Pieces announces departure from RWF competition

Update: An earlier version of this article conflated Pieces' departure from the RWF with SK Gaming's departure. With new information released on May 3rd, it has been updated to reflect SK's continuing commitment to WoW.

World-First World of Warcraftraiding competitor Pieces has announced its departure from the RWF scene. The departure and disbandment of the guild was announced on Pieces official Twitter and by guild founder Lumi in a Twitlonger on May 2nd.

In the post Lumi outlines some of the reasons for the departure. “The market has become very competitive when it comes to the amount of hours everyone from top to bottom has to put in, it's just no longer sustainable without sacrificing everything (in real life).”

The disbandment marks the end of over a decade of Pieces raiding. 

Founded over 10 years ago, Pieces have been a part of the Race for World First since Cataclysm. However, their peak came perhaps in the Battle for Azeroth expansion in 2019. There, during what many thought would be a short raid, the Crucible of Storms, Pieces took their first World First Kill. In the two-boss raid, Pieces claimed both World-Firsts slaying The Restless Cabal and Uu’nat, Harbinger of the Void.

But while a two-boss raid may not sound impressive, this raid was one of the most challenging in BFA up to that point. With over 700 pulls and nine days of raiding, Uu’nat was a challenge only a top-level guild could pull off. And Pieces did that. 

For the rest of BFA, Pieces were always in the conversation as a top guild in the races, but were unable to replicate their previous success. And in Shadowlands, the team struggled to retain their relevance.

However, at the start of March 2022, with the last Shadowlands raid on the horizon, Pieces announced a partnership with SK Gaming. It looked like the guild was moving into the new era of raiding. Guilds like Method and Echo were esports and gaming organisations in their own right. Meanwhile, Limit had already had two lucrative partnerships with Complexity and Team Liquid. Pieces seemed like they were ready for the next step

All that ended yesterday with the announcement of the disbandment. Perhaps in a bittersweet way this was a sign of how far the WoW RWF scene has come. Lumi’s post described that the commitment for the RWF has grown too great, and that had become a factor in the disbandment.

Full-time raiding guilds now require more commitment than ever. The role of guild leader in the modern RWF is that of administrator, leader, streamer, entertainer, strategist, and more. And that’s before you even take into consideration the commitment of being a World-First calibre raider, with the in-game requirements that entails. 

With the departure of Pieces from the scene, it was initially unknown if the SK Pieces banner will live on through the MDI, Mythic Dungeon International, or other raiding events. But in an update on May 3rd, SK Gaming confirmed they'd still be working with their Arena team, and even within the RWF.

Regardless, a huge chapter of RWF history has now ended, and the scene is less for Pieces' absence.