SMITE World Championship – Team Rival VS. eUnited

In an incredible turn of events, Rival would upset the great NRG and eUnited would come out of nowhere to run the table in North America. Both of these surprise teams would end up being in our epic final match today. I’ll keep the formalities brief, lets get into the action.

Game 1

Rival Picks: Raijin (Wlfy), Odin (iceicebaby), Sylvanus (KaLaS), Anhur (Vote), Amaterasu (Deathwalker) – Bans: Ravana, The Morrigan, Janus, Artio

eUnited Picks: Ullr (PandaCat), Cu Chulainn (Benji), Bastet (Screammmmm), Discordia (Venenu), Ganesha (PolarBearMike) – Bans: Fafnir, Athena, Osiris, Erlang Shen

Trying to take advantage of early middle lane pressure, iceicebaby uses his Odin to invade eUnited’s back harpies, but a good collapse by eUnited results in him being picked off by Screammmmm for a First Blood at 2:15. Action is slow with eUnited more interested and getting map pressure than big objectives, but do commit to a Gold Fury at 13:30 thanks to zoning from Benji with his Cu Chulainn. eUnited brings the hurt at 18:00 with Screammmmm’s Bastet doing unexpected damage, finding a double kill in mid which allows his team to secure a portal demon and Gold Fury. Rival would find a tower and portal demon at 23:00 after finally taking down Benji, but eUnited’s gold lead would still climb to 9k thanks to map pressure and objective prioritization. eUnited tries to force the Fire Giant at 27:00, but after a scare from Odin eUnited is able to secure it and then turns their sights on Rival and their phoenixes. A strong final siege by eUnited would give them a Game 1 victory. Screammmmm and Benji combined their great pressure and aggression to lead their team to a win, with Screammmmm netting a 5/0/7 KDA.

Game 2

Rival Picks: Raijin (Wlfy), Osiris (Deathwalker), Ullr (Vote), Susano (iceicebaby), Geb (KaLaS) – Bans: Ravana, Bastet, Ah Muzen Cab, Artio

eUnited Picks: Cu Chulainn (Benji), The Morrigan (Venenu), Fenrir (Screammmmm), Hou Yi (PandaCat), Terra (PolarBearMike) – Bans: Fafnir, Athena, Ares, Da Ji

This game would start with Rival applying great solo lane pressure, which eUnited would counter by attempting to gank Vote at 3:45. Rival would counter engage, saving Vote and getting a double first blood on Screammmmm and PandaCat. Wlfy would be a key player for Rival in this early game, getting a double kill at 8:00, who’s damage would net a 3/0/3 KDA by 12:00. In stark contrast to Game 1, Rival would have great map control and pressure in all lanes and a 7k gold lead at 19:00. This was mainly due to the adjustment by Rival of getting more solo lane pressure to stop Benji’s Cu Chulainn from getting ahead. That control would allow Rival to freely take a Fire Giant at 21:30 and a couple of eUnited towers. 3 eUnited players would fall at 23:45 thanks to a great blink engage by KaLaS on his Geb and damage from Wlfy, leaving an opening for Rival to take 2 phoenixes. Rival would secure a second Fire Giant at 26:30 and would begin what looks to be a final siege on eUnited’s base. Rival would storm the base and like a well oiled machine, take Game 2. Rival’s solo pressure in this game would open up the map, this would let Wlfy shine and be aggressive while applying his massive Raijin damage.

Game 3

Rival Picks: Osirs (Deathwalker), Ullr (Vote), Geb (KaLaS), Ra (Wlfy), Serqet (iceicebaby) – Bans: Bastet, Ravana, Artio, Sylvanus

eUnited Picks: Raijin (Venenu), Cu Chulainn (Benji), Ah Muzen Cab (PandaCat), Amaterasu (PolarBearMike), Nemesis (Screammmmm) – Bans: Fafnir, Athena, Odin, Isis

Early on iceicebaby gets caught behind his speed buff by a rotation from Venenu and after a wild goose by Screammmmm, the Rival jungler falls for a First Blood at 2:30. eUnited would start this game off by being highly aggressive to put the pressure back on in Game 3. With a nice double kill  at 10:00 by Venenu’s Raijin with set up from PBM, eUnited is able to take the first Gold Fury. After a lull in the action, good zoning an positioning from eUnited keeps Rival away long enough for eUnited to secure another Gold Fury at 17:30. eUnited would abuse their lead to keep Rival on the back foot, resulting in a Fire Giant secure at 22:40 and a 10k gold lead. A good team fight engage by Benji would allow Venenu to pump out the damage and 4 Rival members would fall, plus a mid tower and left phoenix. Rival would be able to steal away a Fire Giant at 28:30 from eUnited, but 2 minutes later eUnited would be able to counter with a good fight at the Gold Fury and take 2 of Rival’s phoenixes. eUnited would continue to pile the pressure on, taking all of Rival’s phoenixes by 35:00 thanks to Beji’s zoning and Venenu’s damage. Venenu would be a big factor in eUnited being able to be aggressive and take this Game 3, netting himself a 8/2/9 KDA and 27k player damage.

Game 4

Rival Picks: Athena (KaLaS), Poseidon (Wlfy), Erlang Shen (iceicebaby), Hachiman (Vote), Bellona (Deathwalker) – Bans: Ravana, Ah Muzen Cab, Discordia, The Morrigan

eUnited Picks: Osiris (Benji), Ullr (PandaCat), Bastet (Screammmmm), Sylvanus (PolarBearMike), Zeus (Venenu) – Bans: Fafnir, Raijin, Nemesis, Susano

The game opens with eUnited being aggressive once again, Deathwalker is able to respond in kind with his Bellona and finds a first blood on Benji under eUnited’s solo tower at 3:00. In a bold move after recognizing their superior positioning, Rival is able to sneak and early Gold Fury at 7:30. A small bloodbath would breakout soon after with both teams trading 4 player kills over the next 3 minutes. eUnited would start to turn the tide against Rival’s early pressure by abusing the duo lane, finding 2 kills due to a great rotation by Venenu’s Zeus and a Gold Fury at 15:30. After pushing away eUnited, Rival would go for a risky Fire Giant at 19:00, but eUnited would make a clutch steal of the key objective. Using the new momentum eUnited would find 3 key kills on Wlfy, iceicebaby, and Deathwalker, plus 3 towers and a right side phoenix. As the Fire Giant respawned PBM would force a fight a fight with an amazing blink ultimate engagement, allowing Venenu to pump out his massive Zeus damage and storm the Rival base for an epic Game 4 victory. Venenu’s damage and performance in the middle lane this set would be a major key for eUnited taking this set against the leading Europe team. No one played more consistent over this set, Venenu is your MVP.

And so, after 3 long years the SMITE World Champion title returns to North America. After bouncing from team to team, PolarBearMike would finally come into his own and assemble an incredible roster. His leadership was crucial to the success of eUnited over the season, and he finally broke his worlds curse. Congratulations to eUnited and its players PolarBearMike, Venenu, PandaCat, Benji, and Screammmmm.