot really afford to pull 7-10 packs anymore which was actually the fun part about the MDI in the first place, at least for me.
Our group feels okay, so we’re not really looking out for any team specifically, as this time around almost all of the teams are kinda on a similar level. The biggest challenge might be playing out the dungeons themselves, as not all teams have 10 hours a day for practice, so being short on time really makes it more difficult than it already is. I myself am going into group phases without big expectations, as I’m just trying to be realistic about it. I am aware that we didn’t have as much time to practice, especially compared to some other teams, and I feel like having high expectations would be kind of delusional. :)” —Vacata
Breaker is the only team of the group with no prior MDI experience. They are a newcomer team from Asia that started pushing keys together during Shadowlands, and they decided to try their hands at the MDI competition for the first time in Dragonflight. They managed to qualify, coming in as the 21st seed of the event, and they will have their work cut out for them going up against Cheese in their first series.
With no prior MDI experience, other than utilizing the Tournament Realm to practice for pushing highkeys, they are new to the entire setting of practicing the same dungeon and run over and over again, which might explain their fairly slow performance during the Time Trials. Now that the team has had a few more weeks to practice and get into the groove of things, we are excited to see what the second Asian team of the event has to show us!
”We started as a push team in Shadowlands, and have been pushing keys together on and off ever since. We are from the same guild and we’ve known each other for a while, practicing keys on the MDI server for pushing in retail. So we thought it'd be fun to participate in the main event and decided to actually give it a try this time.
We can’t really say that we are fully prepared for the group stage, since one of our members has a really important qualification exam on the day after the tournament. But of course, we will try our best with the limited time. This is the first time we participate in the MDI tournament, and we realized that doing well in MDI speedrunning requires tons of practice, and that's what we are still missing.” —Sdream
Dismissed is the lowest seeded team of the tournament, claiming the last qualification spot during the Time Trials, #24. They aren’t new to the competition, however, as some of you may remember them (and their amazing logo!) from their 5th-6th place finish in Group B of the MDI Season 3 in Shadowlands.
This forces them to go up against Monka, which is definitely a bit of a David vs Goliath situation, but let’s not dismiss the team that quickly. Unfortunately the team not only has to go up against the group’s favorite, but they also didn’t have a whole lot of time to practice, so they’re going to try to make the best of the situation and get some more MDI experience, try their best to win a series or two in the Lower Bracket, and focus on enjoying the event together. We’re excited to see how far they’ll be able to go!
“We raided together back in BFA, so we’ve known each other for some time. We always enjoyed playing high keys on retail, so we said to ourselves to try the MDI, even though it's a little different. We signed up for the last MDI in Shadowlands, and we managed to get 10th place in time trials, which was much better than we expected.
The biggest challenge for us is to play consistently, because we didn't have much time to practice. As for the dungeons, I think the Nok'hud Offensive will be very challenging because it's a +23, with Sanguine!” —Exo
Predictions
Last week was the group of the underdogs, but group C is shaping up to be quite a bit different. Only one of the teams in group C, Breaker, has no prior MDI experience. Many of this week’s competitors being familiar with the pressure and stress that comes from being at a group stage event, so we expect much fewer mishaps and double-digit death counters in some of the dungeons. Slow and steady wins the race (except when it doesn’t, of course), and, if the past two weeks are any indicator, the saying still holds true in the first MDI of Dragonflight.
We’ve seen many teams in the previous two tournament weekends fail very difficult pulls, even veterans like Sloth, Perplexed and Donuts, so just playing it safe can be a recipe for success, especially when the goal is not to qualify for the Global Finals, but rather to make it as far as possible in the Lower Bracket. We will have to see which path some of the lower seeded teams will be taking this time; high risk and high reward, or measured and controlled.
Of course there are multiple teams in this week’s event that will want to secure themselves a spot for the Global Finals, as well. Monka, Cheese and Thunderstruck have all shown great performances during the Time Trials already, with Monka being the clear favorite for group C, while Cheese and Thunderstruck are eyeing each other as their biggest competitor for a spot in Globals. With how much experience there is to be found between the two teams, it will be a hard-fought victory once they are pitted against each other. If both teams win their first series on Friday, they will meet during the second match on Saturday, which would be the toughest match of the day.
Between both of these teams, we are currently favoring Cheese as the ones to come out on top of this match-up. Cheese has had more time to practice and play now than they did for the Time Trials, and they were already showing incredible results. However, it will ultimately come down to how well both teams prepared for the dungeons of the specific match-up, which will likely be match 6 and match 13, as we expect the winner of the former showdown to be knocked down by Monka in the Upper Bracket finals.
Monka are coming into this group as a clear favorite just as much as Echo was in group A. Not only did Monka manage to make Echo sweat during the previous MDI and TGP on a gameplay level, but they have repeatedly shown and utilized interesting and new strategies that other teams copied once revealed. Even during the Time Trials, Monka suddenly topped the leaderboards with a comp that no one else had utilized just yet, and many teams decided to switch classes and react to the newly shaped meta. They likely will have a few more tricks up their sleeves, and we can only hope that Cheese or Thunderstruck will force them to reveal them to us in some incredibly exciting games.
Language Streams
This year’s MDI can be watched on either the official Warcraft Twitch.tv or YouTube channels. In addition to the official English production, you will also be able to follow the event in multiple other languages:
- German: https://www.twitch.tv/kimuh
- French: https://www.twitch.tv/kusa
- Spanish: https://www.twitch.tv/phobyac
- Ukrainian: https://www.twitch.tv/poor_imagination and https://www.youtube.com/@ua_wow
Links
- NEW: Raider.IO Recruitment System
- Set up Raider.IO Stream Widgets
- Set up Raider.IO Discord Alerts
- Download the Raider.IO Client
- Support Raider.IO on Patreon
