The MDI vs. The Great Push - Which Format is Better?

Mythic+ was introduced in the Legion expansion in 2016 and has been a staple of the game ever since. While many players were skeptical about this new type of 5-man content prior to its release, it quickly garnered a massive following. Some people have treated Mythic+ simply as a way to gear their characters, whereas others have taken a liking to the competitive nature of time-based dungeon runs.

Pushing high-keys emerged as a community driven sport in Legion, and it led to multiple esports competitions, with the first Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) back in July, 2017 (previously known as the Mythic Dungeon Invitational), and The Great Push (TGP) having had its debut in Shadowlands in 2021.

This year, we will get to enjoy two big Mythic+ esports events. The Mythic+ highlight of Season 1 of Dragonflight will undoubtedly be the MDI. With the Time Trials having concluded last week, we now know who our top 24 teams of the season are, and they will be battling it out over the next six weeks to crown a new (or returning) MDI champion.



Blizzard also announced that Season 2 of Dragonflight will be all about pushing keys, with The Great Push no longer being an off-shoot that only lasts a week or two. Instead, TGP is being developed into a full competitive season with an increased prize pool and hopefully more live events that truly highlight the pushing prowess of the best teams in the world. While no specifics are known just yet, we are looking forward to when details are being revealed!



Today, we will be comparing and contrasting the MDI and TGP to explore some pros and cons to each of the two major Mythic+ tournament formats. Which format is more popular amongst the competitors? What do the fans prefer? What is more welcoming to newcomer teams? Read on to learn more!

Table of Contents

MDI Origins

After the great success of Challenge Modes in Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor, an increasing number of players were clamoring for more 5-man content that had better replayability, and not just a set of one-time rewards. Challenge Modes were great, but once you’d finished acquiring your rewards and occasionally decided to do it all over again on your alts for additional transmog, there was little reason to keep engaging with it throughout the entire expansion.

The Mythic+ system modernized this idea, offering gear rewards and other important materials and resources to players in 5-man parties that allowed everybody to progress and grow their character's power throughout the expansion in a way that didn’t have a weekly lockout. As Legion continued playing out in front of us, we slowly saw an increasing number of players engaging with the content, not just as a way to gear up and prepare themselves better for their raids, but also as a way to measure success in this specific type of content, and compete with other players and groups.

This new competition grew out of the community’s desire to challenge themselves in a high-stakes environment that incorporated many of the most exciting challenges the RWF presented to players, without requiring a full raid or high time commitment to engage with it. As players and teams pushed far beyond the key levels that awarded the best level of gear, a new competition was born that is still thriving and growing over half a decade later.

Blizzard quickly picked up on this desire for competition, which culminated in a new type of esports event – the Mythic Dungeon International (back then it was still known as the Mythic Dungeon Invitational). With its inaugural event in July, 2017, the MDI saw some of the best teams compete with one another over a total Prize Pool of $100,000 USD. The MDI quickly became a staple of the WoW esports circuit, with one such event happening almost every Mythic+ season since BfA. Since then, improvements and changes have been made based on the competitors and viewers feedback, to make it the best event it can be for everybody involved.

MDI Format Evolution and Spinoffs

Traditionally, the MDI has focused on speed-running pre-set keystone levels in head-to-head matchups. Despite multiple changes to the format, the core of the competition is unchanged. Eight teams are pitted against one another in each tournament, with two teams playing the same dungeon and affixes simultaneously. Whoever finishes the dungeon first, wins. The keys that are being played in MDI have historically been quite a bit lower than what the best players were able to time on the live servers, as the competition is first and foremost focused on speed and execution.

In contrast, TGP showcases how high teams can push certain keystones within the time constraints of the overall tournament. Teams are given a selection of dungeons and affixes, and have to play these up at their own pace. Each competitor gets the same amount of time and has to pick and choose which dungeons they want to push the highest, and different teams often have different approaches on how to tackle this challenge. The victor is determined by the combined key-level, and timer, of all six dungeons.

Let’s take a brief look at notable changes that have transpired to the MDI and TGP, as well as The Last Stand – a fusion format combining the well-received elements of TGP with the speed-running hallmark of the MDI.

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THE MDI

Throughout the history of the MDI, Blizzard has made iterations to the format on various fronts, including quality-of-life. While competitors used to find out what dungeons, levels, and affixes they would be competing with a month or two prior, teams now get that information only about a week or two in advance. This change was brought upon by Blizzard to help reduce the amount of practice time required for teams, and help reduce player burnout. In earlier iterations of the MDI, it was not uncommon for the top teams to practice for weeks or even months, spending 12-16+ hours a day, just to keep up with one another.

While the initial MDI finals were only a 2-day tournament, Blizzard added Fridays to MDI events starting with the second MDI in 2018, to avoid long tournament days and the intention of putting less stress on both players and staff.

Another issue the MDI faced over the years was the abundance of class-stacking to maximize the meta. Anyone watching the MDI in Legion was painfully aware of this issue, as players even went so far as to secure top times in Upper Karazhan with 4x Windwalker Monk comps and no healer during the 2018 MDI Time Trials.



By the time we saw groups running 3 Beast Mastery Hunters or 2 Unholy Death Knights in several MDI’s in BFA, we all knew things needed to change.





After the excessive class stacking in Legion and BFA, players were frustrated and viewers were bored. Thankfully, in Shadowlands, Blizzard decided to add a new rule, banning duplicate specs being used in a team’s group composition. For example, while teams could still play an Affliction Warlock and a Demonology Warlock, they could no longer play two of the same spec. While the concept of a MDI meta still remains, as in many esports, we have certainly seen more creativity spring about in terms of the variety of classes/specs represented throughout each MDI.

Map banning has been a staple of the MDI for a while now. While each tournament has a predetermined list of dungeons and the corresponding affixes, teams are allowed to ban one of the five dungeons selected for their best-of-three matchup (with seven choices for the best-of-five grand finals). While some of the earlier tournaments did not offer a banning stage for all matches, feedback from players and viewers alike has quickly led to bans being a part of the core-format since early Shadowlands for every single game.

Throughout BFA, teams had to compete in multiple cups each season, accruing points to eventually qualify for the Global Finals. This put a tremendous amount of stress on the players in particular, as they had to keep practicing and performing over the course of almost two months. This system was changed entirely in Shadowlands, and the modernized format is still being used today.

After the initial Time Trial stage, the top 24 teams are seeded into three different cups. The two finalists of each cup directly qualify for the Global Finals, alleviating much of the stress and pressure that the previous format put on players. With six teams for the finals decided this way, the last two remaining competitors used to come from China and The Last Stand. For this year's MDI, two finalists will come out of the Last Stand instead.

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THE GREAT PUSH

The Great Push (TGP) offered a different flavor of Mythic+ competition, one that was a lot more familiar for many viewers. While the MDI has multiple teams competing in head-to-head matches, focusing on speed and execution in “lower” key-level dungeons, TGP simply asks all the teams to play up and push six different dungeons over the course of a 15-hour weekend (3 days, 5 hours each). This is a much more “real” experience, one that is not too different from what thousands of players enjoy doing on retail as well, and even resulted in some of the highest-run keys seen in the game at that time.



Throughout the tournament, one team would be eliminated on both Friday and Saturday, with only four teams remaining on the final day. This created heated battles between teams and interesting storylines early on during the tournament, and each day had lots of upsets, twists and drama waiting for spectators. The format was received so well that Blizzard incorporated it into The Last Stand for MDI.

Since then, we have seen two more TGP tournaments take place, both after the Global Finals of Shadowlands Seasons 2 and 3.

• MDI Global Finals - Shadowlands Season 2 (October 29-31, 2021)
  
• The Great Push - Shadowlands Season 2 (December 10-12, 2021)
  
• MDI Global Finals - Shadowlands Season 3 (July 8-10, 2022)
  
• The Great Push - Shadowlands Season 4 (September 2nd-4th 2022)

While the initial TGP was only an off-shoot event that saw huge success, the format was expanded upon, and during Season 4 we have had multiple regional qualifiers and events that culminated in the Global Finals in September, 2022. The finals were incredibly nail-biting, with all four finalists that made it to the last day being evenly matched, and the very last match of the final day of the tournament could have changed the entire outcome.

THE LAST STAND

The Last Stand was first seen in October 2021 during Shadowlands Season 2. After the resounding success of the first TGP, the same scheduling format was used for this event, and it served as a last chance for one of the teams that did not yet qualify for the MDI to earn themselves a spot in the Global Finals. While six teams already qualified through each of the three cups in the western regions, and a Chinese team qualified through their regional qualifier, one last spot was granted to the team that would come out of The Last Stand as the winner.



The Last Stand used the same scheduling format as TGP, with 15 hours of competition over the course of three days. After an initial Time Trial qualifier prior to the event, six teams remained. They were all given the same six dungeons, and each of them were asked to push the fastest possible timer. The team that had the lowest cumulative time relative to the dungeon timer for each dungeon at the end of the event, qualified for the Global Finals.

The Last Stand was also announced to make a return in this first MDI season of Dragonflight, but this time around two teams will be able to qualify for the Global Finals through the TLS.

MDI vs. TGP: Pros and Cons

After the conclusion of the MDI Global Finals of Shadowlands Season 3 and The Great Push of Shadowlands Season 4, with the winner of both being the formidable, 6-time champion team, Echo, there was a lot of buzz about both tournament formats. Given that the MDI Global Finals and TGP transpired within several months of one another and resulted in the same victor, there may be some interesting comparisons to make between these two distinct tournaments.

Back then, many competitors, pros, and fans alike commented on the situation:



This sparked some controversy, as it seemed like most viewers and fans preferred TGP, while competitors almost entirely spoke out in favor of the MDI instead.



So what makes TGP so enticing to viewers, and why is the MDI so popular with players competing in the event? Let’s speculate on some pros and cons of each tournament type!

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PRIZE POOL

MDI:
Shadowlands Season 3: $300,000 USD
Dragonflight Season 1: $300,000 USD

TGP:
Shadowlands Season 4: $150,000 USD
Dragonflight Season 2: $300,000 USD


There is not much to say here, as both tournaments offer a big prize pool – especially for the winners of the event. However, as we will explain later in more detail, many players have spoken about the amount of time they have to commit to be able to compete. After hundreds of hours of practice and competing in the cups and finals, the only ones who go home with a decent compensation for their efforts are the winners. While the prize money is a nice bonus, it does not seem to be the driving force behind many of the players' battle for the championship.

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TOURNAMENT FORMAT

The MDI format can feel exhausting, stressful, and even outdated to some competitors and fans. Throughout the various MDI Group tournament weekends and the Global Finals (excluding the China Finals), we saw a total of 24 teams on the Live broadcasts – 8 teams each event, with most teams only playing once or twice at most during a single day.

Given how instrumental the ability to practice regularly, as well as having previous experience in the MDI competition, has been throughout MDI history, there were a lot of teams with little to no chance of winning. Outside of a few exceptions and surprises from some talented rookie teams throughout the Shadowlands MDI seasons, eliminations and victories were highly predictable. This has been a big issue particularly during the first day of each of the Group Cups, with almost every match ending up to be a 2-0 in favor of the higher-seeded team.

Meanwhile, TGP live broadcasts only saw a total of 18 teams, including China, with only 6 teams competing against one another per regional qualifier, playing the entire duration of the event. Ironically, despite 6 teams competing at once, some viewers considered it easier to follow individual teams and the overall competition as it transpired. In contrast to the relative predictability of most of the MDI 1v1 matchups, elimination of teams was a lot less predictable and more exciting, as it often became a fight between multiple teams on every day of the 3-day event.

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PRACTICE TIME

The practice time allotted in the MDI is significantly more than in TGP. Spending more time on practicing individual dungeons leads to more scripting and perfectionism, so the results tend to be very intricate and challenging for the competitors. Finally gaining consistency in a pull that took over 100 attempts to refine feels great, but it is a very personal experience that most viewers and fans will not be able to relate to or appreciate. For this reason, affixes also tend to matter more in the MDI, as teams must quickly determine which of their practiced pulls are possible once the key-level and affix combinations are revealed – unless they already prepared for every contingency in advance. As every pull must be perfected and executed at a live event, there is little room for error.

On the other hand, this level of perfectionism and high-level execution comes with high risk of costly mistakes. Many 1v1 matchups are determined as a result of one of the teams messing up a single ability, a missed interrupt, or an overlapped CC. This can easily result in teams having to deal with some badly managed Sanguine healing, or wiping entirely and losing valuable time that they have no chance of catching up on. A “minor mistake” can quickly cause a wipe in a pull where every global cooldown and CC is preplanned and has to be executed perfectly. Preparation and practice are immensely helpful in developing this consistency, but things can still go wrong at a live event regardless. While there is a certain magic felt when we see a remarkable performance in the MDI, the strategies from the tournament tend to be unrealistic for players pushing high keystones on retail.

In contrast, TGP more closely mirrors the typical gameplay experience of viewers worldwide, rather than being a spectacle of perfection simply to be admired but not replicated. In fact, many of the favored strategies in live keys in Shadowlands evolved through innovations seen during TGP live broadcasts. Therefore, it is no surprise that TGP has a greater appeal to a wider audience of players aspiring to climb the ranks on the Raider.IO Leaderboards each season.

Similarly, retail experience shows more value in TGP than the MDI. With limited potential to iterate and polish specific pulls in the same dungeon on live servers, the type of practice and skill sets developed in retail translate well to TGP rather than the tournament being more of a speed-running novelty. With less practice time needed, and transferable skills from retail into TGP versus the MDI, the event feels more accessible to the regular player. Even those players who do not have vast amounts of experience to draw back from or the time to practice for hours every single day, can still feel like they can jump in and compete in TGP.

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FUN FACTOR

In terms of the “fun factor” of each of these tournaments, competitors seem divided over whether the MDI or TGP is more enjoyable.

On one hand, some competitors find the MDI more exciting due to the high skill ceiling–the nuances that arise from significant practice time and the thrill of pulling off incredible performances in a live broadcast. Due to the iterative nature of the MDI’s practice windows and Time Trials, there is much more opportunity for special pulls and secret strategies than TGP. However, the MDI is so nuanced that, often, the casters and viewers can miss some of the magic unfolding on screen in real-time. In this way, the excitement and specialness of MDI strats do not always translated well to the viewer experience. Overall, MDI is favorable towards players who enjoy speed-runs and massive pulls that they can practice to perfection and perform on stage to the masses.

That being said, with such high stakes and massive, risky pulls, we’ve seen a handful of teams take a slow-and-steady approach instead. Some of these teams have made it very far in the tournament, banking on their opponents overplaying their hand and losing valuable time to a wipe. This can get players further in the tournament until a team executes their plans perfectly, but the question beckons whether this is in the spirit of the MDI, or simply a smart way to play the tournament based on previous experiences and results.

On the other hand, some players prefer a more retail-like Mythic+ experience as seen in TGP. As mentioned earlier, high key-pushers from live servers have a strong chance of advancing in TGP, as there is less possible experimentation with routes. There is much more on-the-spot thinking and problem solving that occurs in real-time, which has a degree of thrill and mystery that the MDI can sometimes lack.

However, some critique towards the fun factor of TGP involves the starting level of the keystones, as seasoned key-pushers may prefer the keystones to start much higher than they have in TGP tournaments thus far. As TGP is a key-pushing tournament, keys should be challenging out the gate rather than the tournament starting as a speed-run of low-level keystones that appear more similar to MDI content.

There is a certain “meta” level strategy to the early stages of TGP, where different comps and routes might be used to guarantee a “3-chest” run, which could save valuable time later on. When players push up their keys faster than the competition, that time save can be used to get another shot at a failed key at an insanely high key level two days later. Significant thought must be invested into the order in which to run the dungeons, how much time to spend on a key that’s been failed repeatedly, when to take mandatory breaks, or how to set up the schedule of dungeons so that the final key is started right before the tournament deadline. Comparatively, the MDI is much more straightforward on a strategic level since, beyond the bans of a single map, players simply enter the dungeon and perform accordingly.

There is also something to be said about the pressure of a live event where any single mistake can cause a wipe, a loss of a match, or elimination from the tournament at large. Many players find their stride when the pressure is this high, and the rush of achieving victory in a best-of-3 (or 5) match cannot be compared to the one they feel after a full 5 hours of playtime in TGP. In other words, coming out of a close match as the victor after all this pressure leads to a moment of elation that is rarely felt throughout TGP.

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VIEWERSHIP AND FAN RECEPTION

It is difficult to compare the viewership metrics between the two tournaments throughout Shadowlands, since the MDI was a YouTube exclusive event, whereas TGP has been streamed on both YouTube and Twitch. Additionally, TGP permitted competitors to stream the tournament to their own channels if they desired. However, we have a few thoughts and observations to compare and contrast the reception and viewer experiences for the MDI and TGP.



For viewers who enjoy a race rather than a push, the MDI format is likely preferred. Similar to the “Fun Factor” for teams, some fans enjoy watching speedy keys and close matchups in a 1v1 heads up match between teams. However, close matchups happen fairly rarely, as the high skill ceiling required for the MDI often leads to mistakes or full wipes. As a result, a team with a significant lead often gets “fullscreened” on the broadcast—sometimes as early as halfway through a match. However, the MDI seems to offer more opportunity for "off-meta" classes to be represented if they are useful due to their exponential DPS scaling in lower key levels, (e.g. Unholy Death Knights in BFA). Diversity of specs tends to be more interesting to viewers who hope to see their favorite classes and specs represented in an exciting competition format.



Since TGP is likely more relatable for most retail-players and key-pushing enthusiasts, TGP can be easier to follow, as many of the pulls and strategies seen on the live broadcasts are something entirely new. Fans have applauded TGP for showcasing innovative strategies, tips, and tricks that they can actually replicate for themselves in live keys to improve their own gameplay. Furthermore, when we see teams fail or deplete keys during TGP, there are interesting moments here where the competitors are learning along with the viewers. As opposed to the MDI, where a wipe tends to make a match uninteresting to watch, TGP shows problems being dissected and solved by players in real-time, which is relatable to many Mythic+ key pushers and hopefuls. In this way, wipes are what create some extremely interesting moments in TGP, and we feel like we are a part of a journey that unfolds in real-time.

TGP has been critiqued for having a very set-in-stone meta composition; and while many viewers expect that since they push keys themselves, it is nonetheless disappointing to see the same group and class composition for fifteen hours straight. The upside of the non-stop pushing is that, as a fan of any given team, we get to watch and cheer them on the entire event. Instead of seeing a quick 2-0 by your favorite players, we can root for them the entire event. Every key our favorite team times that another team does not is a moment of joy and accomplishment for players and viewers alike. This also creates a much more dramatic narrative throughout the event, where every day ends on a high note of who gets eliminated and who gets to move on to the next day.

Lastly, it is worth noting that players in TGP were permitted to stream their own POVs on Twitch during the official TGP broadcasts, which were hosted on both Twitch and YouTube. This way, there was a lot of excitement and fan engagement from the fan bases of the players/streamers who eagerly watched different players compete and hear the commentary of their favorite teams. Although very few teams ended up streaming during TGP, the freedom of players to stream if they wanted to has generated positive feedback from players and fans alike.

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NEWCOMER ACCESSIBILITY

For New Teams:
The MDI is considered unwelcoming to new teams, as the barriers to entry are significantly higher than TGP. Since the MDI follows a different format to live key pushing, many teams have a hard time securing entry into the MDI in the first place, as it requires a different skill set and degree of time management. The amount of effort and hours that must be committed to the MDI is something that many newcomers tend to underestimate or fail to manage effectively, and the requirement is more than many of us could even imagine.

To make matters worse, newcomer teams tend to get less experience in the tournament even if they make it to the live broadcasts of each Group (Cup) weekend. Since experience is “king” in the MDI, this means that newcomers usually get matched up against the MDI’s strongest competitors right away as a result of the seeding. Getting slaughtered by a veteran team so early on means that there is little to learn beyond just spending more time, practicing more, and powering through an unhappy ending. Furthermore, these “slaughter” matchups have also been grounds for some disrespectful reactions from fans and even casters. In this way, newcomers are thrown into a mosh pit, so very few teams continue to compete in the MDI from season to season, expansion to expansion. All things considered, many new teams have been discouraged and unmotivated from joining the fray of the MDI to begin with, and fewer teams still make a repeat appearance at subsequent events.

In stark contrast to the MDI, TGP is a lot more welcoming to newcomers. The skill set required to do well in this tournament is one that many players feel they have already honed in their time on pushing live keys. In fact, the biggest difference in TGP is that players get to wear more optimized, “perfect” gear on the Tournament Realm that they wouldn’t normally have (with the exception of avoidance tertiary stats), which offers them a chance to really test themselves on something they may have been practicing for weeks or months by simply playing the game on retail. With the limited practice time allotted for TGP, it is less daunting to newcomers, and they don’t necessarily need to develop a bunch of new strats to go far in the tournament.

For New Viewers:
In general, it is easier for new viewers to digest the MDI format quickly because there is a certain simplicity and satisfaction involved in watching 2 teams race against one another in the same dungeon at the same time.



However, this simplicity also comes with a downside: The MDI can quickly become boring to watch if anything goes wrong (which it often does), and the better team gets full-screened. Since success in the MDI comes partly from the conjuring and guarding of secret strategies to gain or maintain an edge on the competition, many viewers and casters do not understand the true magic behind the insane pulls and cannot appreciate the hard work behind everything until after the tournament when at least some of the intricacies of these strategies tend to be revealed.

TGP can be harder to watch for new viewers due to the nature of 6 teams competing simultaneously, and often in different dungeons. It can also be much harder to appreciate the constant high-level performance in a high-key setting where every frontal means a death, or every missed interrupt leads to a wipe. Beyond healing-intensive fights, it can be difficult to appreciate the high-skill gameplay from the outside looking in.

However, the likeability of TGP for new viewers depends on the spectator’s own Mythic+ key-pushing experience. If people don't know much about Mythic+, TGP may be more difficult to understand or appreciate at a glance, since they would be missing critical information about why certain moments are so special, and they may wonder why so many teams are all running the same group composition (meta). For new TGP viewers with key-pushing experiences of their own, TGP tends to offer a thrilling, inspiring, and educational spectator experience.

Lastly, it can be easier for some new viewers to measure “success” by the way that TGP scores the highest keys rather than comparing the fastest times in the MDI. In this way, one can quickly extrapolate what teams are succeeding in the overall tournament when compared to all other teams, rather than the 1v1 matchups and eliminations seen in MDI bracket progress.

Conclusion

Ultimately, there are pros and cons to both the MDI and TGP since both tournament formats offer different things for different people and no singular format takes the cake. While the MDI may be more thrilling for some veteran teams, TGP may also feel more welcoming to newcomers and live-key pushers. When comparing the two formats, it is clear that both the MDI and TGP have a place in WoW Esports, and they offer us exciting ways to appreciate Mythic+ or compete.



In 2023 we will see two major Mythic+ esports events, with the MDI already ongoing in Dragonflight Season 1, and TGP receiving a further developed competitive structure in Season 2. The variations between the MDI and TGP allow different players to showcase their skills, and no matter which type of event we prefer, 2023 has got us covered. We are excited to see how the competitors fare in this first MDI season of Dragonflight and the changes in store for TGP as a full-fledged competitive season.

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