Land Raiders
Well, we did it. And we made AotC before the next tier was even announced! 
We are a very casual guild and yet we made it through a very rough tier. After a fight like Sylvanas it's easy to simply breathe a sigh of relief and just be glad it's over and try to move on. She has to be some of the toughest progression this game has thrown at casuals in a very long while. But why don't we take a health check and see just how well we're doing? How are others fairing on our server? What did we really pull off? Well, we are now the 3rd Horde guild on the server to down Sylvanas. And we did it with less gear and less pulls than most others. 
Other Horde guilds on our server who have now killed her are somewhere between 50-131 pulls (at 245 ilvl or higher). But then we came waltzing along with 52 pulls and 241 ilvl and came away with a tidy little kill. By the numbers alone, that's something to be pretty happy with. We're keeping pace and chugging right along. Amazing right? But I think this would actually be selling this achievement short and we should take a minute to look back and reminisce, because we've weathered a hell of a lot this tier. A hell of a lot. And that makes this all the sweeter.
Even just by the rankings (which we normally wouldn't consider because we're super casual but humour me) I would say we excelled. Our first heroic kill was 12th for the Horde on the server. By 4/10 H we were 8th, by Kel'thuzad we were 6th, and by the time we downed Sylvanas and made 10/10 we were 3rd. Hell, I'm in a good mood, let's even include alliance guilds. Our first kill placed us at 20th overall, at 5/10 H we were 13th, by 9/10 H we were 11th, and now we're 5th overall. This was a tough tier, and we absolutely tore through it no matter how you look at it. And we did this while withstanding what has collapsed many guilds. Losing half a raid team? That's normally a death sentence. No question. Without even looking at the details 9.9 times out of 10 it equals a dead guild. But not for us. We held on, we persevered, we stepped up, and we still made our goal of AotC. Not only that, we kept pace (or outpaced) others on our server who had a lead on us. Horde or Alliance, it doesn't matter. We did really well. Really really really well. We did better than “well” this tier...
As you're running around happy we got the kill, don't shrug off what we achieved. What you achieved. Some people stepped up to be leaders or officers, some stepped up their game bringing up the deeps or heals, and some quietly sat out to bump up the numbers on important nights. That resilience and dedication you have shown has done more for the whole than many think. Don't undersell yourself on what your actions achieved. There were dark times and you stuck it out and shrugged it off, and I'd like to think that all things considered your faith and trust in each other, and more importantly what this guild could and will become, has been rewarded. There will always be something to address, or some obstacle to overcome. But it's not often you see people come together like we did this tier, and pull off what we did. I know I speak for myself and others now in leadership roles when I say thank you for being such awesome human beings, and thank you for every bit of trust, no matter how dubious, you placed in us. Because it was you that did this, not leadership, not some faceless collective whole, but each of you. You, your trust, and that little bet you took on the rest of us. Thank you.
So, what's next? Well, tier ain't over yet! I know we have some hunters that would appreciate a chance at more Sylvanas kills and legendary bows. Some people are eyeing some pretty sweet Mythic Eye loot. The possibilities are endless! It will of course be up to the community at large, but judging on people who have reached out already or spoke up on Tuesday, we'll start poking at Mythic and seeing how far we can go. We're not aiming for Cutting Edge or anything crazy, but no reason we can't sneak in 3 or 4 more kills before the next tier! We of course will still have Toma organize something wacky on Wednesdays (I hear Mythic Nathria is next!), and will do what we can to progress through Sanctum on Mythic, but if there's something you want to do or achieve now is a great time to speak up! Want to change mains? Change roles? Now is the time to do it! We hit our secondary goal of AotC, so now let's just make sure we keep our main one and have fun! Till the next update ya cuties! 
