Normal/Heroic Splits is the name of the game to start off the early evening hours for NA Teams.
Liquid is still working with 3 different groups for Normal Splits. It seems one or more of their groups is running into a few to many bugs/lag with some of the boss encounters, and also running into the issue of getting normal helpers for the splits.
Hotfix incoming for The Coil Alter for all difficulties.
Instant Dollars are back, and after few more attempts on The Coiled Altar Heroic, they seem to have stopped attempts on that boss and decided to start a new Heroic Split.
AxTxS and Cute anime Boomers have now jumped ahead of Liquid with 4/8 on Heroic. Instant Dollars are still on a dinner break. Liquid seem to have stopped doing Heroic splits and are now focusing on Normal splits.
Instant Dollars have finished taking a break, and have headed back into Heroic The Coiled Altar.
Liquid are taking a food break before heading back into more splits.
Instant Dollars have taken a break from The Coiled Altar fight on Heroic and have headed into Heroic Nymrissa Wavecaller (the Lair boss, inside the The Tidebound Grotto).
They took the single boss raid down with ease, and are now taking a short player break.
Instant Dollars continue their clean sweep of Heroic World Firsts, defeating The Twin Fangs and moving onto The Coiled Altar!
Liquid have completed 4 runs of the The Venomous Abyss Raid on Normal, and have now entered Heroic, already taking down the first boss, Nek'zali the Soulcoiler, with 2 groups!
The guild Erudite have taken the World First kill of Ula'Tek on Normal Difficulty. Beating Liquid to the kill by just a few minutes!
I haven't included the cut-scene in the clip, so don't worry about spoilers.
Instant Dollars and The Early Shift both move deeper into The Venomous Abyss Heroic.
Instant Dollars have defeated Heroic Vashnik the Malignant, World First, and have started to pull Heroic The Twin Fangs!
The Early Shift have defeated Heroic Entombed Sentinels and move onto Vashnik the Malignant next.
One of the Liquid split Groups have defeated the Coiled Altar on normal and moved on to Ula'tek.
However, Liquid second normal split group encountered a bug and was unable to defeat The Coiled Altar. They’re resetting and going again.
Instant Dollars have made more progress on Heroic, being the World First to defeat Heroic Entombed Sentinels.
The Early Shift have also joined in on Heroic and have taken down Nek'zali the Soulcoiler, now opting to head straight over to Entombed Sentinels.
Instant Dollars have made it to 3/8 Heroic. Slaying Nek'zali, The Lost Explorers and Sszorak and making their way to the Entombed Sentinels!.
Liquid are continuing with their first set of splits. With the usual guilds that we see on the early NA hours starting their week with Normal raids and Mythic+.
The Early Shift have jumped in the new Lair, The Tidebound Grotto, and have taken the World First kill of Nymrissa Wavecaller on Heroic Difficulty! Proving to be a very easy boss to defeat.
Liquid are wasting no time and start forming the first of many split groups!
Instant Dollars also head straight into the The Venomous Abyss Raid and take down the first boss on Heroic!
The NA realms appear to be coming online, and players are logging which marks the start of Midnight Season 2!
Race to World First: The Venomous Abyss starts on August 18th! We will be doing live coverage of the Midnight Season 2 RWF event as it happens.
The raid structure is returning to a single focused Raid for the RWF, The Venomous Abyss. The new Raid is found in the Vaults of Atal'Utek on The Coiled Isle Zone and is filled with venom and snakes. Guilds will battle through 8 bosses within The Venomous Abyss, with the main event being the first Guild to defeat the final boss, Mythic Ula'Tek, where the champion will be crowned.
All Raid Difficulties will be available from the respective server reset for each region, so there won't be a "Heroic Week" during the Venomous Abyss Race to World First. Splits will still be how Race to World First guilds start the new Raid Tier; repeatedly defeating the easier difficulty versions of the raid with the help of split helpers, preparing their characters to enter Mythic difficulty.
Interestingly, Midnight Season 2 includes the introduction of Lairs, which is essentially a one-boss Raid that drops loot at the same item level as the Venomous Abyss raid. Similar to Rotmire from Patch 12.0.7, the difficulty is supposed to be close to or easier than a first or second boss of the raid, so expect to see the Tidebound Grotto (Nymrissa Wavecaller) included in the RWF Guild's splits ahead of entering The Venomous Abyss on Mythic Difficulty.
We will be providing coverage throughout the Race to World First: The Venomous Abyss, keeping you informed on what is happening, how the standings are looking and how close we get to the Midnight Season 2 World First being achieved. Our main coverage starts on Tuesday, August 18th, when NA servers go live, so make sure to check back in then!