Esports organization Method has been committed to World of Warcraft (WoW) since its founding in 2005 as a “guild” in Blizzard Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The organization has competed in every aspect of competitive WoW during that period, initially starting in “World First raid races” in which teams compete to be the first to complete massive challenges put forth by developer Blizzard Entertainment.

Eventually, the organization would compete in Arena—skirmish-based player-versus-player competitions in which two teams fight to be the last group standing. These days, the guild is even competing in Mythic Dungeon races, smaller races in which teams of five players work to complete challenges faster than their opponents.

Method has been a driving force in World of Warcraft esports, and co-owner Sascha Steffens has worked to ensure that his organization remains at the forefront of the scene.

Despite recent Twitch viewership successes, WoW has long been considered a lower tier of esports than many of its competitors, even those also developed by Blizzard, like Overwatch . Despite this, Steffens and Method have remained committed.

While the organization has teams in all three of WoW’s major competitive events, its heart is in its raid racing team, which recently put up massive Twitch viewership numbers during a recent stream of a successful “World First” attempt.

Steffens believes WoW provides something that other esports cannot. “There’s nothing like it in the esports space right now. If you look at esports today, it’s mostly team games. It’s mostly also just player-vs-player games. When I say mostly, I mean it’s exclusively player-vs-player games. World of Warcraft is really the only game that I’m aware of right now that can create player-vs-environment esports…If you want to call it esports, that’s a different discussion. But at the very least, you can acknowledge that it’s competitive.”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”There’s nothing like it in the esports space right now.”[/perfectpullquote]

That “player-vs-environment” element is what separates WoW from its contemporary esports competitors. Rather than fighting against another team directly, WoW competitions in Mythic Dungeons and raid races provide competitions similar to a track-and-field event.

With its Mythic Dungeon Invitational (MDI) at BlizzCon, Blizzard has an officially supported event for its race-focused competitions. While Steffens likes the Mythic Dungeon events—Method had multiple teams competing in the MDI at this year’s BlizzCon—he believes that raid races have the potential to be something much, much bigger.

“[Raid races create] a kind of new event in esports that’s kind of lacking,” said Steffens. “For all the game developers, all the tournament organizers, they try to make this neat circuit, similar to sports circuits, like the NFL and so on. A one year season. But this, specifically, what we did last month, the Method raid race in Uldir in World of Warcraft, it’s more like a one time big event, right? I compare it more, not on the same level, to the Olympics or the World Cup.”

However, as it stands, Blizzard has no plans to officially support raid races—though, head of WoW esports Jeramy McIntyre told The Esports Observer, “It’s certainly something that we’ve looked into.”

Steffens feels that is a missed opportunity. “I think Blizzard is still stuck in an old mindset when it comes to WoW and esports,” he said. “We can see with Overwatch and even Heroes of the Storm that Blizzard takes a much more modern approach. What I mean by that is, as we all know with esports, for game publishers it was more just another marketing tool to promote the game sales. That was the purpose for game developers to put the money into esports, to drive sales. Now, a lot of developers, including Blizzard with the Overwatch League, have realized that it’s its own economy. Esports itself is not just a way to market the game, it’s a way to add to the game and a way to create its own economy that can generate revenue, generate profits. I think Blizzard just hasn’t translated it to World of Warcraft yet.”

He does, however, see the MDI as a step in the right direction. “The Mythic Dungeon Invitational is definitely great competition, and I think it has a lot of upside potential. However, I always thought it was actually Blizzard’s approach to try to give an esports format to player-vs-environment.”

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”The Mythic Dungeon Invitational is definitely great competition, and I think it has a lot of upside potential.”[/perfectpullquote]

But for the future, Steffens wants to see more from Blizzard in terms of supporting the raiding community. “I think it’s a good thing that they’re trying to do [the MDI], but at the same time…It also doesn’t unlock the full potential of player-vs-environment in esports.

“Simply put, I think the most compelling gameplay that World of Warcraft has is the raid content. The raid gameplay is what most people identify with in World of Warcraft. Everyone who plays World of Warcraft, at some point, they want to raid. It’s definitely the premium content that WoW has. As much as I appreciate the MDI, I think that it’s a very quick competition. It has its value, but I think they need to create a raiding competition. I think they need to either support the teams that are already competing—there’s been a raiding competition for a long time—or they need to create a format to make it an official Blizzard competition.”

Method is doing its best to provide Blizzard with a framework for what a raid race esports event could look like. During its stream of the World First attempt, the organization provided a multitude of different streams for fans to watch the event from different perspectives, had sponsors supporting the broadcast, and even brought on commentators to explain the action on screen.

Steffens sees room for improvement, however. “It’s 16 hours of livestreaming a day, usually,” he said of the World First stream. “It’s a lot of content that we’re pouring out, but how can we make it more interesting for the viewer? We have a lot of ideas there. Particularly what’s missing right now, what we’re trying to solve, is getting more data points, getting more information out to the viewers primarily through the casters. We’re trying to find ways for the casters to get more information, get more data points. We have some really neat ideas there. I can’t reveal too much yet, but I think it might be really revolutionary when it comes to how you watch someone raiding.”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”Organizations will automatically follow once there’s incentives, and the viewership is already there.”[/perfectpullquote]

All Method needs is a little help, said Steffens. “Everything is in place. You have really, really high-end competitors in the game in every aspect, whether it’s PvP or PvE. Organizations will automatically follow once there’s incentives, and the viewership is already there.”

There is hope, in his eyes. According to Steffens, Blizzard has been bolstering its esports department in recent years, hiring staff specifically for the WoW department that are, according to Steffens, “from the community in that department, so it’s people who are passionate about this.” From there, however, it’s going to be a process of figuring out what they want to do with raid races.

“Blizzard is very, very protective about what’s in the game and what’s not,” he said. “And that would be maybe the next step, Blizzard opening up a little bit more, making little changes in the game to benefit esports teams or players. I think that would be a big next step, if you had something like team banners in a game or if you had actual rewards for players if they win something. That would be a big, big step forward.”