The FFXIV World First Race just wrapped! And it was Neverland who once again claimed victory. Here are all the details!
At 21:45:00 Server Time (GMT) the European raiding group Neverland claimed the first kill in FFXIV’s latest World First Race.
This is the third time Neverland has claimed a world-first clear in the Endwalker Expansion after claiming the first kill of both Ultimate Encounters, Dragonsong Reprise, and The Omega Protocol.
Considering they were one of the favorites going into the race, this comes as no surprise. But that doesn’t mean to diminish their accomplishment. Quite the opposite actually!
Neverland claims World First for the third time in Final Fantasy XIV
Neverland is composed of many European Final Fantasy XIV veterans, some of them former members of Entropy/Angered who have been deeply entrenched in the raiding scene of Final Fantasy XIV.
The Group made its big debut last year when they first cleared Dragonsong’s Reprise in February. And while their victory was diminished a little by all the Third-Party Tool drama that followed it didn’t take away from its luster.
They were also the first group to legitly claim the first clearance for The Omega Protocol in February this year as verified by community veteran Frosty from MogTalk.
And looking at their clear times during the progression of Anabaseios, they had a clear lead from the start. (Do note that some groups only report their final kill time).
P12S dedddd pic.twitter.com/bh6iuHHVG2
— Zep (@ZeppeMonado) May 31, 2023
While getting to the final encounter in P12S which features two fights, only took them around 7 hours, about an hour ahead of most other teams a lead they established very early while clearing P9S the final encounter of the tier proved more of a challenge.
It took the team almost 28 hours after clearing Themis to finally clear both stages of P12S encounter Ascension with this party composition:
Tanks: Dark Knight, Gunbreaker
Healers: Astrologian, Scholar
DPS: Monk, Ninja, Machnist, Red Mage
The team also stated that they avoided the usage of any third-party tools aside from VPNs, a ninth man, and the competition mode log which confirms that no third-party tools were used.
And they’ll release their 25+ hours worth of prog footage as soon as another group clears the fight, potentially on stream.
After their clear, the team came on MogTalk for an interview and praised the entire tier for feeling really fresh and innovative. Besides P11S, all the fights promoted solving mechanics over tight DPS checks like previous Pandaemonium tiers.
We here at ESTNN congratulate Neverland’s amazing team for coming back strong and we’re looking forward to what they’ll achieve come 7.0 and further beyond.
But after 5 world first races, the team is more than excited to just not play Final Fantasy XIV for at least a year until the next expansion lands. Apparently, they’re looking forward to Diablo 4 to cool down.
But as of writing, the race is still ongoing and you can donate to MogTalk who are running the Race to World First as a charity event for ExtraLife and are currently sitting at $14.000,00 USD donated!
FFXIV Endwalker World First Raiding comes to an End or not?!
With the final raid tier of Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion, this also marks the end of world first competition for the rest of the expansion right?
Think again! We still have the Criterion Dungeon Savage to look forward to in a few months which are due to arrive at 6.45.
The Mount Hokkon climb will surely be something to behold. And since the Criterion Dungeons are for 4 people instead of 8, prepare to see some unique mechanics and boss encounters that move at a much faster pace.
And there is also the Blue Mage race to look forward to, which might be a little cut short since both pieces of content will release at the same time. We’ll of course keep you updated should there be an official event.
For more on Final Fantasy XIV and the latest in esports, check us out here at ESTNN