The Great Push 2025: TWW Season 1 Format and Results
The Great Push 2025 archive covers Time Trials, two eight-team Groups, the six-team Global Final, exact scores, prizes, and Mandatory's victory.
By:
John Langan
What This Tournament Actually Was
The Great Push (TGP) 2025 was the push-format branch of the Mythic Dungeon International program during The War Within Season 1. Teams ran assigned Mythic+ keystones on competition servers and tried to record higher timed completions than every other team. This is a completed-event archive: registration closed in January 2025 and the champion was crowned in February.
Key Takeaways
- Final field: The six-team Global Final consisted of two qualifiers from each of the two Groups plus two teams from China, not eight teams.
- Qualification: Time Trials sent 16 teams into Group A and Group B, and each eight-team Group advanced two teams.
- Final result: Mandatory won with 119 points, Streamerzone and No Speaky tied at 118, ESC Gaming and Stamp tied at 116, and Phoenix Gang Media finished with 89.
- Prize pool: The advertised $260,000 total comprised two $30,000 Group purses and a $200,000 Global Final purse.
- Banner reward: The Tempered Banner of the Algari required a registered team to complete the Time Trials dungeons in time, so registration alone was insufficient.
- Availability: Patch 12.1 Curse of Ula'tek is the current Retail boundary, while this tournament and its Time Trials reward remain historical Season 1 content.
The December signup announcement contains an isolated eight-team summary that conflicts with its detailed format bullets. Those bullets specify two qualifiers per Group plus two from China; Blizzard's January viewer guide repeats six, and six teams actually competed.
⚠️ Team-count rule: Use six for the Global Final. The isolated eight-team sentence did not match the detailed rules, the later viewer guide, or the completed event.
Four teams qualified through the two broadcast Groups, and two entered from China.
Schedule and Qualification Path
Registration closed on January 17. The five-day qualifier began January 22 on Tournament Realms, where registered teams pushed the assigned keystones without the live-server gearing race. The broadcast phase then ran for three consecutive weekends.
| Stage | Date | Field | Advancement or reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration deadline | January 17, 2025 | Eligible five-player teams | Access to the qualifier after approval |
| Time Trials | January 22–26 | Open registered field | Top 16 reached the Groups; in-time completion earned the banner |
| Group A | January 31–February 2 | Eight teams | Two Final places and a $30,000 purse |
| Group B | February 7–9 | Eight teams | Two Final places and a $30,000 purse |
| Global Final | February 14–16 | Six teams | Championship and a $200,000 purse |
Completing the Time Trials and placing in their top 16 were different thresholds. A team could earn the banner by meeting the required in-time completions without qualifying for a broadcast Group; only the 16 highest qualifier results moved forward.
📌 Reward boundary: The Tempered Banner was tied to completing the required qualifier dungeons in time, not to reaching a Group, making the Final, watching the broadcast, or merely submitting a registration.
The registration window and Time Trials are now closed, so the schedule is useful for verifying the 2025 event rather than planning a current entry.
How the Group Stage Worked
Each eight-team Group split into two sets of four. One set competed on the first broadcast day and the other set competed on the second, with each set receiving three keystones. The top two from each day reached the four-team third day.
| Group day | Teams active | Keystones | What carried forward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | First set of four | Three assigned keys | Top two advanced to Day 3 |
| Day 2 | Second set of four | Three assigned keys | Top two advanced to Day 3 |
| Day 3 | Four qualifiers | Three new assigned keys | Scores reset; top two reached the Global Final |
The reset mattered. A dominant Day 1 or Day 2 score secured access to Day 3 but did not create a points lead for the Group decision. All four remaining teams started the final Group day on equal footing against a new set of keystones.
💡 Group strategy: The first objective was to survive a four-team qualifying set; the second was to rebuild a score from zero on Day 3 and finish inside the top two.
Mandatory and No Speaky advanced through Group A, while Streamerzone and ESC Gaming advanced through Group B. Stamp and Phoenix Gang Media filled the two Chinese-region places.
Push Format Versus Head-to-Head Racing
TGP and the Season 1 MDI shared the same Blizzard esports program and both used five-player dungeon teams, but their broadcast formats were not interchangeable. The Season 1 MDI Groups used head-to-head, double-elimination matches. TGP placed several teams on assigned keys during the same timed window and ranked the resulting pushes together.
| Element | TGP 2025 | Season 1 MDI |
|---|---|---|
| Primary objective | Record the highest timed assigned keystones | Win head-to-head dungeon races |
| Broadcast field | Several teams push during the same window | Two teams meet in each bracket match |
| Group decision | Score reset and three new keys on Day 3 | Double-elimination bracket results |
| Final shape | Six teams pushed simultaneously for three days | Eight teams entered a double-elimination Final |
Calling TGP a standard MDI race hides the competitive choice. A TGP team could spend time developing a route for a higher key rather than repeating a lower, safer level, while an MDI match asked a team to beat one opponent on the assigned race.
⚠️ Format distinction: TGP belonged to the MDI esports program, but the January–February 2025 competition used a highest-keystone push leaderboard rather than the November 2024 MDI head-to-head bracket.
This distinction is also why the six-team Final could keep every team active across all three days instead of eliminating teams through a bracket.
The Six-Team Field and Final Standings
The Global Final ran February 14–16. All six teams competed for five hours per day: three dungeons were active on Day 1, five on Day 2, and all six on Day 3. The published standings recorded overall score, highest key, cumulative time, placement, and payout.
| Place | Team | Score | Highest key | Total time | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mandatory | 119 | +21 | 03:10:59.351 | $80,000 |
| 2 | Streamerzone | 118 | +21 | 03:11:20.278 | $40,000 |
| 3 | No Speaky | 118 | +21 | 03:12:27.281 | $30,000 |
| 4 | ESC Gaming | 116 | +21 | 03:07:53.486 | $25,000 |
| 5 | Stamp | 116 | +21 | 03:12:46.891 | $15,000 |
| 6 | Phoenix Gang Media | 89 | +19 | 02:34:17.147 | $10,000 |
Streamerzone took second over No Speaky after both finished on 118, and ESC Gaming took fourth over Stamp after both finished on 116. Mandatory needed only a one-point advantage to avoid the time comparison at the top.
💡 Winning margin: Mandatory's 119 beat two 118-point challengers; the title came from one additional leaderboard point, not a runaway key-level gap.
The final payout totaled $200,000. Mandatory received $80,000, and every finalist received at least $10,000.
What the Final Score Does and Does Not Prove
The score is an event leaderboard result, not a universal ranking of live-server teams or class compositions. Tournament access, assigned keys, limited practice windows, fixed competition timing, and the Season 1 rules created a controlled event that cannot be transferred directly to a later patch.
Mandatory's 119 confirms the championship result. Streamerzone's and No Speaky's shared 118 confirms how close the chase was, but those totals do not reveal which route would be safest for an ordinary weekly group. The Final rewarded successful high-key execution under tournament constraints.
The official Finals Day 3 replay preserves the last broadcast for viewers who want the route choices and caster context behind the final numbers.
Prize Pool, Reward, and Current Availability
The event advertised $260,000 across its broadcast stages: $30,000 for each of the two Groups and $200,000 for the Global Final. The banner sat on a separate participation-performance track during the qualifier and was not deducted from or substituted for cash prizing.
The Tempered Banner of the Algari was available to eligible teams that completed the required Season 1 Time Trials dungeons in time. That TGP Time Trials window is closed, so there is no current registration route for the reward.
Players looking for active routes rather than an esports archive can browse current WoW dungeon services. Patch 12.1 is the relevant live maintenance boundary; the dates, scores, prizing, and reward rules here remain fixed to the completed Season 1 event.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many teams reached the Great Push 2025 Global Final?
Six teams reached the Global Final. Mandatory and No Speaky qualified through Group A, Streamerzone and ESC Gaming qualified through Group B, and Stamp plus Phoenix Gang Media represented China. Blizzard's detailed format and later viewer guide both specify this six-team field, which matches the completed February tournament.
Why did one announcement say eight finalists?
The December signup announcement contained a stale summary sentence claiming eight teams would advance. Its detailed format section instead specified two qualifiers from each Group plus two from China, totaling six. Blizzard's January viewer guide repeated six, and the actual Final used six, so eight is not the operative format.
Who won the Great Push 2025?
Mandatory won The War Within Season 1 edition with 119 points and received $80,000. Streamerzone and No Speaky both finished at 118, with Streamerzone placed second on the published standings. The one-point lead kept Mandatory clear of the time comparison used to order equal scores.
Was the Great Push the same as the MDI?
It was part of Blizzard's MDI esports program, but it was not the same broadcast format as the Season 1 MDI tournament. TGP ranked simultaneous high-keystone pushes, while the earlier MDI Groups used head-to-head, double-elimination dungeon races. The teams and skills overlapped; the victory conditions did not.
How much prize money was available?
The complete advertised pool was $260,000. Group A and Group B each carried $30,000, accounting for $60,000 before the Final. The six-team Global Final distributed another $200,000, from Mandatory's $80,000 first-place award to Phoenix Gang Media's $10,000 sixth-place award.
Can players still earn the Tempered Banner of the Algari?
Not through a current event. The banner required an eligible registered team to complete the Season 1 Time Trials dungeons in time, and that qualifier window is closed. Watching the event, joining a later Mythic+ group, or registering after the deadline cannot recreate that eligibility.
Last reviewed 2026-08-21 against Patch 11.0.7 Siren Isle — Maintained by WowCarry's WoW team.
