PvP Rank 42 - Three Grand Marshals on One WoW Classic Account

Classic Posted 2020/10/19 at 1:14 PM by Archimtiros

I saw it all.

The world PvP meta evolved from a healthy beginning and ended with a toxic finish, as the game suddenly turned into a survival game over night. With the entire game world on fire as players hunted each other down, it felt like we were playing a Day-Z Warcraft mod or something.

Phase 2 queue times were wild, and the population eventually became so imbalanced with Horde outnumbering Alliance, that the best strategy for farming honor before battlegrounds were released eventually became to "death dive" in Kargath.

Alterac Valley premades were a vibrant cross-realm community, but the slow transition from an Alliance to Horde dominated population, made things difficult for us as our numbers dwindled and we forged the Horde into Navy SEALS by playing day in and day out against our premades. Once Alliance premade groups were patched out, we were totally screwed and they are still making us pay it even today! There are also petty and toxic tactics some groups will use in AV just to waste time - killing elite NPCs for no reward aside from denying Honor/Rep to the enemy team, entire groups chasing down single players that make it past the frontline, and egregious at-all-costs backcapping; even going so far as to delay a win by 20 minutes or more just to fight over one objective.

After AV premades were revoked, Warsong Gulch became the new meta. Some premade vs premade turned into no-holds-barred all-out grudge matches. You'd see teams spending what you knew to be hundreds or sometimes even thousands of gold in consumables and engineering resources over the course of a game, which could at times last as long as 2 hours.

Once Arathi Basin rolled around though, ranking as never the same. The AB launch brought holiday weekends with it, and the amount of farmable honor in a week became less about individual player or even team skill, and more about raw time invested. It wasn't all bad though, as the PvP community population quadrupled overnight.

As a result, bracket organizers everywhere had to deal with some interesting dilemmas, including language barriers. Trying to corral the entire population of Herod over the past nearly 12 months to conform to the community PvP structure was very interesting to say the least. PvP communities are forever constrained by the limits of the pool size, which lead to some very interesting tech developments, including cross-realm pool parties and shadow pool parties.

The question I get asked the most though is "Was it worth it?"
What people don't realize is that it wasn't about the rewards at the end; it never has been. It's more about the journey. Classic WoW, despite all its vicissitudes and flaws, has been an amazing once in a lifetime experience, and the PvP community played a big role in that. I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of really incredible people and established some deep friendships that will last an entire lifetime.

Shoutout to the <Buds> and especially my boy Shim, the glue who keeps it all together!
Shoutout to Cherryred for dominating DM:T everyday!
Shoutout to the bracket organizers on every server for bringing order to a noxious system rife with chaos!

Comment by DcolonRageHerod represent! Go sundrix, (worst enchanter on Herod)!Comment by BrochLions Share > Sponsored by SundrixComment by DaithosDude has more free time than me that's for sure!Comment by LesstorrBuds omegaComment by n0rdhow do u kill one that has no lifeComment by schmilblickGrand Jobless.Comment by mkivttWow. Respect to this guy for putting in the time... I couldn't be bothered. It's such an enormous time drain, even with boosting.Comment by deathlavitzNow he can go outside or actually play the game!Comment by FatPwnerSo many salty people here, why not appreciate both the retail AND classic people that achieve stuff like this? Anyways, GZ my dude and can't wait for 3x high warlord someday ^^Comment by jujumancerA pretty interesting look at how the Classic PVP meta has evolved over the last year and what it actually took to rank up to 14. Grats on the third R14!Comment by CornerStoreDWow this sounds awful and no fun at all.Comment by DcolonRageGrand Jobless.Comment by HerturnI get all my enchants from Lesstorr :)Comment by magicottermewWho cares if Grand Marshal doesn't take skill? The dedication is noteworthy. How many of you have both the time and the will to do something like this? Just because he's not the best player you've ever seen doesn't mean it's not impressive.Comment by VanfrostboltCongrats dad, you did it!

Can i be bracket 1 this weekComment by AnchorzGrats! Great story.Comment by ketsuiI liked the story, no one forced the crying people to read it. Tbh I bet they were people he rolled during his grind or dads who couldn’t make it past rank 12. Don’t like it don’t read it. But wow related material is there for those of us who aren’t dads with four kids that can never get rank 14Comment by JCarr178i thought i had no life... this guy takes the cakeComment by Franny21This is the literal representation and meaning of "waste of time"Comment by novadudeim still on my journey to 60 lol let alone 3 grand marshals. way to go dude!