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Method wins their second BlizzCon live raid
Congratulations to Method for winning their second BlizzCon live raid! This year, both Method and Midwinter raced in Highmaul (Heroic), one of the upcoming Warlords of Draenor raids. Unlike the Siege of Orgrimmar race from last year, this race was from start to finish -- including the trash, which proved to be one of the deciding factors for Method's victory. Midwinter started out strong by killing the first boss, Kargath, while Method still had about 20% to go. This advantage quickly shifted when Midwinter had some hiccups on the trash on the way to Twin Ogron (the 3 bosses in between are optional bosses, which they skipped for the purpose of the race). Method killed Twin Ogron with Midwinter still at 25%. Midwinter slowly caught up during Ko'ragh and ended up pulling the final boss, Imperator Mar'gok, only 10 seconds behind Method. The final fight was pretty exciting, with Method and Midwinter only about 5-10% apart on boss health throughout the whole fight. There were several close calls, but Method ended up pulling it off. If you have the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, I'd recommend checking out the VOD. Lead Designer Ion Hazzikostas gives some good background information on the fight mechanics and some of the lore behind the raid.
BlizzCon 2013: Method vs. Midwinter live raid recap
Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer, and community manager Josh "Lore" Allen hosted this year's live raid where Midwinter (US Alliance) and Method (EU Horde) competed in the Siege of Orgrimmar on 25-player heroic mode. All of the raid trash was removed, and the bosses they had to fight were Sha of Pride, Kor'kron Dark Shaman, Malkorok, Siegecrafter Blackfuse, and Garrosh Hellscream. The race started out with Midwinter killing Sha of Pride a few seconds before Method, but things took a turn for the worse on the Kor'kron Dark Shaman where Midwinter experienced 4 wipes (one of them at only 3%). Eventually, Midwinter breezed through Malkorok and Siegecrafter Blackfuse with little difficulty, but their wipes gave Method the opportunity to kill the next two bosses and get several attempts in on Garrosh before killing him on attempt 3 to win the race. Congratulations to Method for the win!
Method square off against Midwinter in the BlizzCon live raid
BlizzCon is just a shade over one week away, and the time to start getting excited is now! In the past, one of the most fun player events at the convention has been the live raid, and this year will likely be no exceptions. Blizzard has brought in world #1 ranked Horde guild Method to face off against world #1 ranked Alliance guild Midwinter (what is it with M names anyway?) in a race against some of the Siege of Orgrimmar's most challenging bosses. The live raid will feature the heroic 25-man verions of Sha of Pride, the Kor'kron Dark Shaman, Malkorok, Siegecrafter Blackfuse, and Garrosh Hellscream. It will begin at 10 am Pacific time on Saturday, and commentary will be provided by lead encounter designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas and community manager Josh "Lore" Allen so us audience members can better follow the action. Make sure to tune in for the live raid, and let us know if you're for the Alliance (Midwinter) or the Horde (Method)!
Gaming For Good's Siege raises over $2M for Save the Children
Well-known PvPer Athene made his return to WoW this weekend with GamingForGood's The Siege. A plethora of top streamers did independent fundraisers, including Athene himself and his colleague Reese. Athene tells us in the video above that they had set a goal of $500,000, and were amazed to hit over $2M over the weekend. They extended the goal time and time again, and hit it. There were several great events, but a huge highlight was the Throne of Thunder 25-man heroic raid race, which tens of thousands of viewers tuned in to watch live, along with several Blizzard Community Managers and Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas. World First EU guild Method took on the US guild Midwinter in what turned out to be a pretty close race. Method led out strong, pulling an early lead on Midwinter, which they held solidly until a wipe on Dark Animus suddenly put their advantage at risk. Midwinter had a great chance to take the lead, but unfortunately also got grounded by the garrulous golems, and wiped. More excitement followed as Method had a big early error on Ra-Den, allowing an orb to hit the boss, but somehow recovered to win by approximately 2 minutes. If you want to see what the world's best guild can do, you can check out the video here.
UK gaming pioneer Mike Singleton dies at 61
Mike Singleton, a prominent and prolific game developer based in the UK, died on October 10 of natural causes at the age of 61, following a year-long battle with jaw cancer. Singleton was responsible for a few games that serve as the foundation of home entertainment, including Space Ace for the Commodore VIC-20, War in Middle Earth for the ZX Spectrum, Midwinter and Midwinter 2 for Atari ST, Amiga and PC, and more recently GRID for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.A friend and previous employee of Singleton's has a heartfelt dedication to his work and life here, along with a list of all the games Singleton created or had a hand in. The friend writes, "Next time you pop in a disk, raise a glass and say 'Cheers Singo!'"Cheers.
