Team Liquid has won the World of Warcraft Race to World First for the fourth consecutive year, defeating the WoW: Midnight Season 1 mythic boss L’ura after 473 pulls and two weeks of competition. The win came with a dramatic twist: a hidden fourth phase that blindsided every team in the race days before the final kill.
The competition was among the closest in recent Race to World First history. Team Echo led at various points, posting a world-best pull of 4.07% at one stage. In the final hours, Echo suffered a sub-0.45% wipe, then a 1.1% wipe shortly after Liquid executed their kill. The last RWF victory for Team Echo was in 2022; Liquid has held the title every year since.
The hidden phase nobody saw coming
For most of the race, L’ura was known to have three phases. Getting through phase three at all was a significant challenge, with dozens of guilds attempting it over two weeks. Team Liquid became the first guild to bring L’ura to zero health in phase three, and their players responded as anyone would: chairs scraped back, hands went up, and the celebrating started.
Then L’ura regenerated to full health.
A fourth phase had been hidden completely. The moment has since circulated widely as the “L’ura Incident,” a video compilation of the reactions across Liquid’s stream: players and coaches in various states of disbelief, a raider reading stunned NPC dialogue aloud and saying, “This cannot be,” and a coach yelling at the team to sit back down and refocus. The video had been described as a slightly depressing watch before Liquid secured the win, though the ending gives it a different tone now.
The fourth phase required raiders to survive waves of void creatures using a single beacon of light. On the pull that counted, Team Liquid cleared it with all 20 members alive. No one had seen the phase before Liquid discovered it mid-race, meaning the team had to learn and execute it with no outside reference point.
Echo’s near-miss and what it means for the rivalry
Team Echo pushed Liquid harder than in any previous year of the rivalry. Their sub-0.45% wipe in the final hours means they came within a fraction of ending Liquid’s streak. Liquid player Maximum was candid about that in his post-race interview.
“If I was in that position I would be gutted,” he said of Echo. “That’s like a year of your life. So just shoutout to [Echo] for being as good as they are. They got better from last year as well, and they easily could have won the race.”
The WoW: Midnight Season 1 raid is set on the isle of Quel’Danas. After 473 total pulls across two weeks, Team Liquid secured their fourth consecutive Race to World First title.