It’s time (well, at 3pm EST) for what could be the best set of games in SMITE history: the final of the 2018 SMITE World Championship between Europe’s number one seed Team Rival and North America’s number one, EUnited.
Despite their seeding, both teams went into their semifinal matches as the perceived underdogs against the 2017 champions and runner up team, and both teams thoroughly outclassed their opponents. Rival’s 3-2 win over NRG was impressive as they showed mental fortitude and excellent mechanics to outfox the former defending champions, and EUnited’s 3-0 drubbing made Obey Alliance look downright ordinary.
The teams have never played each other in a competitive match before, so despite watching tape last night and any other preparation, there will still be a sense of the unknown for both squads when it comes to matching up lane by lane in this series.
In other words, this should be a good show. Watch with me! Check out the live blog where I’ll be posting notable teamfights, objective steals and observations from people in the SMITE community throughout the match.
Watch live video from HiRezTV on www.twitch.tv
Team picks-
Team Rival: Raijin, Odin, Sylvanus, Anhur, Amaterasu
EUnited: Ullr, Cu Chulainn, Bastet, Discordia, Ganesh
Game 1: Scream jumps on IceIceBaby to get the first blood shortly after the second minute! EUnited continuing their aggressive play from yesterday against this EU team.
Game 1: Team fight near the gold fury and the teams trade kills, EUnited is up 2-1 with a 1400 gold lead. Team Rival seems to be concentrating on their farm rotations rather than engagements at this point. A defensive start.
Game 1: Both teams look like they’re waiting for the other to strike, avoiding team fights and even objectives like the Gold Fury in favor of applying pressure just from presence and farming.
13 minutes, and some little taunts and pulls have been happening here and there. Benji plays decoy, giving up his life for Eunited to take the Gold Fury.
Game 1: Incredible escape by Vote as he gets caught out of position, beginning a fight that ends with 3 deaths, two on the side of Rival, and Venenu on Discordia was a major factor there with her burst damage. (19 minutes)
Rival are down about 6k gold now, and kill trades in mid won’t help them much. Hopefully they’re going to start playing a little less defensively soon in order to really go toe to toe with the American team.
Game 1: (23 minutes) Rival take down the portal demon for free, but EUnited are seemingly pushing their opposition around the map at will. As soon as the EUnited team arrives with a bit of poke, Rival moves away just as quickly.
EUnited takes down the fire giant at 27 minutes, and proceed to chase Rival down the right and back home into their base.
Game 1: (28 minutes) EUnited’s Benji has been absolutely terrorizing Rival, harrying the team by himself. On the other side, Deathwalker has been pretty quiet with Amateratsu. Rival are really struggling without his presence on the map.
EUnited take the first map with ease.
I’m sitting out the second match – I’m here at the arena and I need to take some photos for the site! Thanks for watching along with me, and I’ll be back soon!
Game 2: Peeking in now, 13 minutes in and Rival have shaken off the nerves and the rust and they’re playing aggressively and taking fights to EUnited now. Rival are up 8-3 with a 3k gold lead and are doing a great job of reading EU’s strats and dispatching players quickly.
Game 2: That was sheer domination from Team Rival who looked like a completely different team in the second game. They targeted the wily Benji and Venenu in this match and pressed EU heavily for every objective. EUnited never seemed to recover from the early pressure and they gave up the game with ease.
Game 3:
EUnited: Raijin, Cu Chulainn, Ah Muzen Cab, Amaterasu, Nemesis
Team Rival: Osiris, Ullr, Geb, Ra, Serquet
Game 3: Venenu takes out Iceicebaby for the first blood after chasing him all the way down the map. EUnited’s team ganks in the middle are resulting in deaths and Rival are starting off on the back foot – but not by much. Aggressive farming and minion clearing are allowing them to hang with EU in terms of economy.
Game 3: (10 minutes) EUnited take their first Gold Fury after a series of exciting engagements including an incredible ult by Scream to take out Iceicebaby.
Game 3: Rival takes out Pandacat just as the gold fury spawns, ruining EU’s possible plans to take the objective again. A fight after the fact doesn’t result in much for Rival, but they do manage to put EUnited on the run – briefly. EUnited come back into the fray quickly take another Gold Fury. They currently have a 7k gold lead and a 9-4 kill lead. (19 minutes)
Game 3: 20 minutes – Rival successfully defends the Fire Giant thanks to a massive snipe by Deathwalker on Pandacat, who managed to get out of the way quickly and back to base.
EUnited get the fire giant for free as Rival decides to go after the Gold Fury, but they’re chased away and EU take yet another Gold Fury. (23 minutes)
Game 3: Rival pick up 2 kills on the run and lose a tier 2 tower in the process, but that seems like a worthwhile trade for a team that looked like they were struggling just a few minutes before.
EUnited with an aggressive push toward the Rival base and they take out four members of Rival in the process. The team takes out a phoenix then backs.
Game 3: Rival steals the Fire Giant! (28 mintes) It was a single strike by Deathwalker that did it! EUnited still have a significant lead but that’s a major objective loss for the NA team, and they take out two phoenixes and the gold fury in response.
Game 3: (33 mins) EUnited get a free FG while Rival concentrate on just defending their base. The FG enhanced team has them pinned down in the base and they manage to break through Rival and take out the Titan for the game win. EUnited lead 2 – 1.
Game 4: This is a best of 5 series, so this could be the end! Rival will have to find that spark that they had in the second set.
Picks:
EUnited: Osiris, Ullr, Bastet, Sylvanus, Zeus
Team Rival: Athena, Poseidon, Erlang Shen, Hachiman, Bellona
Game 4: (3 minutes) Deathwalker gets first blood on Benji. Rival start off aggressively, applying heavy pressure in the middle and right lanes early on, and picking fights.
Game 4: Deathwalker has suddenly come alive and now has 3 kills to his name after 10 minutes. Rival is killing all over the map and it’s looking bleak for EUnited this time around.
Game 4:
Game 4: As Luminosity’s Barraaccudda noted (https://twitter.com/BaRRaCCuDDa_/status/950140887622922240), this game is like an arena match. Just teams hitting each other hard and practically ignoring objectives.
(it’s so fun to watch!)
Game 4: EUnited steal the Fire Giant and the portal from an astonished Rival at 19 minutes (the replay makes it look like it was the Bastet jump that secured it)
Game 4: EUnited storm down the map to take out two towers, a phoenix, and a gold fury – what a massive turnaround for the NA team. (23 minutes)
(A replay shows it was PBM’s Sylvanus that stole the FG portal)
EU push into the base and EUNITED WIN. The SMITE trophy makes it back to North America for the first time in 3 years.
Venenu takes home the MVP trophy!
Oh man, EUnited really are standing on stage with a giant American flag. There’s certainly some hype around having an NA team in the finals again!
Both teams are out and the crowd is going wild – let’s start some SMITE!