Mythic Ula’tek is dead! Liquid wins World First Venomous Abyss in nail-biting race against Echo

The Midnight Season 2 Race to World First is over, and Team Liquid claimed victory for the fifth raid tier in a row. Mythic Ula’tek has been defeated by Liquid, with Echo coming in a very close second in a dramatic final day of the race.

When Liquid started their day, Echo already had a best pull of 3.68%, it looked like the race was going to end soon. Liquid was still working on consistency, and getting a good burn phase in, with a best pull of 32%. In a post-game interview, even Liquid GM Maximum said he thought they were going to lose this one — but the guild came in and went to work, trying to narrow Echo’s lead.

Both Liquid and Echo were making use of some creative game mechanics in late phase 3 to maximize DPS time as the space on the platform shrank. Near the end of the phase, instead of dodging Caustic Waves that are shot out by players with Volatile Purge, players without the debuff would just jump in the venom pool. While they took damage from the venom, the pathing of the waves meant they didn’t get hit and could stand still and focus damage while healers healed through it. Plus, items from the Coiled Isle could reduce the damage you took from the venom pool, reducing the healing load.

Then word came from Blizzard that the strategy would be nerfed today, so players couldn’t ignore this mechanic. Raiders who got the kill using the strategy while it was available wouldn’t be penalized, but it could be changed any pull.

At this point, Echo’s best pull was 1.23% and Liquid’s best pull was 15.59%. A strategy shakeup when you’re so close to a kill is tough, particularly when it requires you to get used to a difficult dodge pattern on a tiny platform, while continuing to do a solid DPS burn.

But even with this change, all it took was focusing up and executing on the mechanics they’d been practicing for over 300 pulls to score a kill. Liquid went from the best of 15.59% to a kill in just four pulls, earning them World First Ula’tek in 307 pulls. Echo followed with a kill a half hour later for World Second Ula’tek in 335 pulls.

So what about World Third Ula’tek? Method is close, with a best of 11.7% after 358 pulls, but the guild has called it a day after an hour without making progress. Chinese guild 中洲队 (ZhongZhou Team) is the only other guild working on Mythic Ula’tek, with a best of 85% after 21 pulls. That puts them in line with other guilds on progression per pull, but they’re just too far behind to make it into the top three.

So congratulations to Team Liquid for another Race to World First win! It’s been another fun one to watch.