Season Five: eUnited SMITE Return To Action!
By: Zachary Lange
The Road Ahead
After a two month off-season, eUnited SMITE will look to continue their winning ways in the 2018 SMITE Pro League Spring Season.
All five members of the 2018 SMITE World Championship roster return to eUnited, ready to tackle the new challenge ahead.
“I am super excited to be back on the grind as I love this game and I owe it to my team to perform the best I can,” said midlaner Brandon “Venenu” Casale.
This year the SPL will feature six teams in North America and Europe, a decrease from the previous eight teams in each region during the 2017 season.
The top two teams from each region during the 2018 SPL Spring Season will qualify for the 2018 SMITE Masters tournament that will be held sometime later this year.
During the two month break, developer Hi-Rez Studios made several changes to the competitive settings that players will be using this year. For Mike “PolarBearMike” Heiss, the changes will take time to get used to for all teams.
“The game is completely different,” PBM said. “I don't think any team really knows exactly what the meta is going to be since things always change very rapidly at the start of a new season. I think the biggest difference is definitely with midlaners. The entire role was basically completely reworked in terms of items so I expect to see mages be much more dominant.”
Mage gods are characters in the game that use magical power to boost their attacks. In the 2018 SMITE World Championship Finals, Venenu used a different mage god in all four games, helping secure the victory.
Now, it’s back to the drawing board to see which gods will be most efficient this season.
“I hope the team grows in our adaptability to quick meta changes as it is a completely new season and we have had a lack of practice,” Venenu said.
eUnited will begin the 2018 SPL Spring Season with a match up against Luminosity Gaming at 5 p.m. on March 21.
Coach’s Corner
eUnited coach Cassidy “Cardiac” Cameron also earned a first world championship title to his resume, but he is already looking into the new season ahead.
“I think a lot of the preparedness going into this season is mental,” Cardiac said. “Obviously, gameplay is a large part of the game but we can't get complacent. We, as reigning world champs, have a bullseye on us every match.”
That bullseye includes top contenders Luminosity but also newcomers to the SPL such as Splyce and Counter Logic Gaming who will look to make a strong first impression in the league.
“Every SPL team is going to try their best to beat us. But I think if we just stick to our playstyle we will be in a good spot this split,” he said.
By The Numbers
1st - The place that eUnited SMITE finished at the 2018 SMITE World Championship. It was the first international LAN victory for eUnited in competitive SMITE.
1 - The number of games that eUnited lost in total during the 2018 SMITE World Championship, eUnited sweeped Brazilian team Black Dragons and European Obey Alliance before only losing one game in a best-of-five to Team Rival in the finals.
16 - How old Lucas “Scream” Spracklin was when he won his first world championship, making him the youngest ever in competitive SMITE history. Scream, who is now 17, is a junior in high school.
48 - The amount of kills the team had collectively in the finals of the world championship, with Venenu leading the way collecting 19 kills.
$600,000 - First prize for the 2018 SMITE World Championship.
Be sure to tune into mixer.com/smitegame for all competitive SMITE action during the 2018 SPL Spring Season.
Header image courtesy of SmitePro