Hello all.
Whilst you may be used to this blog post being the place for Scabb’s words to the guild as a whole, today will be the first time that I will be sharing mine.
First things first, I’d like to congratulate all our hard-working raiders on a job well done, and a very clean kill on Carapace this weekend – solidifying what I knew to be true for this week and the last now that every single person on that fight knew what to do, and just needed to snap out of their lull to push for the kill we’d all be hankering for. Fights where 1 mistake can make or break it for everyone can especially get tempers running hot, and patience running thin. I’ll admit, my patience ran very thin right before our final pull as some of you no doubt noticed, and whilst some people may find this hard to believe, I do not enjoy when this happens, nor do I relish in having to try and kick everyone into gear with a less-than-pleasant “speech” on how something so nail-bitingly close should be so frustratingly hard to reach.
We’ve been clean breezing through the tier up until now, with some notable bumps on Hivemind & Vexiona we haven’t really hit a wall in a while. Ra-den proved easier than Vexiona for us, dying in just over 6 hours of progress on him. Drest’agath and Il’gynoth proved no match for us either, both dying around the 20 pull mark. Then along came Carapace, and whilst this is usually an “easy” boss for some guilds, we proved the old adage that not any one raid team is the same and there are bosses which you will kill faster than the norm, and vice versa.
Regardless, a kill is a kill and it is refreshing to down a boss that has truly been a thorn in our side, rather than breezing past it. Overcoming the difficult, gut-wrenching challenge is what Mythic Raiding is all about, knocking over bosses in no time without a sweat can only be fun for so long, and I’d wager a lot of us do this thing we love (and love to hate) for the adrenaline rush of downing the boss before the Enrage timer hits, or before it wipes the raid more than anything. I certainly hope not everyone is just in it for the loot…
Downing the boss just before the end is a taste of things to come, and a lesson in how to move forward. It’s a prelude to the hardest challenge that we will have to face together as a guild, not just as a Mythic Team. When we tackled Jaina and took her down for Cutting Edge, we fought tooth and nail with the support of the entire guild at our backs through donations, consumables and most important of all morale boosting, cheer leading and support. On our final pull against Jaina, our Twitch Stream of the kill hit 32 concurrent viewers, almost all guildies or former members watching and fighting along with us – a record that hasn’t been beat before or since.
Loyalty and camaraderie is what bands us together more than anything when tackling these difficult challenges. Of course, everyone has their own motivations for raiding, but with that push for the end you are no doubt emboldened to stick together and spur each other on. It’s difficult though to feel any sort of kinship or understanding towards those who cut and run just before the end to move on and cross the finish line with someone else, however justified or not their reasons for doing so may be. Common courtesy is to inform the Raid Leader, the Guild Master or any Officer really of your future plans. Common decency is to discuss how these plans will go about before executing them and allowing both parties to be satisfied with the outcome. Communication is paramount, without it assumptions arise and nobody can plan for the future with only assumptions to go on. Social contracts dictate respect and honesty, and we sign these on a daily basis with every interaction we make. When respect and understanding isn’t given to us, seldom do we give it to others.
Each of us is a free individual to do as they choose and see fit. Each action comes with an equal and opposite reaction however, and so is to say everything we do has consequences. In the case of someone leaving barely a day after a hard-fought progress kill without any prior warning and moving on elsewhere, how would you react to this news? No matter how justified or “well intentioned” it may be, this isn’t how you act towards people you know, within or without of the context of a game.
No doubt some of you may think musings of loyalty to a guild in a MMORPG are a bit much, but we play this game for the social experience and the connections we make. Trust is a large part of any social connection, and when that trust is broken it rarely if ever salvages itself. It takes effort from both parties to mend it, but if one or neither cannot do so then there is little point in continuing, as untreated wounds will only fester and burst in time.
People are free to come and go as they please, yes. There’s nothing we can do to stop people who want to go elsewhere. But, common courtesy and common decency are the very least of what is expected of someone who is planning on moving on, without these a departure can’t be amicable. If the departure isn’t amicable, how can we be expected to keep the doors open for a person who treats the guild like a pit stop to park in until they get what they wanted and drive off?
This has been a very successful tier for Weekend Warriors. No doubt our best in Battle for Azeroth, if not our best in recent memory. Our Mythic Roster is brimming with formidable players and good people, and for the first time we are pushing into an end-boss with 25 people ready for it as opposed to the 20-21 that we usually end up with towards the end of a tier. No doubt a large part of this is attributed to the COVID-19 lockdowns that have kept us all shut inside, and what better excuse can there be to remain subbed and keep playing than a national lockdown keeping you from work and social engagements?
Even now, months after 8.3’s launch, both Flex Raid events reach full capacity every week. We receive 3-4 applications on a weekly basis, from Socials to Mythic Raiders. Our Guild Mythic+ events go on strong with almost 20 people attending both Tuesdays & Wednesdays each week to run dungeons with their guildies. Peak gametime hours see 25-30 people online during the week, 40-50 during the weekends. It’s very heartening to see the enthusiasm and the passion from all our Socials, Flex & Mythic Raiders to log on everyday even during these hard times for all just to escape from reality, and have a laugh with some friends and be a part of a living community that no doubt some of us have felt the need for having been stuck indoors for all these months. I am proud and thrilled that so many of you call this guild your home, and even when things outside of Azeroth seem bleak and uncertain that we can all sit down and play together.
Weekend Warriors is a home to adult players of all walks of life. Socials, Casual Raiders, Hardcore Raiders and the list can go on. Our doors are open to anyone, and all we ask for in return is respect, honesty and communication. If you have concerns, raise them – we have a Guild & Raid Council for a reason. If you have questions, ask them. If you have things you want to see more or less of, talk about them. If you sit in silence and let your problems fester, who is really to blame here? Guilds shape and evolve based on their members’ wants and needs, and only knowing these can we push the guild to evolve along with all of you.
We are on the tail-end of Battle for Azeroth now. Stronger than ever, with fists raised and looking to take on the rest of the expansion. The hardest challenge of the game is laid before us now, and we have the time, the ability and the tools at our disposal to overcome it together. N’Zoth is not going to be easy, but nothing that is easy is worth doing. Mythic Raider or not, we’re all in this together until the very end and even if you aren’t part of the team directly, being in Weekend Warriors means you are right there along with us while we go to purify the Corruptor with Focused Azerite Beams to his eyeballs once and for all.
Onward to Cutting Edge, together.