Limit is one of the leading guilds in World of Warcraft raiding. The guild formed to become a bastion of hope for North American raiding and the regions hopes at claiming the world first title.
A few months back we had the first raid of Battle for Azeroth, Uldir. The race was highly anticipated before the expansion launched– Then Method announced they would be live streaming the entire progress, a first time for high-end raiding, and a bold move by the EU team. The race went to NA to begin with but Method caught up (EU has access to the content around 15 hours after NA) but the race started to take hold by the final three bosses. Limit took an initial lead before Method took a firm lead and ultimately claimed world first after the first weekly reset.
Now we head into the second raid of the expansion, Battle of Dazar’alor. We had the chance to speak to three of the officers from Limit ahead of patch 8.1 and the next raid (which launches in January 2019): Healing Officer and Holy Paladin main, Jeath; Mage main and Officer Preheat; and Flex DPS and Officer, Eric.
Esports Insider: Limit has really started to ramp up both sponsorship/partnerships and hires. What made you go from a world first chasing guild in WoW to making these moves?
Jeath: These aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, we started pursuing both at the same time. Going for world first attracts partner attention, and if we can gain benefits for our raiders from partnerships/sponsorships, that actually encourages and supports great players joining and remaining in Limit.
Eric: Getting partners involved incentivizes players to stay and new players to join the guild, world first chasers attracts attention and there’s not a coincidence that Limit chasing for world first and gaining new partners are happening at the same time.
Preheat: I think that overall interest in the World First Race coupled with our strong showing last tier has ramped up interest in Limit as an organization. We will continue to gain value and sponsors are aware of this. This is just the beginning, and we are all excited to see where our success and partnerships lead us!
ESI: Did the publicity around the most recent race and the fact it was streamed have a big impact?
“Our fans made it very clear to us that they want to see more, but right now we have to focus on the prize”
Jeath: The publicity and streaming of the Uldir race were great for the community and the game. The biggest impact it had on our guild was the clamouring fans begging us to stream the next tier too! For now, while we pursue our first ever world first, we will continue to follow the approach every single world first contender has taken for the entire history of the game–including Method for all but the single most recent raid–and refrain from streaming in BFD [Battle of Dazar’alor].
Eric: The sheer amount of people watching and keeping up with the past race is something I haven’t seen in a very long time, it bolstered the PvE side of the game tremendously and showed how much people can care about this aspect of the game. While it would be naive to say the streams didn’t have an impact, I wouldn’t say without it we wouldn’t be where we are.
Preheat: What Method did was huge. Bringing the World First Race out in the open was a big deal and garnered a lot of new interest in the game. Our fans made it very clear to us that they want to see more, but right now we have to focus on the prize. We have some big surprises in store for after BFD, but that’s a discussion for another time.
ESI: For those that followed the Uldir race, it came down to you and Method both on G’huun (The final boss) with a weekly raid reset in front of you. Method chose to fully clear again, what made Limit make the call to keep going and not reset the boss?
Jeath: We knew we could kill the boss without a reset of gear–and we were right. The difference between us not killing the boss on Tuesday, and killing it on Wednesday, was 100% just us playing better. In hindsight, the additional couple of item level we could have had on Tuesday from reclearing would probably have been a complete, in fact superior, substitute to playing better.
Eric: We had a vote as a guild and the majority decided to extend the lockout, so we did. We did end up killing the boss with the previous resets’ gear, however, we just did not play well enough to make it seem like it was the right play. With better play on Tuesday, the boss could have easily died, unfortunately, we had to come in there on Wednesday and with some better play than the previous day, the boss died.
ESI: The rivalry between NA and EU is big in esports, how much has that rivalry between yourselves and Method helped to drive interest?
“We’re very excited and hungry for the opportunity to claim world first!”
Jeath: Uldir, and the upcoming tier, are the first tiers in years that NA has had a guild legitimately contending for world first. Every NA player who has dreamed of going for it, who has wished they could go for it at least once, is wildly excited about the prospect. Including us!
Eric: Competition is the reason why all of us play this game, and when the competition is so neck and neck between two competing guilds, it helps drive players to push themselves to the edge. We’re very excited and hungry for the opportunity to claim world first!
Preheat: Fans love a local team to root for. It’s been a long time since NA has been competitive, so I think people are hoping for a win. Despite the rivalry, we still have plenty of friends across the pond–in fact, this last Blizzcon I saw pictures of some Scottish guy wearing our merch!
ESI: Without given away any plans, what has changed about Limit’s approach to the next raid ‘Battle of Dazar’alor’?
“ …we learned an insane amount. One example: Go the fuck to sleep.”
Jeath: At the end of Antorus we decided that we would go for world first during the second raid of BFA. A few weeks before the expansion launch, we talked about taking a trial run at it during the first week, because we had never done it before and knew there was a lot we didn’t know. It turned out to be a great idea because we learned an insane amount. One example: Go the fuck to sleep.
Eric: We’ve learned an extraordinary amount of information from Uldir that we intend to implement in BFD, among those include the importance of schedule; start time, end time, break times, etc. The value of having numerous classes and roles set up for niche fights, such as rogues for Zul and dotters for Mythrax, which we did well in Uldir, but can always do better. We’re extremely prepared and ready for BFD.
ESI: Right now, Limit has the crown as the best in NA, how do you take the next step and claim the best in the world?
Jeath: We recruited some outstanding players after Uldir. Now we need to prepare the best we can, strategize the best we can, and play the best we can. Simple as that.
Eric: We’ve bolstered up our roster by quite a bit since Uldir, and with good play and strategy, we hope we can claim the title!
ESI: Lastly, on the world first race, Blizzard recently state that they want to leave the race as a community event (They did, however, track the top 100 Horde & Alliance first kills). For you, is this what you want or would you like to see Blizzard step in and run with the world first race?
Jeath: Top guilds have been saying for years-and-years, and years–they wish Blizzard would do more to develop world-first raiding into an esport. We agree, but why bemoan it at this juncture. It’s pretty clear that won’t happen. It’s up to guilds and players to do it.
Eric: It would be amazing for Blizzard to be more involved in the race, they introduced the hall of fame which is a pretty cool starting point, and they shouted out Method on social media, so they’re very aware of how big the most recent race was. Unfortunately, they don’t seem too compelled to incentivize the race on their behalf, so the community and players will have to in their place.
ESI: WoW raiding aside, can we expect to see Limit branch out into traditional WoW esports in the future? Or possible outside of WoW completely?
Jeath: Limit fielded a team during the most recent Mythic Dungeon Invitational last year, as well as multiple players on other teams, and we expect to again. As for other esports–we’re just a group of people who love playing games together. If some of our raiders put together a team in another esport we’ll be cheering them on wildly.
Eric: Absolutely. We have already proven we can be competitive outside of raiding, and have an inordinate amount of talent in this guild. When interests shift we always support our members in any way possible. We have big plans, so hopefully, people are expecting to see more of us.
ESI: For those who’ve had their interest in Limit peaked piqued, where can people find you and potentially join up for future raid tiers?
Jeath: You can find us at our website and our social media at Twitter & Facebook, plus you can keep track of our progress on WoWprogress.