Methodical Execution in North America

The Mythic Dungeon Invitational Americas group stage kicked off this weekend with redemption for the Method organization as their American team, aptly named Method NA, crushed Stupid Mistakes in the very first series, 2-0. It was a sign of things to come.

Bigger the Pull, the Harder the Fall

Every team faces off in Maw of Souls, not only in the time trials, but also as the first match in the first round for every region. As the tournament progresses, patterns begin to develop that give insight as to which team will ultimately come out on top. In Maw, there are two key moments where Bloodlust is used. The first is on Ymiron, which opens up the opportunity for a second Lust at the final boss Helya. However, it seems that second Bloodlust often comes too late in the fight to provide much of a boon, as we haven’t seen a team capable of killing her with only a single intermission phase. The second strategy is to use Bloodlust on the top of the ship to pull all remaining trash. This pull equates to 50% of the total mob count needed for completion with the mini boss Skjal (42% if you ignore Skjal).

All Four One

Day two started with the four-person team from Sinking Ship against Stupid Mistakes. While they lost the series, it was incredible how they managed to topple Tyrannical bosses in Upper Karazhan and Darkheart Thicket, even short-handed.

Fighting through the trenches

Team Omegasniped began their run with a 2-1 loss against Dark Slashers, whose first series defeat came at the hands of Method NA in the semifinals. Team Omegasniped proceeded to dominate in the lower bracket, crushing the likes of Limit and Parse Culture, all the way to the finals, only to be snuffed out in a 2-0 sweep by Method NA. Omegasniped have room to improve the next time they face Method NA at the Global Finals.

Cutting corners in Cathedral

Cathedral of Eternal night opens with ample opportunities to skip large, time-consuming segments of trash. One method is to use a death skip, where the healer stealth moves into a position near Agronox, then casts Mass Resurrection to bring the rest of the team after they jump off a bridge near Dul’zak. Another skip has the group use Invisibility Potions, or a Rogue’s Shroud of Concealment, to run past most of the early trash packs. Both methods save time otherwise spent killing unnecessary mobs, but teams run the risk of missing out on the required kill count if they don’t kill 90-100% of the pack immediately after beating Smashspite. Limit missed just enough mobs in that pack to lose their game against Team Omegasniped, and Method NA almost made the same mistake in the second, and final, match against the same team in the finals.

With the conclusion of the Americas Regional Group Stage, we have the eight teams going to the 2018 Mythic Dungeon Invitational Global Finals. These eight teams will travel to Ohio for the first ever live MDI event on June 22.