User:Ventaurion/ChallengingGroupContentPrehistory

What

This is a best-effort attempt at recording significant community accomplishments towards challenging group content (CGC) that has existed before the Heart of Thorns expansion. This (arguably arbitrarily list) includes Tequatl Rising, Twisted Marionette, and Triple Trouble. "Significant" generally refers to world-first, server-first, fastest, or low-player events, but any accomplishment of similar magnitude has its place here as well.

Timeline

September 17th 2013

Tequatl Rising is released. On the same day, Blackgate on NA becomes the first server to Teq kill after merely 6 attempts (verify?). Desolation quickly follows as the first EU server to kill Teq.

Over the next few days, other servers follow suit and also report their first kill: AG AM? DH DB DL EB FA IoJ JQ RoF SBI SoR SoS TC UW WSR (Other servers?)

September 20th, 2013

TTS is founded.

???

TxS is founded.

December 24th 2013 Youtube

EG/SoR records a 9:09 speedkill of Teq.

January 11th 2013 Youtube

EG shaves off a few seconds, getting a 9:12 speedkill of Teq.

January 21st 2014

Twisted Marionette and Triple Trouble are released.

January 23rd 2014

Many servers report their first Twisted Marionette kills. (Was there a definitive world-first?)

January 25th 2014 Reddit Cobalt Crimson Amber

The EU server Desolation achieves a world first Triple Trouble wurm kill. This is particularly impressive as there was no massive influx of other groups immediately following in their footsteps. Don't miss the epic speech at the end!

January 29th 2014 Reddit

Blackgate becomes the first NA server to kill the wurm. Some of these players will go on to form the Attuned guild. Attuned goes on to regularly do the Triple Trouble event twice weekly.

February 6th 2014

TTS guild achieves its first wurm kill.

February 18th 2014

Twisted Marionette is removed. Cries of anguish from gamers are heard all over the world.

March 2014 - present

After a rocky few weeks, TTS starts to consistently finish the Triple Trouble event. They reach a peak of activity over the next few months, farming Triple Trouble constantly. They are recognized as the largest and most open NA guild that consistently finishes Triple Trouble multiple times every day.

???

TxS wurm farming?

April 21st 2014

Maps are completely transitioned into the Megaserver system, effectively ending server identity in PvE.

May 17th 2014 Reddit Youtube

EG is the 3rd guild on NA to fully kill wurm. This is also notable in that they are the first non-specialized guild to do so.

August 18th 2014 Youtube

EG does a 12:03 speedclear of Teq.

October 9th 2014 Reddit Youtube

Project Probalt decaps Cobalt with 10 players (The first ever "raid", before official raids, eh?). This was done when the overwhelming majority only mindset towards wurm was that having more players makes the event easier.

October 28th 2014 - November 12th 2014

The guilds and raiding CDI takes place. Ever since then, players are hopeful that one day CGC will be released.

November 2nd 2014 Reddit

TxS does a 12:11 speedclear of Teq.

January 8th 2015 Reddit Youtube

TxS does a 13:06 speedclear of Teq, a significant improvement over their first record.

January 13th 2015

The Mordrem Vinewrath event is released. It is reminiscent of the Marionette event, but much easier as players figure it out immediately.

January 15th 2015 Reddit Youtube

Project Probalt decaps Cobalt with 14 players. This was done without blocking, as some players dislike the tactic and refuse to recognize the previous decap record.

April 4th 2015 Reddit Youtube

Project Probalt decaps Amber with 25 players. Only 5 players more than the theoretical smallest team!

May 17th 2015 Reddit

EVOS performs the first wurm kill with communication restricted almost entirely to in-game chat. This was a gigantic step towards doing this event without voice support. They eventually go on to host daily kills using minimal voice communication.

June 18th 2015 Reddit Youtube

TxS makes another improvement, doing a 13:15 speedclear of Teq.

June 19th 2015 Reddit Youtube

Project Probalt demonstrates how to get to the first Teq battery phase at 14:13 with 15 players.

June 21st 2015 Youtube

Project Probalt decaps Crimson with 14 players. At this point, a theoretical low-player decap of all wurm heads add up to less than 60 players.

July 29th 2015 Reddit Youtube

Attuned/Project Probalt does a simultaneous low-player speedclear of Teq at 13:15 with 47 players. Since the introduction of Tequatl Rising (and probably long into the future), the conventional wisdom for successfully killing Tequatl is to fill a map with as many players as possible.

August 12th 2015 Youtube

TxS finishes phase 2 Amber in 15 seconds.

August 29th 2015

Arenanet makes its final feature announcement at PAX regarding HoT: 10-player instanced challenging group content (aka raids) is coming!

October 23rd 2015

Heart of Thorns is released. The first raid wing follows shortly.