The Finnish raid guild Paragon, which has snagged many first kills in World of Warcraft, is retreating from the raid race.
A pillar of the raid scene is collapsing
Once again, World of Warcraft loses one of its major raid guilds. The Finnish guild Paragon has now officially announced that they will cease raid operations and consequently will not participate in the races for “first kills” in Legion.
While many players see this as another sign of the decline of World of Warcraft, Paragon cites different reasons. The guild has been unable to maintain 20-25 Finnish players at a high level for a long time, making it impossible to continue competing in the first kill race in the future. There was discussion about becoming more international, but after a long debate, this was rejected, and the guild decided to come to an end. They also lament the possibility that there might once again be no “mythic” difficulty for a smaller group – around 10 players – which makes things even more difficult.
Paragon can look back on a long list of achievements. They gained significant attention with the second kill of Yogg-Saron (with 0 guardians) in Wrath of the Lich King, and among their greatest accomplishments was the first kill of Garrosh Hellscream in the Siege of Orgrimmar. Even in recent months, they were still competing at the “top”, having caused the second recorded demise of mythic Archimonde.
Many players have also simply “benefited passively” from this guild, as many strategies for defeating the hardest bosses originated from Paragon.
The raiders are not completely stepping away from the gaming scene, however; they have announced that they will be found in Overwatch in the coming weeks and months. Whether they will compete at the “top” there or just take some relaxation remains to be seen.
In September, players from the raid guild “Method” became independent as “Serenity” to be even more “hardcore”:
