The Chase
Ben “CaptainTwig” Knight on His SMITE Career and His Decade-Long Pursuit of a Championship
Ben “CaptainTwig” Knight takes the stage for the season six SMITE World Championship Grand Finals. Courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
“You have to be a part of the SMITE tapestry one way or another. It’s what you put yourself out there as a competitive player for.”
— Ryan “Aggro” Bailey
SMITE’s winningest player is better known for losing.
The literature fans among us will know the story of Captain Ahab and his relentless, self-destructive pursuit of the titular white whale in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Competitive SMITE also has a Captain chasing his own elusive white whale—the SMITE World Championship. Ben Knight, aptly named CaptainTwig in-game, has won more SPL games than any other player. He has also been to the most SWC Grand Finals without lifting the hammer. No player has climbed to SMITE’s highest summit more times only to be kicked back down the mountainside.
It would have been understandable if Knight retired after his last finals defeat. In season seven, his ‘Release The Kraken!’ came too early for Ghost Gaming to secure the Fire Giant in a decisive finals game five. The mistake gave the Pittsburgh Knights an opening to win the fight, and an iconic triple kill for Paul sealed Knight’s third finals loss in as many tries. The mistake had many fans calling Knight a ‘choker,’ cementing the narrative that his game five miscue was only the latest in a long line of big-game failures. Of course, that line of thinking ignores Knight’s big play, killing QvoFred in game four to fend off a surging PK comeback. That’s what happens when you lose—your mistakes are magnified and immortalized, while your big plays get lost to time.
When the smoke cleared from the heartbreak of his season seven defeat, Knight had entered his eighth calendar year of competitive SMITE. And while his career may not yet include a championship, even then—before his time with the Kings—it featured one of the most consistent, winning runs in the history of the game. As Knight describes, he does not want to walk away from the game feeling anything but proud of his career and accomplishments, but it is clear how important it is for him to win it all. Why else would he keep trying, keep chasing for what has now been over nine years? Knight wants to win. You can see it in the way he plays—a facilitator-style jungler when his team needs set-up, or a carry when it needs more damage. When Ghost asked him to play mid-lane in season seven, he did so because he thought it would help the team win, even though it cost him a year on his primary role. He is a selfless player willing to sacrifice for victory. That is how much Knight wants this.
A year ago, after the Kings lost to the Atlantis Leviathans at the World Championship, Knight expressed his disappointment that his team failed to win it all. His only consolation was that he didn’t lose in front of a crowd. His motivation seemed unwavering and laser-focused on finally celebrating a championship on the biggest stage—with fans, friends, and family there to watch. It is Knight’s ultimate white whale, one that has teased him over and over again. Now, on the first seed Camelot Kings with a real shot at the title, he finds himself closer than ever. The stage is set. The rest is up to him.
[The following interview has been edited for clarity.]
The Long Lane : First of all, congratulations on the first seed for Worlds. How important was that tournament for you all?
CaptainTwig: It was a huge tournament for us. For a while now, up basically the whole year, but also last year too, since we started the team, we've struggled with getting that actual win at a tournament. We've got second place a lot of times, maybe got knocked out in the semis a couple of times, and I think we were all questioning amongst each other like what the problem was and why we couldn't seem to finish the job. So, honestly, winning it felt amazing for us. There wasn't any prize money, but it was a bigger prize in terms of just coming first seed and also just getting past that barrier of winning.
TLL: Obviously you made a last-minute change, swapping out Netrioid for Jarcorrr. Walk me through that decision and how you arrived at that spot.
CT: Replacing 'roid or, put it bluntly, kicking him was one of the hardest decisions I think I've made in my competitive career. And maybe it's easy to say now, one month later after a first-place finish, you could say it was the right choice or whatever, or maybe that backed us up a little bit in our decision. But to be honest, Netrioid was a big friend to us, and I consider him still a friend. We haven't really talked much since. But going back to the last question, we definitely felt like something was wrong. Maybe we couldn't keep our composure, maybe communication wasn't as good as it could be, and we just needed someone with maybe a little bit more calm, maybe more ice in their veins. Just a chill player going into tournaments. And we knew Jarcorrr was maybe available since he had spoken to a couple of us and he seemed really friendly to us, and we knew we could work with someone who seems friendly, and he's just an absolute animal in the game. He is good in any role, and he's been taking the league by storm since he joined it on Sanguine three years ago, and we definitely wanted a slice of that. He did play ADC in the Spring split last year, as well as a little bit on the Scarabs, so we knew he was the right choice for us when he was more available on the Scarabs after leaving the Leviathans. So it seemed like a really easy choice, but obviously not easy to do it when 'roid had just built such a big friendship with us.
TLL: It's interesting you mentioned Jarcorrr's calmness. Obviously making a roster change that late in the season is a huge risk. Was Jarcorrr a big reason why you all didn't come out a little bit slow after that roster change? Because you came out really strong, obviously, the first week and then won that tournament.
CT: We did win the first triple header. I think for some, one or two of the teams, maybe Leviathans, it didn't have as much implications. So who's to say how seriously they took that game. They picked seriously. You've just got five voices when you play and that's all you're going to hear, and all each player is going to hear is four other voices. So when you replace one person for the other, you've basically changed a quarter of what you're going to hear in your ears through a game. And Netrioid never derailed comms. He was never a bad communicator, but sometimes I think he would feel the nerves and sometimes he wouldn't maybe say things that would make you feel more calm and chill. And the thing with Jarcorrr is that he takes losses—maybe a loss, a purple, maybe someone dies in lane, maybe they steal Gold Fury—and he won't have anything negative to say. He'll maybe just laugh or giggle about it and he'll just have something really calm to say. And that really helps in a really tense environment when you're playing for a lot of money or a lot of implications, whether you can qualify to Worlds or not. He's been absolutely great communication-wise.
TLL: This season, a lot of the teams opted to stay together going into the year. Why do you think that is? At least for you, for the Kings, how did you all make that decision to stick together coming into the season?
CT: We as the Kings are a very close-knit group of players. With our coach, especially—Kurtis, or Biggy—they all live in a team house, apart from me. I live with my wife, but I live literally five minutes drive from them. So we all go to the same restaurants. I'll go play pickleball with them. The one thing maybe we have over any other team in the league is that we spend a ton of time with each other and maybe we're just big friends outside of the game. Most of us are from England, most of us have things to relate to each other about. And I think that's what's kept us together for the most part through the slumps we've had and the peaks as a team we've had is that we've always been able to maybe go to a bar after a tough scrim session. We make fun of each other and meme each other's mistakes rather than resent each other behind each other's back and say, ‘this guy, I don't know what he's doing. I don't trust this guy.’ And I think that's what's kind of kept us together. That strong core.
TLL: Do you think the league could be heading towards like a bigger roster shake up heading into season ten? I know you've seen a lot of changes in the middle of this season which might mitigate that some.
CT: That's an interesting question. I think the rosterpocalypse of the next year could go two different ways. It could be extremely uneventful because, for the most part, a lot of teams can sit back and say, ‘hey, we've got an upwards trajectory.’ Like the Valkyries joined the league this season and they've gone from a team that cannot win a game to a team that can take games off top teams. And this was their full rookie year. Apart from Wowy and Aquarius, they've been full rookies. And to be honest, Kyrmi and Gamma have looked like very strong this year, in my opinion. That's just an example of one of, I'd say, two or three teams that could look at their year and say 'we've had upward trajectories.' The Oni Warriors, for example, maybe think that's cause for sticking together as a team and to keep working on their issues. And I think a lot of the top teams have already had those one or two replacements. Dragons replacing Sam with Screammmmm. Us replacing 'roid with Jarcorrr. Titans have had a couple of switches with Cyclone and Layers. So you might have seen all the rosterpocalypse that might have happened through this half year, but I don't think so. I think what's going to happen is probably the teams that don't win of Leviathans, Kings, Dragons, and maybe Olympus Bolts of the top four teams—those three teams probably make pretty big changes. I'd say two or three changes, maybe actually one to three changes each if they don't win. And that will affect the whole league because they'll try to pull in people from the lower level teams or the Challenger Cup and that'll shake up basically the entire league.
TLL: So you started your career as a mid-lander, actually, and you played for a few teams before landing on SK, which is the team you played with at the first SWC. And then you switched roles with Zyrhoes. How did that role swap come to pass?
CT: A lot of small reasons, but I think the biggest one, the biggest reason that we had the role swap was basically what we enjoyed playing, what roles we enjoyed. We basically only played the game for maybe a year for that first SWC, and I noticed Zyrhoes loved playing mid-lane in ranked, and I loved playing Jungle in ranked. I think it came down to what we felt we enjoyed more and to be the best at something, you have to enjoy it. And I enjoyed playing jungle. I enjoyed being more of an impact player, maybe more of a frontline player than a mid-laner. And I did briefly go back to Mid for a year, but that was more on the Dragons’ request than mine. And I'll never regret becoming a Jungler back in season two. It was a really hard change for me since I didn't adapt to it as quickly as I thought. But I think it came up to basically boil down to what we enjoyed more.
Knight with the Camelot Kings during a regular season match. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez studios.
TLL: And you were on a really successful Obey Alliance team that made it to the finals. What was that finals like playing against the juggernaut NRG?
CT: That Obey Alliance team—I think we had an underdog story. I don't even know if I'd say it was just for the one year or multiple years. We didn't really have these MVP type players. I really loved playing with PrettyPrime and Ataraxia as the core of that team. But a big part of why we were so competitive was Variety in the solo lane in that season three. And making that finals was one of the most amazing experiences I've had so far. On the RivaL and then Ghost team, we made finals twice but that was less of a crazy feeling because I think we were less of an underdog and that's what made that season three Worlds so amazing was that we were kind of an underdog. There were two European teams and four American teams just off qualifications. The American teams did win out in general against European teams that season, but I think we the Europeans had the better meta just in season three at Worlds. We scrimmed NRG nonstop the month before Worlds so we knew how good they were. They were probably better than us at the time, but it was just such an amazing finals because Variety was popping off like crazy. He was playing out of his mind and we all felt like we had that underdog, 'maybe we could make something happen' feeling. But at the same time we didn't have a lot of pressure to win, so we could just enjoy where we were.
TLL: You mentioned earlier about switching back to mid and how that was more at the request of your Ghost teammates. When they asked you to do that, was that a little bit disappointing? Did you consider maybe trying to Jungle for someone else?
CT: Yeah, I haven't been too vocal publicly about the role swap to mid because it did lead to me ultimately getting kicked from that Ghost lineup. And I felt like it was a real slap in the face because it was a sacrifice I made to my jungle career that I made for that team. And I don't have any resentment to any one person on what is now the Dragons—the core of PBM, PandaCat, fineokay, and it was sam4soccer2 at the time. So there's absolutely nothing personal, but I felt like it was a very hard choice. I remember Mike coming downstairs to where I was and sitting me down saying, 'this is what we want, but if you don't want to play mid, then we're going to replace you in the jungle anyway.' And me not really understanding that. I did look for other options. I wanted to play with my support from Obey Alliance, EmilZy. He had moved on to PK at the time, but that team disbanded. So I did talk to him a little bit about wanting to team with him again and he wanted to team with me again, but he eventually decided to quit to go to university. And at the same time I decided I had a better shot with the Ghost team, but to be honest, it was mostly because the Ghost team was so fun to play with. Fineokay is one of the all-time best teammates I've ever had in terms of just having fun with just another human being on a team. PBM and Panda Cat were super fun as well. Basically, all four of them were super fun to team with and that ultimately led me to choose that [option of moving to mid]. But I don't think it was good for my career to play mid for a year and take a year away from the jungle where I think I am at my best.
TLL: You said it wasn't good for your career as a jungler, but do you think that you were still relatively successful in mid? I mean, you had some very impressive games at SWC. Of course, the Anubis game against Renegades was a really big highlight, and for my money, I think you were really underrated basically all of that season. Do you think that season wasn't a success?
CT: I appreciate that and I've heard that from a lot of people. In fact, a big reason why Biggy wanted to team with me is because of that year that I played mid on Ghost and he thought I gave a lot to my team because he was coaching the Radiance team at the time. So we scrimmed against them a lot. But I would say it was a bittersweet year. I think I had some real downs, especially at the start of the year. I had a really poor spring split and some of the summer split was really poor too. I was just trying to learn Merlin and Persephone, and these characters, they can't really get in there and get involved [the way I wanted to]. Even Raijin, you can play it kind of two ways. You can dash in, which is how I played it, and you can dash out, which is how most people played it, and get more damage off. And I basically had to learn a new style that I wasn't very comfortable with. I think because of my teammates, because of sam4soccer, because of PBM just being so great at being teammates and working around where I'm strong, it became a small success in terms of a year. And I did learn a lot in terms of a different perspective from the mid-lane that year. So I wouldn't say it was a waste. I didn't waste a year of my life. I'm glad I had it. I'm glad I played with the squad another year because it was a lot of fun. It was a hell of a year. And we did win the two intermittent tournaments and got that second place, so I can't be too disappointed with that. I would just say I wasn't at my personal best playing mid on that team.
TLL: When I was interviewing fineokay, I asked him about this decision, and one of the things that he said that gave him some confidence in you and mid-lane was your track record in duel. And he said he thought that Paul being a very good duel player was one of the reasons he was so good in mid. Do you think that there's some merit to that?
CT: For sure. I think any game mode can help you in competitive SMITE, which is different from any other game mode. Conquest ranked will not give you the same practice that playing comp will. So, I mean, in duel specifically, you learn a lot of different kind of matchups of how you should play. If you're a mage against a melee, if you're a mage against a hunter, if you're a mage against another mage, you learn these different ways of playing the game in your head. And I think Paul is one of the best that's ever done it in terms of the way he plays his individual matchups, whether he's against a ranged character or a melee character or a character that can't really kill him. So he knows what he can do against that character. I think that is a big reason why Paul is so good is he plays so much of the game in different game modes and in different perspectives. I think it did help me for sure in a similar way, especially since in duel you don't really play the same character over and over again. You can, but most people play a good variety of characters and it gives you a broader knowledge of what you should do. So definitely it did help for my mid year.
TLL: And do you think that some of that maybe translates over to Jungle? I know you have a really unique play style when it comes to SPL Junglers and it definitely feels like a little bit like you can pick up any god and just play. I remember at playoffs, you picked Pele and I was like, 'that's not a Twig god,' and then you just ran them over. So do you think duel has anything to do with that, of bringing that versatility, that unique style?
CT: Yeah, it's funny because I'm in a little bit of a clash in my own brain about whether I want to be the type of player that sticks to like four or five characters and just becomes a master of those gods rather than a jack of all trades, master of none, if that makes sense. I think a player like Paul—he's a player that pros should look up to. He will he will very stubbornly play a character over and over again. And if that gets banned, play the next character over and over again. Maybe Hel, maybe Set, maybe Vulcan. And he'll just stubbornly play them over and over again and he'll be the master of them. He's played them against every other character in the game. He knows exactly what he's going to do with them. He knows his damage. And then there's the versatile player. I'm thinking SoloOrTroll, and I'm thinking like a lot of players in the league, even Variety is a bit like this, where he can just play everything. And I'm in a bit of a clash in my brain. I think I like to be a non-versatile player and play the same things every game for consistency. But yeah, I think duel helps, and I'm a casual player as well. I play a lot of Assault, and I love Assault because you don't pick your god. That's my favorite thing about Assault. You don't have to choose, you just get a nice broad godpool that, if you play Assault all night for 5 hours, you might not play the same character twice. And I think that's super fun and definitely adds versatility to my godpool.
Knight, second from right, with his Obey Alliance teammates at the season four SMITE World Championship. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
TLL: And a lot of times you play a really strong facilitator style, which I don't think it's fair to box you into that corner, but especially when Warrior Jungles were met at I think you would build tankier than the other Junglers. Very good at setting up your team rather than necessarily being the outright carry. Do you think that your difference in playstyle from the other SPL Junglers makes the Kings a bit difficult to draft and play against?
CT: I think it's what fits my team the best. I would say, maybe, what a lot of other junglers lack is team play. Not in terms of assists or anything, I'm sure the other junglers have plenty of assists compared to me. It's more understanding that you soaking abilities, just like a solo laner or a support would, can be as good as you using every ability and getting all your damage off—as long as you're not dying for free or dying for no reason, which is a problem that I have as well. I feel like a lot of the time I'm maybe too optimistic about my own health. I think it's more understanding that you're just one of five players. And I think a lot of other junglers, but not even just other junglers but other players in general—especially in the carry roles—think of it more as a ranked game that they need to carry. Ultimately, you're just four abilities of 20 that your team have and one HP pool of five. If you die, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't mean you win or lose a game. I think Zapman perfectly understands that too, and maybe that's why he's the three-time, because he can die in a lot of fights and still win the game.
TLL: I actually wrote in my phase three week five power rankings that you had a little bit of a dying problem. I mentioned how you were tied with NeilMah for second most deaths for any player on a top four team at that time. But then I wrote later, after playoffs, that obviously you all had played a lot better with Jarcorrr, but I'd also referenced your resurgence and your performance. Do you feel like you turned it on a little bit towards the end of the phase and playoffs?
CT: There's a couple of things. It's a great question, and I'm glad that you did feel like you really saw a change. One was I gave up alcohol somewhere halfway through fall split—five or six weeks in. I said us Kings were a big 'go to bars, go to restaurants, drink some beers' team, and that's totally fine. I wouldn't say I had an alcohol problem. I just drink every time we went out as a team, which is fine. But I felt like my brain was super cloudy and didn't know what was going on in a lot of our matches. I don't think alcohol was the biggest deal. I think it was more about psychology and not having that confidence and maybe overthinking what I was doing all the time. And I could not get out of that slump. There was a game I went maybe zero and ten on Ne Zha. It was against Leviathans the first time, and I had plenty more bad games after that. I think we lost to the Oni Warriors once. We lost to Dragons twice, and I just couldn't get out. I'd be psyching myself out before a set, like, ‘okay, I'm going to end the slump now. I'm going to end the slump.’ And I think Variety had his own slump, but that's for him to be aware of. And I did make him aware of it, too, as I was aware of my own slump, and he got out of it himself. It might be linked to both of us playing a little bit better because we have to play off each other a lot. But I got very aware of the slump I was in, and I think it had a negative feedback loop of me not being able to get out of the slump. We had a couple decent sets, and the biggest week was the week Jarcorrr joined. I don't blame my slump on anything Netrioid was doing. That was a big feel bad moment because I was underperforming, and then we kicked just a random player that doesn't have much to do with me as an ADC. But that week that he joined, I just played. I didn't think about the way I played too much. I just let myself be in the zone and just play just how I felt and do what I wanted. If I was too overaggressive, I didn't kick myself for it. I would think, 'okay, that's fine. Let's move on to the next. What did I get out of it? Did I get Aegis? Okay, I can go back and kill him.' I think that week just got me out of that slump and back into the zone where I stopped thinking about my performance and maybe even how it would look. So I got out, and I think Variety did at the same time.
TLL: When that's happening, when you're feeling a bit of a slump, are there picks that you maybe fall back on as maybe more comfortable? Do you try to rely more on muscle memory rather than having to think about what you do? Obviously the Ne Zha is a very well known pick for you.
CT: The problem with Ne Zha is that he's a very inconsistent character. He's a feast or famine character. So you can go 1-10 one game and maybe 5-0-20 the next. You can get a ton of assists on that character because he's just such a set-up monster. It can be a flip of a coin. One bad start, you die at level two, and you can guarantee yourself that you're just going to die ten times because it's so hard to do your job. Maybe ult a tank in the air and then at the bottom you're going to get Vulcan ulted or something. And without the levels that you need, you're just not going to live that basically ever. So he's feast or famine. I'd say more consistent characters like Hun Batz. He's always safe, he's got that quick jump. He's always got a consistent ult. You can't really miss it. So you pick these gods that don't really have anything to miss. Lancelot, I think is a good one. He doesn't really have anything to miss. You either do hit your dashes or you're not in range. You either ult someone or you don't. Same with Hun Batz. You're either in range to hit your slam, or you're not. And I think the gods that don't allow you to miss too much maybe is the comfort zone and maybe what I'd fall back on when I'm not feeling great and confident.
TLL: So thinking about that season with Ghost. You've won the most games of any SPL player and you've been to the most finals without winning a final. What was that experience like in season 7, not being able to bring it home with that team?
CT: Disappointing doesn't quite cover it. Let me think of a better word. Tragic. The thing about the Ghost and RivaL team was they were so fun to be around and they were like huge winners. Fineokay and I specifically maybe had more of a closer thing where neither of us had won, whereas PBM and PandaCat didn't have that. They didn't have a block because they'd already won. They'd already done it in season four, and sam4soccer had won as well. Maybe Arkkyl, but I feel like he's ice cold a little bit, so he doesn't really have a hurdle to overcome. It's just disappointing. But I think it's just part of the journey now. Or at least that's how I like to live my life, as opposed to just be staying up at night [thinking about it]. Although I wouldn't feel like that the week after we lost, let's get that right. But I think it's better to just think of it as a journey now. Maybe I'll never win worlds. That's possible. Maybe I'll play for the next three, four years and I'll never win. I'll be 32 and I'll just retire, and that's possible. And maybe that journey, it won't be about any specific result, it'll just be what I did. And the fact that I tried so hard week in, week out, maybe the fact that we win one summer split this year, I don't think many people care that much about that. Not a lot of the fans will think that's more important than winning Worlds. It just isn't. But the fact that maybe I just gave everything week in, week out at the start of the year and the middle of the year, every team I was on was competitive and could beat the other best teams, or at least give them a good game. That will be my legacy if I don't win. And I'm fine with that. I'm maybe not as goal oriented as I have been in the past about needing to win Worlds.
Knight with the Camelot Kings at the season eight SMITE World Championship. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
TLL: After last season's Worlds, you mentioned how that loss wasn't quite as bad as it could have been if it was an in person tournament, and how much you were looking forward to playing another in-person Worlds. What was your reaction when you found out, obviously it was your teammate Variety who leaked the news, but what was your reaction when you found out that there wasn't going to be an in person Worlds?
CT: Honestly, it was like hearing the news that someone's passed away. I remember entering the studio that day. It was pretty full of pro players because they just had a meeting, but they'd only let—well, I maybe shouldn't go too far into details—but only two people from every team there. But I went to pick something up from the studio, and it was so dark and the mood was ice cold. And I didn't even know what happened. This was maybe a day or two before Variety leaked, but it was so terrible because for almost every pro, I feel like the one thing they play for is to win in front of a crowd. That's it. It's not for money, really. I mean, every pro is going to like money, everyone likes money, but it's not really for fame either. It's just the rush of winning against another team that's tried just as hard as you in front of your friends, family, and people who just love the game. And I think it felt like we were robbed in the two COVID years. It's completely understandable, but now COVID is kind of going away. There are vaccinations available. It's not as prevalent, it's not as deadly as before. It felt like we were getting robbed of the one thing we were playing for and dreaming of and waiting for. And I can only express gratitude to every single person, every single fan for what they did because they really did make Worlds happen.
TLL: How did it feel to hear that they had gone back on that and announced an in-person Worlds?
CT: Honestly, like Christmas. It was probably the single best moment of this entire year, including winning a playoffs. We came second into really pretty intense LANs against good teams. I've had different personal, amazing things that have happened this year, but it really was the single best thing that happened this year or maybe even for years, like for two or three years since COVID did just absolutely... It ruined everything for everyone around the world. Not just in the Smite Pro League. But it was amazing because that really is for three years. It's maybe like the best weekend that I can hope for.
TLL: And obviously you would have preferred to win in season seven. But now having this narrative that you have of this almost decade-long chase in the making, being able to come back to the in-person worlds as the first seed, a very competitive team, how would that feel to get that storybook ending for your first championship?
CT: I think you said it best that it would be a storybook ending. What will be interesting if we do win is how my brain is going to search for what to do next. I'm married, so that's maybe the other goal in my life that I was heading towards and then winning in my career. So I've got my life goal of maybe having kids and being married and the other one is winning Worlds. I will definitely still want to compete. I know that. I know I want to compete next year, win or lose, because I still feel like I've got more to give—more passion, more competition of the game. But I think if we do win it, it might actually be an interesting aftermath of that because it's so unhealthily been my goal for so long. Not just this year, not last year, but for nine now. It's been so unhealthily my goal. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll definitely celebrate, but I think there might be this feeling that I want to win more. There's plenty of people that have won more than me. Zapman's won three, other people have won two. I just want to show that I can maybe win more in a row. That it wasn't just a one good lucky weekend.
TLL: You mentioned you're married. How long have you all been together and how has her support been for you?
CT: So I met Zoe in the first year I was here in America on Tinder, of course. And we were maybe dating for a little over a year, maybe a year and a half. I don't know if that sounds right now. Maybe it was two years and a half. The timeline is off. I got engaged to her and we married six months later. So a quick engagement. She's a gamer, but not she's really a SMITE player. She grew up with World of Warcraft and played other various PC games, but mostly she got an Xbox and she's like an Xbox player now. She plays Apex. She played a few games of SMITE. It wasn't really for her. She played a bit of League of Legends too. She just likes the mythology and stuff. But she was more interested that this was what I did for my job. And she's been super supportive, and I think some people would think that it's a degenerate job and that's kind of my job not to let myself be the degenerate that could be lumped in with the job. But she's been such a good balance to my life. No matter what's happening—I can be in a slump, I can be losing a lot, I can maybe not have a team, because I did have to part ways with that Ghost team—and she's beside me. She's supportive, she wants the best for me, but she's not going to blame or care if I'm doing bad in SMITE. It's like a pillar, a real balance to my life, and she's always happy when I win, but at the same time I don't have to win, and I don't have any pressure for that side of my life.
TLL: You've mentioned some up and downs over the years. You kind of referenced them just now. Obviously, your career is one of the longest still going in the league. Has it been hard to stay at it at times?
CT: One of my luckiest traits is how competitive I've always been in my life, because I think you can get really burnt out of any game, and I've been playing SMITE for ten now, you can get burnt out of any game in much under a year of playing it. And I think the one thing I always fall back on is if I wasn't loving one particular meta or one particular group of characters that were super meta, or maybe even a team that I didn't necessarily love the most—but I've had a very lucky string of teams since basically the SK/fanatic roster—that I don't think was personally that good for me in terms of growing as a player, is that I've always been competitive, no matter what. And I've always had that drive, that unrelenting need to prove myself to be the best. I don't think it's been hard so much as there's been a couple of things I've had to give up. I don't have the best prospects, given that I did leave uni to do this. I've given up maybe my short-term future. I can still go back to university, I can still learn how to do any job I want to do, but maybe I've given up a little bit of my early to mid-life to a video game that maybe won't be the best prospect for what I do in the future unless I get into Esports, which I might. But I've maybe given up my future prospects. You know, I'm not going to be earning seven figures anytime soon. But I definitely don't regret anything I've done, and I'm very grateful for that drive I have for keeping me un-burnt out.
TLL: You're from England, right?
CT: Yup.
TLL: Has it been hard to move over here and be in NA? Are you in NA for the offseason as well?
CT: I've been in America since just before COVID, so two, three years now, almost on the month. Three years. I don't think it's been as hard for me as most. I'd already got out of my moving on from my parents, living with my parents before the move to America, so I knew how to live without my parents. I knew a little bit of how to cook, how to function, how to wake up in a day without needing parents to be close. So I think I'm luckier than maybe most pro players who are a little bit younger in Europe who maybe had never really left the nest before. So I don't think I'm as affected as most. And I've also just got Zoe now and I've got two pets, a dog and a cat. So I've got my own little family here, so I'm not as affected. I don't mind. I like it in Georgia. I don't think it's that different than England, personally. It just rains less and it's less windy, so I'll take those any day. There's assholes everywhere and there's good people everywhere, so I personally don't mind. I love it here, but I think if you ask other European players, you'll get a very different response.
Knight with Team Rival at the season six SMITE World Championship. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Stuidos.
TLL: We've talked plenty about how many times you've been to the World stage and coming so close, being on so many competitive teams. Does it feel different this time?
CT: That's a good question. A small part of me wants to say it doesn't feel different. I've been on underdog teams, like Obey, even SK was a real underdog team, and Fanatic in season two. Then I went from being lower end underdog to 'we're favored by a lot. We just need to win this finals against a 6th seed regular season team, SK, and we've done it.' And we've been that huge, you could bet so much money on us that we'd win. And so I don't feel that different. I feel like I've been on the the up and the down of expectancy. I feel like we've got a good shot, but as with every tournament, we just need to be focused and have a good weekend. We're not even 50% likely to win. It just completely depends on us and how we turn up on that tournament, and I guess a little bit the other teams. I just think the biggest battle we have to face is maybe overconfidence because we did win this last playoff tournament and we do win a lot of scrims. So I think a big battle we have is what do we do when we're behind? What do we do when everything doesn't go so well at the start of games? Do we keep our focus and our composure or do we lose the set because we can't get our composure going? And no, I don't think I'd say we're super favored to win even though we're first seed. We just need to play our game.
TLL: You say overconfidence. You're talking about Variety, right?
CT: [Laughs]. No, I'm talking about Genetics. Extremely confident player. It's a good trait to think you're the best because it will always give you confidence. But Genetics has this attitude, he just wants to win everything. He wants to win every scrim, he wants to win every match. He wants to show he's the best and he wants to put every team in the ground as fast as possible. And I kind of have the more conservative approach of just saying, okay, let's not make too many mistakes. Let's keep our composure. We don't have to win quick if we don't need to. We don't have to run it down. We can just chill. We can give respect to other teams, we can give respect to other players and still be better than them. And the thing is, I've been to tournaments where I've been the first seed and it doesn't give you a gold lead at one minute in. It doesn't help you at all, the first seed status. All it means is you were good at the last tournament. So for me, just staying balanced, staying level is where I'll be at my best, but hopefully the whole team will be too.
TLL: So it amounts to over a month of a break between the end of playoffs and when you play again at Worlds, what's the preparation like? Do you all take a little bit of a break? Are you scrimming nonstop, maybe slowed down or ramp up before worlds? How does that all work out?
CT: I think every SPL team for the most part is going to take a little bit of time off around Christmas and maybe New Year's, but probably that week of Christmas will be generally taken off by most teams, including the teams that have to play at the playoffs a week earlier than us. We just had our last scrim today before BigManTings and Genetics go to England. We're going to take about half a week off, play two days with them in England, and then another week off or something like that and that's it. So it's two weeks basically with two days in there and then we'll probably go pretty hard, maybe six days a week. I wouldn't say no days off, maybe one day off a week, some doubles here and there. I don't think we're the hardest working team in the league, but we're definitely not the least working team in the league. We also play a lot. We're all going pretty hard in ranked, I'd say, compared to most other teams. Even Variety, who hasn't played a lot of ranked over the years is just slamming the game. Jarcorrr has really brought that to the team, too, where he'll just come on discord and say, 'come on, let's go, let's play some duo queue' or whatever. So we'll play a lot as well as scrims, and I think that's a big deal because we have that kind of, as I said, multiple perspectives where we don't just have our scrims to look at for our game knowledge. So, yeah, it's ramped up a lot and we're probably going to be playing something like 6 hours a day most days until Worlds.
TLL: Is there any team that you think is maybe a dark horse could make a run at Worlds?
CT: I think the team that would shock everyone could be the Oni Warriors. They're really solid players. QvoFred's won a championship, Neil's won two. And Neil is not the most consistent player, but sometimes he does just wake up and have a great game or a great match or just a great weekend, and he's had two before. And Fred is a real momentum player. I think a lot of the time he just looks underwhelming, but he absolutely has the potential to be the best jungler at a tournament. And I'd say if there is a team that wins Worlds that's not of the top four teams, it's going to be Oni Warriors and it's going to look really dominating. I'd also add to that, that Dardez is an MVP in the making. He's a very aggressive, versatile mid-laner.
TLL: You're on the opposite side of the bracket as the Dragons in Leviathans.
CT: That's right. Providing they win their quarter-final games, they should be in the other semifinals than us. If Bolts win their match we will be against the Bolts, which is great for us because I think Leviathans and the Dragons right now are the two consistent competitors that we're going to play against, and them having to take each other out before the finals is great for us.
TLL: Yeah, I don't mean to imply that you have a super easy path to finals, but definitely a favorable bracket for you. The prospect of facing off against the Dragons in the finals, sharing the stage with some former teammates, how does that sound to you? What does that feel like to you?
CT: In the back of my head maybe my brain thinks that will be the case, almost the storybook ending, as we've said, to a chapter. I don't know whose chapter that will be. I don't know who's the hero. Maybe fineokay will be, maybe it'll be me. I feel like it should be me. I got dropped from that team. Where's the revenge? So I'd like to see them in the finals, and I'd love to beat them, I'd love to have that memory and that feeling. But as I say, I'm not really a resentful player. I just want to play the best at the tournament. I don't want to be someone who lucked their way, maybe... I was going to say through lucky Fires, but you make your own luck in SMITE. So I hope we'll have the most competitive finals yet. I want to just play our game and basically give the best show to all the fans that we can as long as we win.
TLL: Well, I'm interviewing you and not them, so you've got the narrative on your side, at least.
CT: [Laughs].
TLL: I do a segment in these interviews where we look at the trivia section of more established players to see if any of it's accurate. Is it true you grew up in a town in West Africa until you were twelve?
CT: That's right. I lived in a country called Niger and the town was called Zinder and that's where I lived for twelve years as a missionary kid, as we call ourselves.
TLL: And is it true that you like badminton?
CT: I used to. In America it's not taken as seriously. I think in America, tennis is the badminton, or at least in Georgia. In England, you can go to a badminton club and they'll have real tryhards playing and everyone's playing doubles, and they've got their little strategies—one at the front, one at the back, or do sides or whatever. And it's a pretty serious it can get pretty try-hard. And I used to go with my dad every week, maybe twice a week sometimes. That's one of my best memories, honestly, is how tryhard those games would get with other, you know, full-grown men. And I'm just like an 18-year-old boy, and we're just going toe to toe. I do love the game, but I haven't played it for years now.
TLL: Has anything taken into place since you've been in America? You mentioned tennis, have you been playing tennis?
CT: No, I have been playing pickleball though, which is this miracle game, I think. I don't know who made it up, but you can tell because all the old people, like all the old retired people, they all play it. They know it's the best game ever to exist. You know you've got to follow into that. And they'll just be playing at the court. You can go to the courts and ask to hop in sometimes, but usually me and the Kings go, or they'll just meet me at the courts and we'll play some 2v2s. It's like tennis, but it's easy. It's easy tennis. Because tennis is like a lot of running and the serving isn't that easy. So, yeah, pickleball is my replacement for badminton. It's a great sport.
TLL: I already know this is true. It says you have a habit of staring into the camera when at LAN. Is that something you make a point to do when you have the chance. How did that start?
CT: I'm not really sure why it started. I just remember thinking it's funny. It's funny when an any athlete, and I'm not saying I'm this, big famous athlete, but I think it's always funny when, you know, some pro of a game, let's say, scores a goal in football or gets an ace in tennis or something, and then stares directly in the camera because it's like they're looking outside of your TV, right into you. And I just thought it was a cool thing that athletes do, so why not do it in my little Esport that I play?
TLL: All right, well, thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it. Anything you want to shout out here at the end?
CT: Yeah, I already touched over it, but especially with Worlds with fans coming up, thank you to everyone reading this right now. There's a good chance a lot of you had a lot to do with why we get to play Worlds in person in Texas. And traveling and playing in front of a crowd is all I play for. So I just want to shout out to everyone who helped make that happen and also my team for being the absolute monsters they are. I wouldn't be where I am without having five teammates beside me being the winners that I can maybe help them to be. But I'm never going to carry a team. I always need a talented group of teammates to do it with. So I'd like to thank them for getting us to Worlds first seed because I'd never do it without them.
CaptainTwig will continue the chase this weekend in Arlington, Texas.
