AFDL Fall Clash - Event and Teams Preview

By Seliathan — Oct 5 2023 11:45 AM PDT

This weekend, the Armed Forces Dungeon League will return for their AFDL Fall Clash – a Mythic+ event similar to The Great Push (TGP)! The AFDL, in partnership with Chaos Creative and Raider.IO, provides Mythic+ events for active service personnel and veterans of military organizations around the world.

Throughout the weekend, four teams from the United States, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom will be testing their mettle in a live-streamed 3-day keystone pushing tournament. The event will also be running a special charity initiative over the course of the tournament, with proceeds aimed at providing non-lethal aid to Ukraine.

The AFDL Fall Clash starts Friday, October 6th, at 8am PST / 5pm CEST. Much like the MDI and TGP, the AFDL Fall Clash will run over three days. In case you miss the action, you can watch the entire event live over on the AFDL Twitch channel, and the VODs will be uploaded on the AFDL YouTube channel!

Read on to learn more about the AFDL Fall Clash and the teams that will be competing!

Armed Forces Dungeon League
AFDL Fall Clash
Fall Clash Teams Preview

Warrior GMR

Air Force Gaming

Ukrainian WoW

British Combined Arms

Charity

Armed Forces Dungeon League

The Armed Force Dungeon League (AFDL) is an initiative committed to providing military personnel around the world with a fun, competitive and family-friendly gaming environment, regardless of branch or nationality, to celebrate the commonalities of service members and their families. Gaming and esports are something we all cherish and enjoy as both viewers and competitors, and the AFDL has made it its mission to provide a competitive environment and organize tournaments that allow active military personnel and veterans alike to test their mettle.

“I have been playing WoW for almost 20 years now and it has been one of the most impactful things in my life. My dad and I came to bond growing up raiding from Vanilla to MoP, and even my groomsmen in my wedding were people I met through the game. Competing with AFG and in the AFDL has allowed me to not only combine two major factors of my life (the military and gaming) but also have the opportunity to compete alongside as well as against other service members. It has been an amazing experience, and I have gotten to meet some very incredible people throughout its process.” —Dris (Air Force Gaming)

Military organizations and event planners are regularly organizing and hosting tournaments and contests for First and Third Person Shooters, for example the Call of Duty Endowment (C.O.D.E) Bowl events. The Endowment, which Blizzard has supported and donated over $42mil USD towards since its inception in 2009, identifies and funds organizations that help find unemployed and underemployed veterans high-quality work. Up until recently, there has been an unfortunate lack of support for non-shooter titles such as World of Warcraft, Rocket League, or League of Legends across military organizations, despite these games being incredibly popular among active service personnel, veterans and their families.

After a series of pilot events in 2022, it quickly became clear that there was a large demand for support of non-shooter titles by different military organizations, who are more than willing to mobilize around titles such as WoW esports, not just shooters. As a result, the AFDL has partnered with Chaos Creative to bring more events and tournaments to players and fans around the world in 2023 and beyond. One such event is the Fall Clash, which will be happening in just a few days, on October 6th - 8th!

While there is a prizepool associated with each AFDL event, many military branches and organizations place restrictions on their service members’ ability to collect cash prizes from contests like these. The AFDL, similar to the Call of Duty Endowment, is instead focusing its support and charitable contribution on the military personnels’ futures as retirees and veterans.

You can support the AFDL and its mission, as well as their chosen charity for the event, by donating here!

AFDL Fall Clash

The Fall Clash is an Invitational Mythic+ keypushing tournament that is similar in structure and format to The Great Push. The Fall Clash will once again see four teams competing with one another, with the previous winners of the AFDL Summer Clash, Warrior GMR, facing three new challengers over the course of the weekend. The Fall Clash is the first time that teams from the UK and Ukraine are participating, and we’re looking forward to their performance this weekend!

Starting on Friday, the first day of the competition, teams will be given three +15 keystones, with one more keystone added on Saturday and Sunday each. The teams will have 5 hours on each day to play up these keystones as high as possible, and whoever ends the final day with the highest combined key-stone level will be crowned the champion of the AFDL Fall Clash.

Each team is allowed up to 10 players on their roster, but only 7 players get to play on any given day. Only a handful of the players have any high-key pushing experience, so for many of the participants the event will be an opportunity to push themselves to new limits and time keys they have never managed before.

Fall Clash Teams Preview

Four direct-invited teams will be competing the AFDL Fall Clash, with the winners of the Summer Clash as well as three new competitors testing their keypushing skills. Warrior GMR, the Summer Clash champions, Air Force Gaming, the Spring Clash runner-up, Ukrainian WoW and British Combined Arms.

Warrior GMR is an US-based foundation that aims to connect military veterans and youth through gaming, promoting health, wellness and community among their members. With a focus on providing physical and mental health services through amateur esports competitions and community events, Warrior GMR brings together gamers and veterans to foster a mutual understanding and learning environment.

Warrior GMR won the AFDL Summer Clash in a decisive victory over the competition, but with three new opponents in this season’s event, keeping their crown will be far from easy. The team has continued practicing and improving since their victory in July, which puts them in the spot of the tournament favorite, at least for now!

Air Force Gaming is the official gaming program and competition hub for the United States Air Force and Space Force. Their mission is to help Airmen and Guardians of all ages, ranks, and backgrounds find common ground through video games, while also promoting mental acuity, fine motor coordination, and competitive excellence.

Having placed second in the AFDL Spring Clash, only a single point behind the winner, the team is ready to take home a victory for their branch. With many months of practice and preparation since their first showing in the AFDL, Air Force Gaming is more than ready to take off for the Fall Clash.

Ukrainian WoW is a large community of Ukrainian World of Warcraft players, with over 2400 players! Their mission is to popularize WoW esports and unite Ukrainian players across the European realms, shining a spotlight on Ukrainian YouTubers and streamers, raising money for their community, and organizing Mythic+ tournaments with players like Meeres and Naowh joining for the broadcast.

For the Fall Clash, due to their special circumstances, the team will consist of military members, veterans and civilians who are currently or have been close to the battle, with one of the players actively serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. With a plethora of WoW experience, daily practice, preparation, and the support of their entire community, Ukrainian WoW is looking like a tough competitor to go up against!

The British Combined Arms team is composed of players serving in different military branches of the UK, who are all banding together under one banner to compete in this year’s Fall Clash. This is the first time a team from the UK is participating in an AFDL tournament!

The team had a rocky start going into the tournament, as one of their players was unexpectedly deployed, and a replacement had to be found on short notice. Thankfully, one of the players of the US Coast Guard, who was a participant in the 2022 pilot event, will be joining the British team, showcasing that our enjoyment of WoW and Mythic+ knows no bounds, whether you are from a different military branch, or country!

While the British Combined Arms team had little time to practice in their current formation, they will be coming into the tournament as a dark horse, and underestimating their keypushing prowess might spell doom for the rest of the competition.

Charity

A special charity initiative will be run for the entirety of the Fall Clash. The chosen charity will be the Prytula Foundation’s Tactical Medicine Initiative, a Ukrainian Charity that helps provide non-lethal aid in the form of training in Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) and supplies, to provide urgent care and medical assistance to soldiers and civilians affected by the ongoing Ukrainian crisis.

Proceeds of the charity drive will be split between the donation pool towards the Foundation, and the operational costs of the AFDL, to continue providing and organizing more events with an even wider reach in the upcoming months and years.

You can support and donate to the AFDL Fall Clash here!

We can’t wait for the AFDL Fall Clash, and we hope you join us in watching and supporting this Mythic+ event live on Twitch or on the AFDL’s YouTube!

About the Author

Seliathan has been playing Rogue for over half his life, since the initial release of WoW over 18 years ago. After a long career of Raid Leading, Theorycrafting, and pushing Mythic+, Seliathan enjoys creating all kinds of PvE content on Twitch, co-hosting the Tricks of the Trade Rogue podcast, contributing to Raider.IO as Staff Writer, and writing guides for Icy Veins.