MDI DF Season 3 - Group A Preview

By Seliathan, picc0 — Feb 16 16:00 UTC

The first Mythic Dungeon International of 2024 is HERE! The Time Trials have concluded, the 16 qualifying teams have been determined, and the action starts now! This weekend will see the teams from Group A battling it out in a double-elimination tournament, with the top four teams earning themselves one of the coveted spots for the Global Finals. To get you prepped for the dungeon-running frenzy, we bring you our Group A Preview! Read on for a brief introduction to the changes to the MDI Format, each of the Group A teams, and our predictions for this weekend’s tournament.

The MDI starts at 10am PST / 7pm CET and you can watch it live over on the Warcraft YouTube Channel, or the Warcraft Twitch Channel. If you aren’t able to tune in, we’ve got you covered with LIVE updates and highlights all weekend long over on our MDI Highlights page!

MDI Format Changes
Group A Teams Preview

Predictions
Language Streams

MDI Format Changes

Over the past few years the Mythic Dungeon International has had a very stable format, but 2024 promises to switch things up a bit! Blizzard has decided to shorten the length of the MDI season significantly by reducing the amount of 8-team tournaments, alongside completely removing the Last Stand tournament from the schedule.

This time around, only 16 teams qualified through the Time Trials, instead of the old 24-team format. Following the Group Stage, we will watch the top four teams from both Groups A and B advance to the Season 3 Global Finals. Without a second set of Time Trials and no Last Stand, the whole event will be finished in less than a month, with the Season Finals on March 8th already fast approaching!

Over the last few seasons, players and viewers alike have indicated that they feel the MDI is entirely too long an event, and only a handful of teams could afford to dedicate so much time to competing for the most prestigious of Mythic+ awards the game has to offer. We’re excited to see how the change in format will affect the overall competitiveness and level of play on display in this season of the MDI!

If you want to find out more about the MDI, the format, prizes or brackets, make sure to check out the official MDI Season 3 hub here:

Dragonflight Season 3 Mythic Dungeon International Hub

Group A Teams Preview

With only two Groups instead of three, we are seeing a lot more top teams going head-to-head within a single group! While each Group stage does have more qualifying spots under the new format, this will still be a highly competitive tournament, especially as both the 8th and 9th placed teams of the Time Trials are in Group A.

Not only will we see our 8th and 9th seeds duke it out against each other, but our 6-time consecutive MDI champions Echo are in this first group as well! Between the champions, familiar challengers like Last Hope and Legendary, and a few newcomers on the scene, Group A promises to be hotly-contested from start to finish, fielding 6 teams from the EU, one NA team, and one team from the Land Down Under!

At this point, the back to back to back to back to back to back champions from Echo require no introduction. Not only has the team shown remarkable consistency in their performance over the last few years, with their first MDI win being all the way back in November of 2019, but they have continued to perform at the absolute top; we all know this household name rarely even gives a single dungeon away, let alone a series. The last time Echo dropped a series was in Shadowlands Season 3. As we move into Dragonflight Season 3, will these titans of the MDI circuit consider their previous losses and remember that even they can bleed?

Still, while we do hope that the event is far from being a foregone conclusion, Echo has already shown up for the Time Trials in full force, securing themselves the first seed in impressive fashion and beating out every other team. It is unlikely that they will be brought to their knees in these early Group A days, with their first match being against Some Seriousness. Anything can happen in keys, though - maybe this match will also come with some surprises!

Last Hope, the only NA-based team that made it into the Top 16, are a veteran team who have proven time and time again that they can battle with the best. Formerly known as NA’s Last Hope, the team has been a fixture in both TGP and MDI tournaments, making it to Globals every single time. We expect this MDI to be no different.

Last Hope managed to snag themselves the #4 seed in the Time Trials, being a minute and 25 seconds slower than Echo. After an incredible second place finish in The Great Push in Season 2, the team is looking to be a top contender for the crown in this season’s Mythic Dungeon International!

In their first match, Last Hope is up against LEVELS, a team that has consistently made it to the MDI Group Stage the last few times, but never managed to make it to Globals…yet.

Legendary are the fifth seeded team of the Time Trials, coming in only 21 seconds slower than Last Hope. Legendary boasts some very familiar names that have been part of the Mythic+ key-pushing scene since its infancy, and while this team played together for the first time in the Dragonflight Season 1 MDI, they immediately managed to claim a bronze medal!

After their former healer, Igloo, decided to take a step back from competing, the young Tobo has now stepped up to take his place, switching from DPS to the Healer role. Despite this change, the team had a great performance in the Time Trials, and is looking to claim one of the coveted Global Finals qualification spots. Can they become truly Legendary by taking the reigning champions down as well?

Their first match will be against the 12th-seeded team Date Night, who were almost a full four minutes slower than Legendary in the Time Trials. Still, we’ve seen bigger upsets in the past, so Legendary better come prepared for their date night!

Dawgs might seem like a team you’ve never heard of before, but the moment you see the player lineup, you know you’re in for a treat. This team has almost the same roster as team Thunderstruck from the DF Season 1 MDI, where they finished fourth in their group. With an 8th seed placement in the Time Trials, Dawgs look a lot stronger this time around, and they seem ready to take it all the way to Globals.

The team had a sudden player swap following the Time Trials, and while this would normally be a cause for concern, the substitute is none other than Sjeletyven, who once again joins up with Drjay to tackle another MDI.

Their first opponents will be Dire Wolves, which promises to be the closest and most exciting match of the first day of Group A. Having the 8th and 9th seeded teams go head-to-head will surely be a spectacle you won’t want to miss!

Dire Wolves are as much a household name for the MDI at this point as Perplexed or Echo, and as the only representatives for the OCE region, they will once more play through the night to hold their own against their EU and NA competitors.

Dire Wolves have missed out on a Global Finals spot twice in a row, coming in fourth in both Dragonflight’s MDI and TGP. A fourth place would guarantee them a Globals spot this time around, but the competition is a lot tougher. With their first match against Dawgs, we’ll have a canine competition on our hands. We can’t wait to see who will be the best in show in this matchup!

Date Night are one of the newcomer teams to this MDI, but the team is stacked with high key-pushers who can easily give any of the veterans a run for their money. The team was only a minute slower than Dire Wolves and should definitely not be counted out just because they are new on the block!

With their first match being against Legendary, Date Night certainly have their work cut out for them, but since many of their players had at least one showing in previous MDI or TGP seasons, it’s clear this team knows how to deal with the pressure of being up against one of the tournament’s favorites. Whether this prior experience will be enough for a legendary upset remains to be seen.

LEVELS are no stranger to the MDI, and even managed to replicate their Season 1 Time Trials placing, coming in 13th again this season. Whether 13 is going to be their lucky number this time around is not yet certain, as they barely made it into the Top 16; however, with the competition as tight as it is, they were still only a handful of minutes slower than the top teams.

In their Friday match-up, LEVELS will go up against the NA squad from Last Hope, and it will be a tough fight for this levelheaded team if they want to remain in the Upper Bracket after their first series.

Some Seriousness barely made it to the group stage of this season’s MDI, coming in sixteenth with only 32 seconds separating them from an early out. But make it, they did, and they’re ready to have some fun. Amazingly, this team has no MDI or even high key M+ experience, but they came to have a blast!

Considering these shortcomings, the team had a surprisingly strong performance in the Time Trials, with most of their members timing a +23 key for the first time in their WoW careers, and doing it fast enough to beat out many other MDI hopefuls.

Some Seriousness will face Echo as their very first match of the Group stage, so they have their work cut out for them; Echo has not yet shown any weakness against lower-seeded teams in any of their previous group stages. But hey, maybe this brand new squad will go into full serious mode for their first Best of 3 and surprise us all with what they can accomplish!

Predictions

With the new MDI format, four teams will be qualifying for the season’s Global Finals. As this group pits the 8th and 9th seeded teams against each other, we expect this to be the more competitive of the groups, at least when it comes to the coveted qualifier spots.

We expect Echo, Last Hope and Legendary to make it through with relative ease, with our predicted Finals ending up in a best of five between Legendary and Echo. We think Last Hope will likely come in third with little trouble, barely losing out to Legendary in the Lower Bracket finals.

The fourth spot will be highly contested, and with Dawgs, Dire Wolves, and LEVELS, we have three teams who could easily make it this far in the tournament. We have seen in many previous MDI tournaments that consistency is key in making it through the Lower Bracket, and we predict Dire Wolves may have the strongest nerves and come out on top to once again to take a fourth-place finish in the group stage – this time, earning a ticket to Globals!

As for the remaining teams, we would certainly love to see them upset one of the veteran squads, but if history is anything to go by, we have rarely, if ever, seen it happen. Still, you’d better join us on Friday at 10 AM PST/7 PM CET for the first day of the Dragonflight Season 3 Mythic Dungeon International to see how it all plays out!

Language Streams

This season’s MDI can once again be watched on either the official Warcraft Twitch.tv or YouTube channels. In addition to the official English production, you will also be able to follow the event in multiple other languages:

German: https://www.twitch.tv/kimuh
French: https://www.twitch.tv/cruelladk
Spanish: https://www.twitch.tv/phobyac
Ukrainian: https://www.twitch.tv/ukrainianwow

About the Authors

Seliathan has been playing Rogue for over half his life, since the initial release of WoW over 19 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.

Picco is an old-fashioned WoW gamer that started back in Vanilla and has played ever since. She is a healer by heart and is currently maining Restoration Druid. She loves Mythic+ and has a great passion for events like the MDI and TGP. Picco is part of the KeystoneMasters team and enjoys jiggling around with ideas for fun new formats of community tournaments. She is also a Mod for several streamers and guilds, particularly during the RWF. Outside of WoW, Picco is a Sprout in FF14, where she explores with her Lala Summoner.

About the Editor

Gogogadgetkat has been playing WoW since late BC, and has been the GM of her guild Propaganda since its creation in 2014. As a career healer, Kat has a number of CEs and old-school heroic kills under her belt, all on a variety of healing classes and specs—she’s a serial altoholic! In addition to Mythic raiding and a little Mythic+, creating safe, inclusive spaces in gaming is her longtime passion; Kat has been an admin for the Perky Pugs community since late BfA, and is also a founding council member and the community manager for the DEIBAJ initiative Women in Warcraft. She is excited to bring her wealth of experience and love of writing to the Raider.IO team.