Saturday 10th July 2021

Sunday will see my guild tackle the new raid in World of Warcraft.  I’m beyond excited and have been trying to prepare myself for  tomorrow night by getting the best gear I can.

There’s a thing in the World of Warcraft community where when the Mythic level version of the raid comes out, they all race each other to be the first to kill the last boss on that difficulty.  It’s called the Race to World First and it was one of my earliest exposure to esports.  I still follow it now.

There’s something about seeing people play the game I love at the top level that I find so enthralling.

There was a scandal a few years back when one of the top guilds was found to consist of some pretty shitty people.  As a result, the raiding guild pretty much exploded.  There was quite the scandal about them as well.  Now I don’t know the truth but I followed the person leading the guild on social media and his girlfriend seemed genuinely shaken by the revelations.  I know from swordfighting tournaments that you can get a few egos and bad actors and if you’re not active in stamping it out then it’ll just grow.

These people were just kids when they first started raiding competitively.  This was before all the money from livestreaming.

But I look at the guild now.  It’s a esports team that’s taken the experience onboard and has policies and is actively promoting pride (something typically not something you find in gaming communities).  They talk about their rebuild and the work they’re doing to make sure they have vigorous policies in place.

Maybe it’s because I’m writing about redemption right now, or maybe it’s because World of Warcraft is full of redemption arcs, but I ask myself  should I be supporting this team or not?  On one hand, some shitty things happened and for those impacted by guildees actions and the lack of oversight from the guild, there’s understandably not a whole lot of forgiveness.  But as a role model for how guilds and Warcraft esports teams should be, they’ve definitely done the work.

I guess it depends on whether you consider the guild owners complicit or woefully unprepared.  They could have just slunk off and changed their name… but they seem to be owning their failing, and moving forward at trying to be a better member of the community, knowing full well that there will be a portion of the community that will always blame them.

I’m not sure I have any answers.  In an age where cancel culture is so much in the news… I’m interested in where redemption fits in.  I’m not specifically talking the guild here, but without the fall you cannot have the rise.  Realistically speaking, everyone will have their own view as to whether someone or something can be redeemed.  The popular view is that they can’t no matter what they do.  I’m not sure that’s universally true, or that there’s a singular truth.  Someone who has been harmed by someone has every right to believe there’s no redemption.  Someone less affected by someone’s actions is more likely to turn a blind eye and brush the incident off.

What I’m interested in, and the reason I go on about it here now, is that middle ground.  It’s sitting in my head in a way that it’s going to come out in my writing somehow.  I know that enemies can become fantastic allies.  I also know some leopards can never change their spots.  When is it one and when is it the other, and most importantly, can it be both at the same time?

Either way, I’ll be watching the Race to World First next week, and it’ll be fun to see it after having tackled those same bosses (although on 2 difficultly levels down on Normal).  They’re saying we want to try and get all bosses down tomorrow night… on the first night.  I suspect that’s a little optimistic but that’s not stopping me trying to max everything out ahead of the raid.

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Past Years: 2020 – The Year of Being Fearsome | 2019 – The Year of Soldiering Through | 2018 – The Year of Priorities | 2017 – The Year Of The Offensive