MDI Time Trials Analysis & Cup Preview: AMER Division #3

Welcome back to the final MDI Time Trial analysis article of the season! If you missed the previous articles in this series, you can find all the previous articles in this series (and more) here! This is the final cup for the Americas&Oceania region, with the EU&Asia region having finished their split last weekend. Standings are a little bit less in flux here than they were going into the EU cup, though the top teams are still vying for seeding which may prove crucial in the Global Finals tournament coming up later this summer.

The Teams

Method NA have won both previous cups in this region, and they show no signs of letting up, securing the fastest time in all three time trial dungeons this week for the third cup in a row. They will be the first seed from this region.

Complexity Limit improve their seeding another week in a row. Their 3rd place finish in both previous cups sets them up for a third place finish in the region, which will be good enough for a Global Finals invite, but a particularly good or bad showing might bump them up to second or down to fourth, depending on how the other teams do. Great news for this team is that two of their weakest dungeons, which contributed to their match losses in previous dungeons, were Time Trial dungeons, which forced them to practice and hone strategies in those dungeons.

Ethical are poised to earn the second place spot in the region, but this time around they fell to a third seeding going into the tournament. As long as they can finish third or better in the tournament, they should be able to hold on to their second place position in the region.

goosy bad have also qualified once again, and they are both the fourth seed and in fourth place in the region. With four teams qualifying for the Global Finals per region, this position may seem precarious, but no other teams are close enough in points to challenge goosy bad for that invite.

Our fifth seed is Villains, a team that’s making its first appearance in the MDI. Featuring a powerful tank/healer team from the prestigious US 8th <poptart corndoG>, this will be an exciting team to watch, as their time trial runs were within minutes of the top teams, an impressive feat for a team qualifying for the first time.

Leal is similarly a new team, a team that features MDI veterans, some of the region’s top raiders, and players with cutting edge live key experience going back to the very first season of Mythic Plus.

One Last Chance have earned the seventh seed, qualifying for their third cup (though they were unable to play one of those). They have some points accrued from that previous cup, so they do have the potential to steal the Global Finals invite from goosy bad if they can spike a great finish (and have goosy bad exit the tournament early).

RAMPING round out our top 8, edging out Big Dumb Gaming by 7 seconds! This team of World First and World Second raiders features an exciting new composition of Blood DK/Destro Lock in every dungeon. It’ll be very exciting to see what this team can do, though the round 1 Method NA matchup is a daunting prospect!

The Time Trial Dungeons

These are the dungeons that were played during the Time Trials:



Each team got unlimited practice runs and five official attempts for each dungeon over a period of five days. Awakened was the fourth affix active in every dungeon. Keystones were set to level 19.

The first dungeon was Mechagon Junkyard with Tyrannical, Skittish, and Raging active. The top teams opted for double DK here, as none of the affixes prevent the kind of massive pulling where the Unholy spec shines. The final DPS slot went to a Havoc Demon Hunter, who scale fantastically with the Shock Bots present in this dungeon and also amplify the magic damage of the Death Knights.

The second Time Trial Dungeon was Fortified/Volcanic/Bursting Siege of Boralus. Teams disagreed about the best composition here, with the top three runs each featuring different choices. Vengeance Demon Hunter was used by Method NA and Ethical, a tank that has seen play before in Siege of Boralus due to the utility of Sigils to control enemies. The other point of divergence was the decision of whether or not to bring a Rogue, with most of the top teams opting to just bring three Hunters instead, but the bottom half of the top 8 instead using the Rogues for the utility and skips they provide.





The final dungeon was Freehold, and the active affixes were Fortified, Sanguine, and Grievous. These runs featured several different combinations of Hunter, Rogue, and DK, with double Death Knight comps being the most popular. Like in Siege, the Rogue offers utility at the cost of damage compared to a Hunter, and some but not all teams chose to make that sacrifice.

Be sure to catch the final cup this weekend!

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