Page 29 - SMITE Magazine Issue 34
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ESPORTS
weekly tournaments where teams accumulate points The Challenger Cup
is also undergoing a
throughout the split. The top teams at the end of the split “
will fight the bottom Circuit teams and try to break into makeover. It is being
that league. For a new team to get into the SPL, they divided into two
would have to play a split in the Combine, then promote components: the
to the Challenger Circuit, play in that league for a split, Challenger Circuit
then fight in relegations. This means that a powerful and the Combine.
new team in the Spring can become pro in the Fall. ”
Before the SPL season can start, teams need to occur April 14th -16th. The Gauntlet will have a ladder
fill out the league. The five teams from both regions format, where the Challenger team will play the 8th
that played in the 2016 Super Regionals were invited place SPL team from their region. The winner will fight
back to the Pro League. The organizations were offered the 7th SPL team, the victor in that set faces the 6th SPL
the spots and they could make any roster changes team, etc. The winner of the NA and EU Gauntlets will
they wanted. Teams that were not sponsored by an advance to the Spring Finals. The second place teams
organisation were only required to keep their captain. in each region will also play a set, and the winner will
The bottom three teams from each region have also advance. This means that three teams from the
to fight for their SPL spots. A two-week open bracket Spring Gauntlet will advance to the Spring Finals.
series was held in late January where non-SPL teams The Spring Finals LAN will be SMITE Masters
played for the opportunity to relegate into the pro scene. held at Hi-Rez Studios. The seven teams from North
The three teams with the highest combined points America and Europe will be joined by the top teams
after two weeks were brought into Relegations. from Latin America, Brazil, and Oceania, for a total of 10
The Relegations event took place on February teams. The total prize pool of this event is $120,000.
11th and 12th and saw the bottom three teams of There is little information about the Summer
the SPL and top three teams from the open bracket and Fall splits, but Hi-Rez staff have said they wanted
compete in a round robin tournament, where each more LANs and we should get more if the Spring
team played each other once. The top three teams at format goes well. Each split will be capped by an
the end of the day advance to the SMITE Pro League. international LAN and it is likely that the Fall split will
The Spring split of the SPL is a 6-week tournament, have group LANs similarly to the Fall split of Season
lasting from February 16th to March 26th. During this 3, where four teams go to LAN at a time and play each
event, each team will face every other team in their other. Regionals will occur at the end of the Fall Split,
region once in best of 2 sets. A Bo2 set is a 2-game with the Smite World Championship in early 2018.
series where teams get 3 points for achieving a 2-0, but Season 4 is shaping up to be a great year for
1 point for 1-1 tie, and 0 points for losing 0-2. The top SMITE esports. There is going to be more LANs and
two teams will advance to the Spring Finals LAN while more international competitions. The competition
the bottom six will have to fight in the Spring Gauntlet. is likely to be higher than ever before. From
The Spring Gauntlet is a LAN consisting of the bottom Relegations to the Smite World Championship,
six SPL teams and the top Challenger Circuit team from Smite’s Season 4 is going to be exciting.
each region, for a total of 14 teams at the event. This will By Zachary McFarland
The Official SMITE Magazine Issue #34 The GameOn Magazine 29
