The FF14 RWF (Race to World First) for the newly released Futures Rewritten Ultimate is over, and we have a winner – and a fresh dose of plugin drama. The race is one of the most highly anticipated parts of the Final Fantasy 14 calendar, as the launch of its hardest fight tier pits the very best players against one another to see who can overcome the challenge first. As with the previous race, however, it’s raised further questions around the use of external plugins, as eventual victor GRIND confirms one member was making use of third-party tools.
Launched on Tuesday November 26 as part of the FF14 7.11 patch, the Futures Rewritten Ultimate – or FRU for short – is a reimagining of the tale told in the Eden raid series from the MMORPG’s Shadowbringers expansion. It’s a five-stage fight that, in true Final Fantasy 14 fashion, culminates in a frantic dance between myriad waves of light and darkness, and requires impeccable coordination between all eight team members to survive. You also need to ensure your damage output is at its peak – take too long, and the fight ends in failure.
Most of the coverage of the action this time came from the community-run MogTalk race. This features many of the top teams livestreaming their attempts simultaneously, with a range of hosts from the FF14 community delivering commentary and analysis. Prior to the first clear, of those competing on-stream, team Echo had come the closest – bringing the boss down to just 5.6% of its health.
But at approximately 7:30pm PT on Thursday November 28 team GRIND, who were not streaming their attempt, confirmed their successful clear. If you’ve followed previous such events, you’ll know that there’s a particular stigma around teams competing without streaming after past first-clear teams were revealed to have been using third-party addons to help solve mechanics.
Developer Square Enix has had a long-standing policy against using any third-party tools, and game director Yoshi-P expressed disappointment after it was revealed that the FF14 Omega Protocol Ultimate race winner was using such plugins. Unfortunately, it looks like this issue has reared its head once more. After some discussion, MogTalk creator ‘Frosty’ confirmed that the team had been removed from its leaderboard for the use of an addon.
“I had our team research the plugin that was used by the team and its capabilities make it eligible for disqualification from the MogTalk leaderboard,” Frosty writes. “GRIND did not approve this member to use the plugin and do not agree with the actions he took.” GRIND team leader ‘Shu Mai’ confirms this, saying that it was discovered that one member was using “external tools” against the team’s stated policy, and adds (in a comment translated by Google) that “there is no evidence of other members using them.”
Frosty follows up by saying, “I do believe this opens up again the conversation of what the community wants from the FF14 World Race and what the expectations are from the teams. I will work to create a public conversation with all involved to make more clear rules and a better race scene overall.”
As for the remainder of the contenders, the first streamed clear eventually came from team Kindred, with team Lucrezia following incredibly closely in their wake, finishing the fight just one attempt behind. After taking a short rest, team Echo returned to claim their own clear not long afterwards.
Ultimately, the real joy of the race comes from getting to watch the world’s best FF14 players puzzle their way through its most taxing challenges, creating weird and wonderful strategies until they discover what works. Nevertheless, there’s no question that the seemingly ever-present specter of mods and addons puts somewhat of a dampener on what should be one of FF14’s best causes for celebration.
If you’re into the real endgame – fashion – make sure you’ve claimed your FF14 Dawntrail free Fantasia, as there’s a second one only available during patch 7.1. You’ll also want to keep a close eye on the FF14 server status to make sure you aren’t rudely interrupted by maintenance.
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