Watch the SMITE World Championship finals live today.
Update: In the first two games of the finals, Cognitive Prime decimated Titan putting their backs against the wall. Considering their earlier meeting in the tournament and how each win was so decisive, it looked like Cognitive Prime might threaten a rather uninteresting three game sweep in their best of five. It was do or die for Titan and they answered back rattling off two hotly contested wins of their own to tie it up.
But as great as the Cinderella story would have been for the team that battled it out from the amateur league, Titan just couldn’t quite muster up the the undefeated 3-0 and Cognitive Prime finally found their match win and the $1.3 million share of the prize pool.
All in all, a rather convincing display that Smite has secured itself a spot among the heavy hitters like League of Legends and Dota 2. With Season 2 and their Xbox One version coming up this year, I expect to see some great things out of the team at Hi-Rez Studios.
Original Post: Over the last few days, Hi-Rez Studios has been hosting the SMITE World Championship for their mythological MOBA. Eight teams from across the globe have been battling for their share of the $2.6 million prize pool. The community driven prize pool is the third largest in eSports history. You can catch all the action on Twitch today.
Day one and the placement matches went mostly as expected, with the more veteran teams advancing over the teams with less experience with the game. Smite has not been available officially in some countries as it has been in the North American and European regions. The double elimination single game matches of day one saw the field cut from eight teams to six. Two of those six teams advanced straight to the semi-finals while the others needed to battle in the quarter-finals with the winners from yesterday’s loser’s bracket.
While day one saw some pretty lopsided games, the matches in day two were much more exciting. Despite trying some high risk/reward God picks, The Brazilian team We Love Bacon fell to European Titan in two games. Titan is a bit of the darling underdog of the tournament having come up in the amateur leagues to clinch a win in the European Regional Championships. The second match went in similar fashion, with North American Cognitive Red finding their groove in game one against the Chinese team OMG and then sweeping game two.
Match three of the day was a repeat of the European Regional Championships, with SK Gaming and Titan battling for a place in the finals. Both games started initially very tight, the difference between 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th is roughly a chunk of $1.3 million in the prize pool. In the end, Titan was able to repeat their performance and move on to the finals. Day two’s final match was a real treat though, with North American scrimmage partners Cognitive Prime and Cognitive Red getting matched together. The games were all incredibly close, with each team taking control at various points. Cog Red was able to snipe a win in game one by rushing the objective after a team fight, but Cog Prime answered with back to back wins to take the match.
Today sees the consolation match to decide 3rd and 4th, which is still a difference of over $100,000, between Cognitive Red and SK Gaming. That match is going on now. Later today will see the finals between Cognitive Prime and Titan. Will the heavy favorite still win out or can Titan continue the underdog story?
