Page 44 - SMITE Magazine Issue 33

ESPORTS
factor in the crowd made The Cobb Energy Centre rock.
LG picked up Izanami in the mid-lane, but Xenotronics
failed to capitalize on the character’s strengths,
which contributed to an LG loss. BaRRaCCuDDa,
who had been a hard carry all of the Fall Split and
Worlds Season, failed to carry his team past NRG.
DAY 4:
The last day of Hi-Rez Expo featured one set of
SMITE--the matchup of two EU powerhouses: NRG vs.
Obey Alliance. NRG as a unit was dominant, but they were
nowhere near as strong as Variety, whose performance
on a myriad of gods, blew away the minds of basically
every spectator. Game 1 saw Adapting and NRG abuse
PANDALIKE and CaptainTwig, who were responsible
44 The Official SMITE Magazine Issue #33
for 18 of Obey’s 28 deaths. Game 2 went similarly, with
PANDA and Twig combining for 20 of their teams’ 30
deaths. At this point, it may seem reasonable for a team
to switch up the Sylvanus pick, who PANDALIKE had been
playing in both games, but Obey believed how strong he
was and picked him again for Game 3. Obey actually won
Game 3 off of the back of Variety’s 10/0/9 Ratatoskr, but
PANDALIKE still died 8 times, by far the most on his team.
Game 4 saw NRG take away Variety’s Camazotz, Tyr, and
Ratatoskr, but they gave him Thanatos. Variety proved that
Thanatos isn’t just a strong early game god, but that he
is one of the strongest gods in SMITE. Variety went 7/5/2,
and while those deaths stand out, no other player on his
team had more than 2 kills, and only one player had fewer
deaths (Ataraxia on Jing Wei). In the end NRG Esports
beat Obey Alliance, winning Worlds for a second time.
By Isaac Weissman
The GameOn Magazine