It’s Day Two at the SMITE World Championships and there’s an EU v NA matchup in each of the best of five semifinal matches today. No Worlds-favored teams remain in the semifinals as both Obey and EUnited were bounced out of the competition in the quarterfinals.
Dignitas vs Splyce
Game One: After a pedestrian start from both teams, Splyce drew first blood at the four minute mark, and picked up another kill a few minutes later. The teams concentrated on farming rather than direct battles in the early game as both are known as strong late game squads.
The first true teamfight came along at 10 minutes, and Dignitas were the victors, taking out three Splyce players with relative ease. Patience was the name of the game, as Splyce started up the Gold Fury at around 20 minutes and Dignitas poked at them, but Splyce was able to shoo the EU team away with some well timed kills. From there, Splyce were in the driver’s seat, taking objectives at will. The NA team eventually made their way past a very defensive Dignitas into their base and took out the titan for the win.
The second game started out hot, as Cyclonespin got the first blood on Trixtank to give Splyce an early lead. Splyce extended that lead into the midgame, winning teamfights and taking a 9-2 lead on kills. The NA team were playing an incredibly clean game with little over-extension, and Dignitas were forced to play very defensively in response. Dignitas still kept pace with Splyce on gold and objectives and that’s what kept them alive in this game. A massive teamfight in the 34th minute went the way of Dignitas and the team was close to closing out the win, but miscalculated the respawn timers of Splyce, and were chased out of their base and all the way down the map. Splyce punished Dignitas for their efforts, and strode into their base for the Game 2 win.
Dignitas were playing for their lives now, and started out aggressively in the third game. The teams traded kills for the first 25 minutes of play with Dignitas maintaining a small lead. Splyce pulled ahead at the end and then ran away with the game, sweeping Dignitas 3-0 despite the EU team’s strong defensive efforts. Splyce head to the finals!
Trifecta vs Team Rival
Trifecta leap into action, getting a first blood inside of 3 minutes. NeiruMah pounced on Vote and Zapman did the same minutes later to give Trifecta a little bit of a lead to start the game. Team Rival concentrated on objectives, even stealing away the Gold Fury at 13 minutes to take the lead back from Trifecta. The North Americans weren’t down for long, as Zapman provided a key double stun in a teamfight at 19 minutes, and three members of Team Rival went down. Team Rival then showed tremendous patience to take the small objectives around the map and even up the gold once again.
The teams kept fighting over the Fire Giant, with neither team gaining much ground near the 30 minute mark. Both teams played cautiously to set the pace of the series, which was decidedly “slow”. Team Rival finally got the Fire Giant at 33 minutes. Rival used the buff to clear out Trifecta’s towers and pushed toward the phoenixes, but Trifecta wasn’t having any of it – they pushed Rival away from their right side phoenix and killed four members of the team in the process. Rival, licking their wounds, went back for another Fire Giant and slowly and methodically pushed into Trifecta’s base to win Game One.
To start Game Two, Trifecta came out swinging, instigating team fights all around the map. By 15 minutes, the North Americans had 9-4 lead and 3k gold lead. Team Rival wouldn’t let that stand for long, as a teamfight on the under the left T1 tower took out four members of Trifecta, and Rival took the lead back quickly.
Much like the first game, the majority of the fights happened around the Fire Giant while the teams remained essentially tied. At 30 minutes, Trifecta approached the FG, Rival won the objective in the end, but the resulting fight resulted in a deicide. Trifecta take back a 5k lead after taking down a couple of towers. Team Rival continued to chip away at Trifecta and took another key Fire Giant and scrambled down the map toward Trifecta’s base for the second game win.
Team Rival were one game away from the final match against Splyce, but the team didn’t start out hot- Trifecta took two kills to start the match. Trifecta were reading Rival’s moves like a book, and applying loads of pressure early on. After an early teamfight took out four Rival players, Trifecta officially moved ahead. Paul was absolutely lethal, racking up four kills in under 10 minutes.
Rival responded with a Gold Fury win, and carefully picked up single kills all around the map. Their advantage grew as the EU team took another Gold Fury from under their opponents noses to take a 6k gold lead. Trifecta also let the Fire Giant go a short time later, and Rival used the buff to take down all of Trifecta’s towers and left phoenix. The damage snowballed quickly and kept Trifecta back in their base. Rival stormed toward the titan to end the match, and the EU team makes it to the finals for the second year in a row!
The Splyce vs Team Rival match will take place on Sunday, November 18th at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
