Just two and a half hours after going live, Destiny 2’s newest raid, Root of Nightmares, was first conquered by a relatively unknown team of underdogs called Team Hard in the Paint.
Raids are Destiny’s ultimate endgame challenge, involving six players working together to figure out intricate mechanics and execute them to perfection, all while avoiding being killed by hordes of enemies and powerful bosses alike. For many years, Bungie has observed the launch of their raids by hosting official “World First Races” that document the first team to defeat these nasty wards.
Bungie confirmed the world first victory, writing, “Guardians from around the world battled an ancient threat in the Root of Nightmares raid this weekend during the World First raid race. Massive congratulations to Team Hard in the Paint for emerging victorious. How the first team to both defeat the raid and the additional challenges, all six members will receive World First title belts and forever be known as the World First Champions of Nightmare’s Root.”
And what a glorious belt it is. Image credit: Bungie
For the past couple of raid editions, the same team, Clan Elysium, claimed victory, including the Disciple’s Last Year’s Vow. Several other top contenders and previous winning teams were also heavily watched on Twitch Rivals as part of the competition. The winner, however, as it turned out, included a group of small content creators and sprinters whose streams had far fewer viewers until it became clear that they were on pace to win it all.
One such sprinter, RoenXDonly has 9K followers on Twitch even after his team’s victory, a testament to his crew’s underdog.
IGN contacted RoenXD shortly after his raid achievements, who said of the win: “It’s still pretty surreal because it’s been a goal of ours for a long time to achieve this. My team are the greatest friends I could ask for, and this is for. definitely one of the highlights of our lives. We prepared a lot for that attack and gave it our best, and it paid off.”
Remove the nightmares, root and stem.
Congratulations to the World’s First Destiny 2 #RootofNightmares winners, Team Hard in the Paint:
💠 The calm
💠 Osiris
💠 Punch
💠 Kai
💠 SK
💠 Grangalf pic.twitter.com/jjnVV8rQdR– Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) March 10, 2023
Reacting to the surprising victory, commentators intervened on Twitter to praise the impressive speed of the winning team, or to lament or celebrate the loss of competing teams.
Since the debut of Destiny 2: Lightfall last week, adverse reactions to the expansion and numerous bugs have cast a shadow over the long-running looter shooter, a fact that is reflected in IGN’s own review in progress. However, there appear to have been few technical issues during today’s raid race, a marked improvement over last year, which may be just the morale boost the Destiny community needs.
No matter who you’re rooting for, this is a gaming underdog story for the ages. And who doesn’t love a good underdog story?
Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his coverage of games here.