The power is undeniable.

We couldn't figure it out - we had been wiping, little things going wrong that turned into big things going wrong, people panicking, bad luck. All of it combining to thwart our attempts to defeat Illidan time and time again.

Then Fellina equipped... THE trinket.

He died that go, and it wasn't even close. I swear to God, this is a true "I win" trinket. When we go into Sunwell, we'll be through it in about 10 minutes, tops.

Congratulations to Fellina on Shroud of Absolution, Gradar on Lightbringer Chestpiece, Amnarak on Black Bow of the Betrayer, and Garainla on Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer.

I want to give a special congratulations to Shyeera and Nellenya, who took up one of the most difficult jobs in the game: tanking the Flames of Azzinoth. Having to deal with that amount of pressure and wiping the raid repeatedly as you learn how to handle it is not for the faint of heart, and I appreciate both of you sticking with it.

A while ago, I wrote that one of the goals that I had was to defeat Illidan before the Sunwell dropped in patch 2.4. We've accomplished that, but a lot closer to the release of patch 2.4 than we wanted. The last few weeks have basically been a whirlwind for us - after canceling our raids a few weeks ago, many of our membership were in California the week after, attending Greg's service. Killing Illidan was pretty much the last thing on anyone's mind.

But this game, no matter how silly and trite it can be, no matter how frustrating, can also be a place to laugh and relax; a place to get your mind off of things, no matter how painful they may be. For years, I've been telling anyone who would listen that it's not the gear, it's not the bosses, it's not the gameplay that keeps people logging onto to a game like this - it's the people you play with.

It's the Canadian who finally spoke on vent after we killed Kael.
It's the psuedo-Canadian who passes on everything so other people could have gear.
It's the mod author who designed the most-used threat mod in WoW and still pulls aggro off the MT.
It's the gnome with a twelve second cast time on ice block.
It's the quiet warlock who causes us to wipe multiple times when he's not there, because we're just so used to him doing what needed doing.
It's the kindest, gentlest person you can imagine, until she tells you to stop fucking sucking.
It's the man who would wander off the highest places you could find.
And it's those people who gathered in a circle one night to reminsce and honor that man.

I'm not going to make some silly comment because of this kill like "If Gregil were here, he'd be proud of us." First, it's a kill, it's an accomplishment, but it's a computer game boss dying. There are far better ways to honor his memory. But the real reason I wouldn't make that comment is that it's just not true. If Greg was here, he'd say something like "What took you dipshits so long?" If he was still awake in his chair. Which he likely wouldn't be.

Instead, what I take, and what I hope everybody takes from this kill isn't some sort of honor'ing of our friend, or even how leet we are(which is pretty damn leet). It's how so much of this raid has stayed the same over the years, the friendships that we've created during this time, how so many of us have moved from content tier to content tier together, always wiping and screwing up and rezzing and wiping and rezzing some more. It's how we've met new people and they've become our friends, becoming part of our joyous cycle of screwing up and wiping in new and horrible ways. God, do we get frustrated sometimes, but it always seems to turn out okay(even if it's Archimonde). Forgive me for getting sentimental, but we've created something special here, and it won't matter if we're the first to kill Kil'jaeden or the last. It's the people I play with that will keep me coming back. It's people like Gregil.

That's the best way I can think to honor him. Not by killing a boss, but by relating why this is so important to me. I hope it's important to you.

Congratulations, everybody. See you in Sunwell.