In World of Warcraft , allegations have arisen against Method, the arguably most well-known guild in WoW. Although it is now prohibited, Method is said to operate cross-server boosting to earn enough gold to finance their expensive “Race to World First” attempts. In the current raid, Method placed second – hence the matter is so sensitive.
What kind of guild is this?
- Method was founded in 2005 by Scott “Sco” McMillian. The guild is based in London: In WoW, e-sport mainly involves raiding for the “World First” kills of bosses. The race is extremely demanding and requires a lot from the participants . In this “Race to World First” (RWF), Method was a leading team for years.
- The guild suffered a setback in 2020: it was revealed that there were accusations of rape against one of their players, which the guild leadership did not pursue with the necessary urgency. This led to many distancing themselves from Method, resulting in the guild breaking apart.
- However, this did not last long, before Shadowlands, Method restructured itself and once again became a successful raiding guild.
Method allegedly continued to boost despite the ban
What is Method accused of? As a user reports on reddit (via reddit), Method is said to still offer so-called “boosting runs” cross-server by collaborating with a boosting community.
The user has pursued his suspicion with detective zeal, gathering evidence and screenshots that support his accusation (via google.doc).
The accusation is that Method continues to collaborate with a well-known boosting community, even though these communities were explicitly banned by Blizzard. Although “boosting” in WoW is still allowed, it must not happen cross-server, meaning it cannot be operated on a large scale, but rather treated as a hobby.
It is said that this “booster community” has advanced Method their enormous gold expenses for the last “Race to World First” and that the guild now has to repay their debts by boosting others.
A new add-on is coming soon for WoW – it is supposed to bring the MMORPG back to its former heights:
Blizzard specifically banned this in January 2022
What is the problem? A heated discussion in WoW in recent months has explicitly revolved around such “cross-server boosting communities.” They were ultimately banned by Blizzard intentionally in January 2022, also because they flooded the trade channels with their spam.
These communities are seriously suspected of being more about commercial interests than about playing.
If the accusations against Method are true, then they have not adhered to Blizzard’s ban by collaborating with such a community:
- The frustrating thing is that it appears as if Blizzard is a “toothless tiger” that enacts rules but does not enforce them.
- On the other hand, if the accusations are true, the guild has gained a significant advantage in the “World First” race by doing something that is actually forbidden. This would distort the competition. Method would earn their gold more efficiently than competitors who would then have to invest more time because they adhere to the rules.
Guilds incur debts in the race for World First
Why are they doing this? A “World First” race is extremely expensive for a guild because they have to be optimally prepared for each attempt in the raids; they need potions and perfect items to optimally gear several twinks. Reports suggest that Method has spent around 480 million gold. That corresponds to 37,000 € if one were to buy that gold for real money.
All of this consumes vast sums of gold. The “strong guilds” apparently use such boosting runs to acquire the money. If they do this with the help of cross-server communities, it would ultimately be against Blizzard’s rules that other guilds adhere to.
What is now the question? The question is whether Blizzard really has a problem with these communities per se or whether Blizzard merely wanted to curb the spam in the public channels of WoW. Because the “boosting communities” seem to remain active; they have just moved their ads from the “trade channel in WoW” to Discord servers.
The cost of the race for World First can be seen in the example of Liquid:
WoW: Pro guild spends the equivalent of €85,000 in gold, loses “World First” race
