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Smite, a fast paced MOBA similar to League of Legends but with a third-person point of view, has continued to steadily grow. This once small time game company is now able to host a $2.6 million International tournament, while expanding their NA and EU pro leagues to 16 teams.
Smite has also begun to expand their operations outside of North America and into other countries. Nearly a year ago, Smite created an Oceania Regional Championship (Australia and New Zealand) to crown an automatic qualifier to Worlds. They’re now looking to inject some capital into this market.
Starting this year, Smite will be funding a $100,000 tournament exclusive to Australia and New Zealand. The three stage tournament took place in April, and was held offline by the CGPL. Work is being done to have future tournaments aired on Twitch.
This will be the first time that Smite has sponsored a tournament that expands over three major splits in Oceania.
Avant Garde of Australia reigns supreme in Smite’s Ocean Pro League Australia’s Avant Garde is the previous winner of the Smite Ocean Pro League and qualified for the global Smite World Championships. However, Avant Garde was only fourth headed into this split’s finals.
After a miraculous run through the finals that featured plenty of upsets, it was Avant Garde that ultimately was crowned champions of the first split of Smite’s new three part series.
With MOBA’s now being out for quite some time, Smite isn’t exactly fledging new ground here. At first glance, Smite’s fighting style lines up more with traditional RPG elements. It’s akin to something you’d see on the Battleground of World of Warcraft.
While this can be directly attributed to the camera angle that the game uses, there are other elements that Smite offers to promote an RPG euphoria. Everything from the creation of their gods (to even naming them gods), to using mythical artwork, to creating expansive lore to entertain their player base draw from sources.
Naturally, players that have heavily played first-person shooters may be tempted to try Smite’s MOBA style over the more traditional, RTS top-down view found in League of Legends and Dota 2.
Smite has also developed their game for the Xbox One, and the game is currently available on servers in Australia and New Zealand. In fact, Smite provided local servers so that players can enjoy a lag free experience (most certainly the number one complaint from online gamers).
Don’t worry Playstation exclusive lovers, Smite hasn’t forgotten about you. HiRez is currently in development of a PS4 version of the game, with the open beta commencing in Australia. Just like the Xbox One player base, the PS4 version will also connect to local servers hosted in Australia.
It’s these little facets, like having their game available on consoles, that separates Smite from other MOBAs like League of Legends or Dota 2. Smite can definitely state they provide the most accessibility.
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