Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible: RWF Event Guide
The wait is finally over. The Race for World First (RWF) for Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible, starts today, as weeks and months of preparation finally bear fruit. Once the servers come back online later today, the NA region will be able to jump right into Mythic difficulty to claim a few of the initial World Firsts of the race…or will they?
One thing that is undetermined is whether we will see another RWF where guilds do not venture into Mythic difficulty immediately, and instead prepare some of their splits and farm raids, or even Mythic+. Only time will tell.
Regardless of how the Aberrus RWF will start out, one thing is for certain: This RWF is as heavily contested as it can be, with many guilds aiming for a World First Kill, and many more battling for as high of a World Rank as possible.
Our RWF coverage will keep you updated on all developments of the RWF, from First Kills, Analysis of the fights or mechanics, interesting data points, or posts about what is happening at the LAN venues and on the streams. Keep your browser tab open all Race long to our self-refreshing RWF Coverage Page to make sure you never miss a thing!
As always, it is difficult to keep track of all the different guilds and streams, talent and charities, guilds and players. That’s why we did it for you, so you can enjoy the pre-RWF hype without having to do a thing yourself! Read on for all the information you need for the RWF events and streams by some of the best guilds in the world, sorted by world rankings of the previous raid.
Table of Contents
After an incredibly close RWF finish in Vault of the Incarnates, Echo are planning to get their fourth consecutive Race for World First win in Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible. Less than four hours separated the RWF titans from losing the title to the competition for their Raszageth World First Kill, and they are looking to defend their title with a much bigger lead this time around. With about a third of their roster and support staff gathering on location in Sweden, they will come more than prepared for this new chapter in the Race for World First competition.
| EVENT DETAILS | |
| Region | Europe |
| Event Location | Echo have gathered 8 of their players, as well as 7 on-site talent, in Växjö, Sweden. They will be holding their LAN event at the same venue as the ESA speedrunning marathons, using all the residual gotta-go-fast energy for the Race for World First! |
| Event Announcement | |
| Event Stream Link | Echo Esports Twitch Channel |
| Casters |  Okaymage, Dratnos, FatBossTV, Preach, Krista, Jeath and Djarii |
| Charity | Echo is once again raising funds for Rise Above The Disorder, with all donations and Twitch.tv subscriptions going towards their charity goals. Rise Above The Disorder is a non-profit that helps people all over the world access mental health care, by connecting therapists with those in need of help, and covering the cost for those who are unable to do so themselves. You can support RAD by following this link. |
After just barely missing the World First Kill on Raszageth, the Storm-Eater, with less than four hours between the two top guilds, Liquid is as ready as they will ever be to finally claim their third World First title. With the support and backing of Team Liquid, the guild has shown incredible performances throughout the recent RWFs, and the players, analysts and staff from Liquid are hungry for more!
| EVENT DETAILS | |
| Region | North America |
| Event Location | Liquid will once again be present at their own Alienware Training Facility in Los Angeles! They decided to not bring in every single player of the roster for this iteration of the RWF, but of course all of their international players will be flying in to meet many of their fellow raiders in LA, as well as six on-site talent. |
| Event Announcement | |
| Event Stream Link | Team Liquid Twitch Channel |
| Casters |  Eiya, Naguura, Kalamazi, Kams, Jak and Samtalkz |
| Charity | Liquid is raising funds for Ocean Conservancy, with many exciting and entertaining charity goals that are ready to be met. Ocean Conservancy promotes healthy and diverse ecosystems and opposes practices that threaten ocean life and human life. Through research, education, and science-based advocacy, Ocean Conservancy informs, inspires, and empowers people to speak and act on behalf of the oceans. You can support Ocean Conservancy by following this link. |
With the recent successes in Sepulcher of the First Ones and Vault of the Incarnates, Method has rebuilt itself to once again become one of the powerhouses of the EU raiding scene. Where other guilds have faltered and stopped raiding altogether, Method has been staying strong, coming in third behind Echo and Liquid in Vault of the Incarnates.
A third place performance is not enough for the team, however, and despite some of their players leaving for other guilds, Method’s roster is looking even stronger than the last time around. In order to facilitate the best performance we have seen out of the team, they are finally back in a LAN environment as well!
| EVENT DETAILS | |
| Region | Europe |
| Event Location | Method have gathered 11 players and 9 casters at the 1337 Camp in Stuttgart, Germany. It’s been a long time since the guild has hosted such an event, so everybody is even more hyped than usual for the Aberrus RWF. |
| Event Announcement | |
| Event Stream Link | Method Twitch Channel |
| Casters |  MrGM, Darkmech, Grant, Kexman, Deepshades, Ragedarling, Shejkin, Roiben and Sco |
| Charity | Method is raising funds for Safe In Our World, with many mystery charity goals and challenges for the casters and players that will be revealed one at a time. Safe In Our World aims to create and foster worldwide mental health awareness within the video game industry; to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health, to make it a natural topic of discussion, and to promote the dialogue surrounding mental health so people are not afraid to reach out for help if they need it. You can support Safe In Our World by following this link. |
Big Dumb Guild, or BDG, have seen a lot of change since their World Fourth Kill of Raszageth in Vault of the Incarnates. The guild has parted ways with their old organization Golden Guardians, and as a result BDG have dropped one of their Gs in order to return to their roots. The guild has also undergone some major changes on all levels of the guild, bringing in 10 new raiders for the RWF in Aberrus, and with this much fresh blood, the sky's the limit!
It will be interesting to see how North America’s second best guild will perform in this new environment, especially as the competition is getting fiercer and fiercer every tier. With the experience of their veteran players, as well as the breath of fresh air that all the new players brought into the mix, BDG might just go beyond expectations in this tier!
BDG will not be hosting a broadcasting event, but many of their raiders will still stream their progression under the new and familiar BDG banner.
| Region | North America |
| Guild Stream Link | BDG Twitch Stream Channel (with many different player PoVs) |
| Player Stream Links | BDG Twitch Team Slootbag (Tank); Twitch Stream Channel |
It came to everybody’s surprise when we heard that some of the Chinese guilds would continue competing in the RWF after migrating, or rather restarting, their characters and guilds on the Taiwanese servers. This RWF wouldn’t have been the same without them.
Skyline was the best-performing Chinese guild of the recent raid tiers, coming in fifth in Vault of the Incarnates, and even making the Top 3 as the #3 guild in Sepulcher of the First Ones. Despite the uncertainty with the server situation, their founder and sponsor 天涯 (Tianya), who the guild was named after, continues supporting the guild financially, making it all possible. He only has one demand of the players: “Enjoy the game, and do your best!”. With this kind of support and a “Sponsor for Love”¹, Skyline will hopefully be able to once again perform their absolute best in the Aberrus RWF.
| Region | China/Taiwan |
| Event Location | Skyline are once again raiding from an esports hotel in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, China. The entire guild will be staying at the resort until the RWF finishes, and hopefully this time around they won’t have to fight the raid bosses as well a horrible Covid outbreak like in Vault. |
| Player Stream Links | Melody (Raidleader, Mage); Douyu Stream Channel Yd (Warrior DPS); Douyu Stream Channel Cuojue (Shaman DPS); Douyu Stream Channel Eaple (Druid DPS); Douyu Stream Channel |
HuoGuoChaoJie, also known as just ChaoJie, is another Chinese guild that managed to keep their raiding efforts going on the TW servers. Their sponsor 肖恩 (Shawn), also a “Sponsor for Love”¹, used to fund a different guild entirely (HuoGuoHero), but after disappointing results, Shawn simply bought the entire guild of ChaoJie instead, in order to realize his dream of having and supporting his own RWF guild. These efforts allowed ChaoJie to overtake JTH as the second best Chinese guild, coming in as #6 in the Vault of Incarnates RWF. This isn’t enough for them, of course, and ChaoJie is looking to continue their rise to potentially beat out Skyline, and become the strongest guild in Asia!
Their sponsor is sparing no expense this time around, providing not just the venue and lodging for all the 30 players of the RWF team, but also hiring over two dozen support staff to cater to the raider’s every need, as well as providing a dedicated engineering team to take care of potential networking issues that might arise from playing on the TW servers!
| Region | China/Taiwan |
| Event Location | ChaoJie will be raiding from an esports hotel in Chongqing City, China. Much like their Chinese competitors, the team suffered from a devastating Covid outbreak last event, so hopefully they are able to stay healthy and at the top of their gameplay the entire race! |
| Player Stream Links | HuangQuan (Priest Healer); Douyu Stream Channel Naruto (Warlock); Douyu Stream Channel Paper Paladin (Ret Pally); Douyu Stream Channel |
Ji Tian Hong (JTH) has unfortunately been on a decline in the world ranks over the last few raids. From being one of the Top 5 guilds in the world towards the end of BFA, to slowly losing spots to competing Chinese guilds throughout Shadowlands and Dragonflight. JTH ended up as the #7 guild in Vault of the Incarnates, behind both Skyline and ChaoJie.
As JTHs original sponsors spent a lot of time and resources to give the guild the best possible chance to reclaim the #1 title in China in the Vault RWF, the disappointing result of coming in 7th behind two of the competitors led to a significant roster change as well as reduction in funding for Aberrus. JTH will be raiding remotely from home this time around as a consequence, and maybe this change in environment and less pressure to perform will allow them to beat out the competition once more.
| ZhouZhiRuo (Raid Leader) | Huya Stream Channel |
Instant Dollars are an up and coming raiding guild from North America, that have shown consistent growth over the last few raid tiers. Starting out as #59 in Castle Nathria, the guild has grinded out their path to success, claiming a #21 in Sanctum of Domination, #12 in Sepulcher of the First Ones, and finally reaching the very top, as they got the World #8 Kill on Raszageth in Vault. The guild is not satisfied with their results just yet, and overtaking BDG to become the second strongest guild of the NA region is an expressed goal of Instant Dollars.
While the guild is still fairly new in the RWF circuit, they do not (yet!) host an event production for the RWF. You can, however, find many of their players streaming during progression:
| Region | North America |
| Player Stream Links | Kads (Ranged DPS); Twitch Stream Channel Karz (Shaman); Twitch Stream Channel Xyronic (it’s Xyro, you know him); Twitch Stream Channel |
One of the more recent surprises came from European guild FatSharkYes. FSY has long been regarded as a guild with incredibly high raiding standards, as the guild keeps a strict 5-hour raiding schedule, except for Wednesdays and Saturdays. Despite this somewhat tame schedule, the guild consistently manages to get a Top 10 finish in almost every raid tier, and even got the World #4 Kill on Sire Denathrius! If you want to find out more about what makes FSY so special, then you can check out our FatSharkYes Spotlight from Shadowlands.
FSY, despite their impressive performances, has never streamed their progression. That is, until now. The guild recently announced that they will be streaming progress in Aberrus for the very first time, and while the guild is not aiming to become a full RWF contender and won’t be streaming voice coms active, it will still be a sight to behold.
| Region | Europe |
| Player Stream Links | FSY Twitch Team |
Footnotes
¹ 用爱发电 or “Sponsor for Love”: This phrase loosely translates into “generate electricity with love”, and is commonly used in Chinese Gaming culture to describe a sponsorship that seeks no financial return on investment. They are often patrons who support a team or guild they are passionate about and provide the financial means to enable others to perform at the highest level.
Links
- Raider.IO Recruitment System
- Set up Raider.IO Stream Widgets
- Set up Raider.IO Discord Alerts
- Download the Raider.IO Client
- Follow Raider.IO on Twitter
- Join Raider.IO on Discord
- Support Raider.IO on Patreon
About the Author
Seliathan has been playing Rogue for over half his life, since the initial release of WoW over 18 years ago. After a long career of Raid Leading, Theorycrafting, and pushing Mythic+, Seliathan enjoys creating all kinds of PvE content on Twitch, co-hosting the Tricks of the Trade Rogue podcast, contributing to Raider.IO as Staff Writer, and writing guides for Icy Veins.
