The remarkable news that had been anticipated by many was first announced by the official Destiny 2 account. The Dredgens are totally gone now, the fire of Pracxi is now shining brightly, and a new era of Guardians has already made its mark on the game. The World First race for the new ‘Equilibrium’ dungeon on Contest Mode was done, and the winning trio comprised Mariomonkey, Luigistyle, and Biggz. Bungie‘s congratulatory message was accompanied by a lovely photo, but then they… dropped a bombshell in the replies. Wait a minute, let me say that again.
World First in Destiny means the hardest difficulty (Contest Mode) beating the first team to perform it gets legendary status in history. The dungeon or raid was just opened, and this time the Equilibrium dungeon was on Venus, where the players were Praxic Guardians that would erase a Dredgen threat. Doesn’t it sound cool? Most probably yes, and the three players have clearly given a great performance in comparison to the others.
The reaction of the community could not be anything but instant hype. The trio received the titles of “GOATS” and “dungeon dynasty” while players, such as VelacourGaming and XeroRez, were quite loud in their praises. “Back to Back, The REPEAT!” was the exclamation from XeroRez, implying that this may not be the first time these players have taken over a leaderboard. MJ and VoltageWolfX particularly acknowledged Mariomonkey and Luigistyle, thus introducing some elite performances as the elite scene. The atmosphere was pure festivity… at least at the beginning.
However, as it has always been the case, the internet had mixed other thoughts along. One user named Vex posted a meme and said, “It’s about time we put an end to elsiums reign of cheesing.” That led to a slight argument with a user, BruhMomento003, who commented “cheesing yeah okay bro just say you aren’t good at the game.” Ouch! There went the old debate of every World First, ‘skill vs. exploit’. Soon afterward Raffo joined the discussion with a question that might have come to many minds: “They didn’t had leaks did they 😂.” Dom replied that “Everybody did the whole layout and everything was exposed to everyone,” thus suggesting that perhaps the playing field was not as secret as Bungie had intended. That’s a whole other topic.
Now let’s get to the point, the twist that changes everything. In a later response from the official DestinyTheGame account indeed, they put a huge damper on the celebration. They stated unequivocally, “This fireteam has passed our initial security review. Our security team will be completing a full review of this fireteam. We will declare a new World First Race winner if an issue is found.”
Wow, what a cliffhanger! So basically the confetti is hanging in mid-air. The victory is temporary. Bungie is practically saying, ‘Congratulations, but we are going to scrutinize all your data to make sure that everything was legit’. This is enormous. It suggests that the triumph of Mariomonkey, Luigistyle, and Biggz is still not confirmed. They are the winners… unless there is an issue in their gameplay logs that the Bungie security team can uncover. That could range from the use of a network exploit to some very unclear interaction that breaking the Contest Mode rules.
The whole scenario becomes even more insane with the drama aspect. The players’ reactions in the replies are ranging from calling them goats and legends. However, what will happen if the title is stripped away? Not a good image at all. It also somewhat validates the concerns of people like Vex and Raffo who hinted at the possibility of problems. Bungie appears to be very serious about this and rightfully so. The community’s competitiveness largely depends on the integrity of these World First races.
So, what does that mean for us? We are in a wonderful and nervous limbo state. A fireteam has performed an extraordinary feat by being the first to clear a very challenging dungeon. The Destiny community is honoring their skill and the team’s coordination—James McGee deserves a mention for recognizing their “incredible team comms and synergy”. But still, there is the big, official “but…” from Bungie hanging over it all. It is akin to the highly competitive scene of Destiny endgame where the race is not over until the devs announce it. The security review is the ultimate, unseen boss. Meanwhile, let us give great respect to Mariomonkey, Luigistyle, and Biggz for this phenomenal achievement. However, everyone will be refreshing Bungie’s feed to see if congratulations are permanent or revoked. The saga continues on PlayStation and Xbox.
