Page 26 - SMITE Magazine Issue 34

ESPORTS
away 24 kills while Noble managed only four kills, with
Skeeledon as Thor being the team’s main initiator. It’s safe this game, as he didn’t have a single death in 39 minutes.
to say that Noble couldn’t deal with the large amount of
crowd control: Cabrakan, Thor, Janus, and Sylvanus. The
Astral Authority and Cope is Still the Problem matchup
was the closest of the day thus far, as the kills read 20 to
21 in the end. Astral Authority’s Fineokay went off in the
game (11/4), but his team still fell short. Enemy secured
their SPL spot against NeilM with Varizial wearing the
backpack as Susano in the jungle. He had the most player
damage by a long shot and used his god’s large amount
of crowd control to disrupt the opposing squad. IMoG
continued to have an inspired performance in the name
of everyone’s favorite dog meme against Noble. They
forced Noble to surrender at the 16 minute mark after
winning the kill trade 18 to 2. Snoopy continued with the
off-meta picks, this time it was AMC. He didn’t even die
once despite the Bee’s lack of mobility, which meant that
he got a lot of farm in the early game and snowballed
out of control. A lot of speculation was happening in the
community about a possible three way tie, and the last
two games would decide who stayed and who went home. SPL squads, but Open Bracket teams were only able to
MLCSt3alth dominated for Noble in the middle lane, as he
nearly doubled the damage of the player with the second
most damage. This led to the game being a short one, a
total of 21 minutes, but Cope’s squad still would qualify for see over the next few months. Time will tell if these six
the tiebreaker. In the last game of the regulation matches,
NeilMah was able to slip past Astral Authority to qualify for be sitting comfortably in a SPL spot at the end of the split.
the tiebreaker as well. DayToRemember was considered
a top ADC coming out of the Challengers Cup, and he
proved it this game for NeilMah. His Anhur was able to
collect 8 kills to only 2 deaths despite being constantly
dove by AA’s favorite double assassin composition.
TIEBREAKER TIME BABY! LET’S GET THIS STARTED!
THREE GAMES TO DECIDE WHOSE SPL DREAMS ARE
FULFILLED! NeilMah put themselves in the driver’s seat
by beating Cope’s team to start the tiebreaker. Venenu’s
26 The Official SMITE Magazine Issue #33
Janus was the main contributor to his team’s success
He often helped his two guardian allies get out of sticky
situations and shut down the enemy Agni. Unfortunately,
NeilMah fell face first out of the driver’s seat by the
hands of Noble after a marathon of a game (42 minutes).
MLCSt3alth carried his squad AGAIN, this time on Nu Wa
with 37k player damage (Venenu only had 25k as Scylla).
He finished up a lot of kills with his ultimate and often
stunned the enemy frontline. The last game, it all came
down to this, could Noble slam the door? “Mommy, here
comes that man again!” is what Cope’s squad supposedly
said as the field was victimized by Noble’s midlaner once
again. He did the same thing he did last time, top damage
and a lot of crowd control, but this time with Thoth. He
was a late addition to this roster, but I would say that
Noble wouldn’t be in the SPL without the services of Cog
Scylla. So, the three teams joining the North American
SPL are Enemy, In Memory of Gabe, and Noble eSports.
A few Open Bracket teams found upsets against
take 2 of the 6 available spots (In Memory of Gabe, Novus
Orsa). It was also very exciting to see the new strats at
the beginning of the new season and what teams we’ll
squads find themselves in relegations again or if they will
By Jacob Russell
The GameOn Magazine