The Coronation
Season Nine Champion Camelot Kings on the New Rosters, Year Ten, and Winning it All
The Camelot Kings look out on the SMITE World Championship crowd following their victory in the season nine grand finals.
Through the first twenty months of their history, the Camelot Kings hadn’t won a tournament.
It’s not necessarily surprising. At the Kings’ inception in season eight, SMITE had become somewhat dynastic, with the same-or-similar teams always making deep runs at Worlds. From seasons four through eight, Finals always featured one of Aror, Zapman, or PolarBearMike’s teams. In seasons six, seven and eight, these teams clogged both the Semifinals and Finals, gatekeeping new-look teams from a shot at a ring. There were hiccups along the way—Zapman’s championship team folded, landing him on an entirely new roster, while PolarBearMike’s team faded in season eight, ending their run of three Finals appearances in four seasons. Still, with Aror and Zapman squaring off in the season eight Finals (a quasi rematch of their season seven Semifinal), it was as clear as ever that these players knew how to lead their teams to the promised land. Doubly so when Zapman lifted the hammer for the third consecutive season.
For all of their obvious talent, the Kings were beginning to look like the latest in a long line of talented also-rans. Like Dignitas in season six or Spacestation Gaming in season seven, the Kings showed flashes of brilliance and a stalwart consistency among the league’s top teams. Fans will remember season eight Worlds as the unstoppable force of the Leviathans against the immovable Titans, but it was the Kings who were the second seed after knocking out the Leviathans at phase 3 playoffs, then nearly stealing a reverse sweep against the Titans in the playoff finals. But the late-season heroics of that team have been largely forgotten. That’s what happens when you lose.
Most of the way through season nine, the Kings’ fate as a talented-but-ultimately-unsuccessful team seemed all but sealed. Mike’s Dragons had surged to the top of the SPL once again, toppling the Kings in a riveting phase 2 playoff final, only to be immediately supplanted in phase 3 by Zapman’s defending champion Leviathans. The two phase 3 matches between the Leviathans and Dragons rank as two of the best regular season sets SMITE has ever seen, featuring fast-paced starts, grueling comebacks, and clutch objective steals. The writing was on the wall for these teams to yet again clash in a World Finals.
The Kings, who had drifted quietly to third place, saw it, too. with two weeks left in the phase, they made a roster change at ADC, picking up Jarcorrr after the wayward multi-role talent had been cast from the Leviathans just months earlier. In the final week, the Kings defeated the Leviathans to snap their record-setting 11-set win streak. And they didn’t stop there. As the third seed at phase 3 playoffs, the Kings pulled off a remarkable heist of the SWC first seed, besting both the Dragons and the Leviathans, ensuring that the two teams would be on the same side of the SWC bracket. Then the Kings rolled their way through a favorable bracket. Awaiting them in Finals—to the surprise of no one—Aror’s Titans…
We’d forgotten about Aror, whose season eight runner-up squad had gone through tumultuous upheaval in season nine and drifted out of the top four. They improbably fought through the aforementioned juggernaut Leviathans and Dragons. Had the Titans won Finals, it would have been the sixth consecutive championship from one of the ‘Big Three.’ It would have reinforced the narrative that the Pro League inevitably boiled down to a three man race at the end of the year. But the season nine Finals was less of a contest and more of a coronation. The Kings handled the Titans as the capstone to the most dominant SWC run in history. The Camelot Kings are the new kids on the championship block—and, as the only team returning in full for SMITE’s tenth season, they might just be here a while.
I sat down with Genetics, Biggy, and Variety of the Camelot Kings to discuss the new SPL rosters, the changes to SMITE in year ten, and how it felt to win the whole thing.
[The following interview has been edited for clarity.]
The Long Lane: I'm here with Genetics, Variety, and Biggy from the Camelot Kings, champions of season nine, and I'll start with a question for all of you. What was it like winning the SMITE World Championship?
Biggy: Obviously it felt really good. It was surreal, especially after being in the league for so long and having played in so many Worlds and losing a lot. It almost didn't feel real for a while, for at least a day or so. Still, now it feels a little bit strange, but definitely better than losing, that's for sure.
Variety: In the moment, after nine years of trying to win Worlds, it felt like super relieving to finally win. I guess it's a similar feeling to what Twig would have had, that after all the work that I've put in over the years to finally win and cement, I guess you say, a legacy. And as a solo in who's been the league the longest of all the solo laners, it's just a great feeling to finally win.
Biggy: Relief is a good answer.
Genetics: I didn't have as much pressure as the rest of the guys in terms of winning, apart from my own personal ego, because I haven't had the pressure of playing a long time. I haven't lost that much because I have not had the career that these guys have had, so I was a little bit less worried about losing. But it was still enjoyable. It was kind of easy. That was my only complaint is I would have loved a 'set for the ages' where it would have been a best of five one hour final game kind of thing, but we sh-- stomped them.
TLL: What do you think made the tournament so easy, genetics? Was it just that your game plan was better, you had a better read of the meta than everyone else?
G: You have to look at the matchups versus the Pro League teams. I was not worried about any of the teams apart from Leviathans, because every other team--Dragons, Titans--I think they had a lot of weaknesses and they throw quite a lot. We've got a lot of players that are great at farming and we're great at team fighting late game. So we always have a backup plan, in my head, where we can get to late game and win regardless of the comps, for the most part, because we've got the best frontliner in Harry (Variety), I've got the two best carries behind me, and Ben will make a lot of space for us as well. So it's as if that was a backup plan where we can't really lose against a lot of other teams, regardless of the draft. But looking at Leviathans, they had that as well, right? Steve (Zapman) and Sheento are good backliners, too. So when Leviathans left the tournament, for me, it felt like we were going to win regardless, because we were just better than the rest of teams late game, and then we ended up beating them early game anyway.
B: I wouldn't say it was necessarily the meta. We had a decent meta that we were pretty confident in and we had a really broad variety of picks. I would say it was our preparation that won it for us. We spoke a lot about every single individual pick and when we wanted to pick it, and we spoke a lot about not considering picks as OP. He Bo, for example, we didn't think was as good in mid, so we kind of baited the Titans into picking it and we had a good plan for it. Just our preparation, we were confident playing against a lot of picks and playing with a lot of picks. And I think when you have that much strategy in your picks and bans, you're really hard to beat in the draft.
TLL: Going into the finals, Biggy, you saw a Titans team upset two teams that people thought were stronger in the Leviathans and Dragons. And they did that through really creative drafts with the Thanatos and the Tiamat and the Cabrakan, and forcing respect to a lot of different picks that allowed Cyno, Aror, and SoloOrTroll to get the picks that they wanted. After you discovered that you were going to face the Titans, how did you approach that preparation to flip that script on them and win the draft, really in all three games in the Finals?
B: From my point of view as a coach, we learned a lot from the Dragons set and the way the Dragons drafted. A big part of what I do is preparing my team to play. Obviously you have to play your game, but you have to play your game around how the other team wants to play. And each team is largely different. Maybe one or two teams can be similar in the way they want to play, but for me, learning from the Dragons set [made a big difference]. I had also coached Aror before, I know the way he wants to play, and I saw a pattern in the way they drafted and the way they wanted to play. Our three bans were perfect for that and we ignored what Paul and Stewart wanted to do because we felt that they were going to play decently no matter what they picked. In game five, the Dragons banned Tiamat and He Bo, and Paul had top damage on Vulcan, who in my opinion was the best mage in the game at the time. So we got lucky in a sense that we got to see the Titans play a best of five, and we were really confident in our strategy, committed to it, and it paid off.
TLL: Variety, you were on a team in season three with Ben (CaptainTwig), and you had a really tough Finals set against NRG, who eventually won, and a lot of people still hail your performance in that set as one of the best ever individual Finals performances. But of course, you and Twig weren't able to bring it home that year. How special was it for you to finally get this championship alongside him this year?
The Kings embrace on stage following their championship victory.
V: I think I tweeted before when we made Finals, I tweeted something about it being poetic that the time that I made finals again, because I've only ever made it twice, was also with Ben. It's cringe to say it but I feel like it was meant to be, that if we made the finals, me and Ben, this time we would go out and win it. And I told Ben when we did the walk-outs to the stage for the first game, I told him that this time we're going to win it. I had a really good feeling that we were going to win this time. I was super confident in my lane, and I was super confident in all of my teammates and their matchups individually. So I just knew this time that we were going to win.
TLL: For Genetics, this was your first in-person event, and you were really working the crowd in between those wins, kind of shrugging and taunting the other team a bit. What was that in-person aspect like for you, and did it make the experience sweeter than it would have been?
G: I'm not the biggest sportsman now, but when I was younger, I used to play a lot of sports in front of my dad, and he used to be like the guy that would cheer and say, come on, son, and all that stuff. And he used to talk to the opponent a lot. So I think I got that from my dad, where it's a lot more fun talking sh-- while playing, regardless of whether you're winning or losing. I think I got it from there, but it was enjoyable. It's always better when you're winning if you're taunting. But I was so confident and I think that it should be done more. If you're confident, you have to show it. When I go back and watch it, it'll make me more fond as well, especially doing it in front of a crowd for the first time. It's pretty fun.
B: We kind of had to carry some confidence because once we played the Ravens, it was all NA teams left. And we knew we were going to be against the crowd and, at Worlds, in front of the crowd, that is a big part of momentum and confidence as an EU team if you're playing against NA crowds and they chant USA. And I know the Titans have a lot of chants and Dragons have a lot of fans there, so Genetics being confident, I think the team fed off of it a lot and it helped. I saw BigMan, I saw Jarcorrr [getting into it] and BigMan specifically is a quiet guy, but when he's confident and energetic and animated on stage, then that passes through the whole team as well. It just gave us a lot of confidence.
G: He was going crazy. He was going crazy. We had to calm him down because he was going so crazy, which you don't get from Jordan (BigManTingz) a lot.
TLL: Variety, you mentioned how you've been playing longer than the other solo laners, for nine seasons now. Ben as well. Was there any thought, any conversation toward maybe retiring a Champion? What made you want to come back for a 10th year?
V: I've never really had the thought of retiring. I don't know what it is. I feel like, right now, I've hit my prime almost even though it's been nine years. I feel like I've been playing the best I've ever played, I have the biggest godpool compared to any time in my history. I just think it would be really stupid to retire now after finally hitting my stride and being the best and being so confident in every lane that I go into. I don't think it would be the right time to retire. I'll probably retire when I'm washed up, and right now I definitely don't feel like I'm washed up at all.
B: Especially having coached Harry five of the six years that I've been an SPL coach, I would have to agree that as a player and a teammate, he's kind of peaking, at least from what I've seen. So it would make no sense for him to retire.
TLL: You all had a really strong team all season with Netrioid, and had won the most games of any team this season. Of course, you came up short at those events. But once you made the change to Jarcorrr, you actually won your last eleven sets of the year, which ties the consecutive set streak that the Leviathans set earlier in the, earlier in the season. What was the difference Jarcorrr brought to the team that was able to make you so dominant?
V: Coming from solo, I think solo laners have a good eye or perspective of the game in general, of positioning and when to fight and how to trade properly. He also has pretty good comms. He's a confident player. I think Netrioid, despite being confident, he sometimes lacked in comms and telling us when he's strong and where he wants to fight and if he wants us to do anything to help him out. Jarcorrr is very, you could say, opinionated on what he wants to do and how he wants to do it. So I think that was a big factor [for us]. And also he's a very confident-in-himself type of player. Every game and every set he goes into, he thinks he's the best player. And I think that's the confidence that we sometimes didn't get from Netrioid. Especially going into worlds or a big set, having a player like that who is confident in himself, confident in the matchup and what they're going to do in the game carries over to everyone else in the team. For example, when I solo killed SoloOrTroll in game one for first blood, that gave everyone confidence going into the whole set, that we were just a better team and that we'd come out on top and I kind of feel like that's what Jarcorrr brings to the table compared to Netrioid.
B: For me, it's just team balance. I don't want to speak negative of 'roid, but I feel he got a bit complacent on our team. And we were a top team, we all agreed that we missed a little bit of confidence in ourselves as a team to kind of ask ourselves, 'are we just top four?' Kind of a 'maybe we make Finals', or 'maybe we'll win a Final randomly [sort of team].' I think Jarcorrr gave us that confidence where we feel we can win literally everything with this team just because of the type of player he is. I think 'roid will fit in just as well as Jarcorrr can, but on a different type of team. At least for us, he [Jarcorrr] balances Sam [Genetics] out specifically when it comes to his shot calling and just how Sam wants to play the map, he gives us this balance in our comms and the confidence overall, just because of the type of player he is. And I think that confidence was what won us Worlds in the end.
TLL: Genetics, you hit a really impressive five man Maui ult against the Bolts in the semifinals. They were grouped behind a wall, looking for a play back in as they were behind. What did you see there in order to make that ultimate?
G: After resetting, we went for the end and Jake sold his entire build for damage. And as we were resetting, we were speaking about it. So they had to go for an all in, right. When the support has one defensive item and three damage items, they had to do something sneaky. And on the reset we dropped the scepter, which in the old patch used to give vision around it if you didn't pick it up. For whatever reason, we didn't pick it up. So we knew they were going to make a play, but they stood on the scepter vision. So we waited until we were grouped a little bit and then pretended we didn't know they were there. And then the fight was just over from there. Harry got a good blink in, Jordan hit three snipes in a row on someone and then they couldn't do anything. But scepter vision [is how I saw them].
TLL: Was that Maui pick something that you practiced a lot and knew was going to be the prime support pick in this tournament?
G: I went through a stage where I didn't think he was that good. That's when I was back in the UK, though, I was kind of like getting tilted at playing the character a little bit, but I think he performed a lot better in the tournament than sometimes in practice. He was busted. But I went through a phase where I wasn't sure if he was the best support.
B: He got buffed as well.
G: Yeah, it was the buff. It was the buff that did actually, I'm misremembering. Before, you couldn't jump and then instantly one someone off your stun because the one wasn't fast enough. So you couldn't get a lot of CC chains off. But they changed his one where it fired at like 20, 25 units instantly, I think. And it made it so that his CC chain was enough for every frontliner that you could lock them down and then for some reason at the tournament, I feel like people just weren't playing well against the ult. I think they were grouping quite a lot. We just ripped quite a lot of ults and they connected most of the time. His ult is insane if people don't respect it. So yeah, it was the buff.
TLL: And it seems like you kind of prioritized these supports that could make really high impact plays in the team fights. The Ymir has been a staple of yours for a really long time. Those walls can really turn team fights. Terra with Terra ult and her walls as well, and then, of course, Maui with the big pull, and he's got a little bit of a wall himself. Is that style something you look for in support picks, as opposed to, say, a Kumbhakarna who we saw Aror pick, or some of these other picks that we see on other teams? Do you think that your style of play was just better suited for winning on the biggest stage?
G: That's hard to say because I've had the same god pool now for the entirety of my career, where even when I was in the combine, the SoC, I was still playing Ymir. Maybe it's become a bit of a meme turned into reality where I can only play gods with walls. I think Ymir has been very strong for a long time. Yemoja with the wall, Terra with the wall, Maui with the wall. I definitely think they were the best gods, but maybe it just played into my hand that they were the best gods at the time as well, since I do think I'm the best wall user.
TLL: Do you think walls are going to be even better now that we have this windier, narrower jungle on the new map?
G: I actually think they're going to be a little bit weaker on some characters. The only character that I think it will be better on is Terra, just because before you had to do a lot of finicky stuff to block people in, but now with all the tight corners, it means you can block people with your two a lot more. But it takes a while, right? You have to get used to the new map and figure out, like, [where to] throw walls over walls that you can't see. So it might take a few months to get used to and then you might realize that, actually, it's kind of easy now.
TLL: Staying on the theme of season ten changes, and Biggy, we can start with you. The Kings were really well known for strong objective play--controlling Scorpions, being the first to Gold Furies, first to Pyros, especially being able to deny those trades that we saw so often where one would get Gold, the other would get Pyro. It's that objective control that really defined the Kings. I would say with this new map, there's fewer objectives, the Scorpions are gone, there's no Scepter to fight over. The map is simplified. Do you think that will force a change in the way the Kings approach the game?
B: It's hard to say. I personally have not played much SMITE at all or even thought about the game just because it's the off season and that's how I am. Some people like to slam the game. I don't. I like to just not think about the game for my offseason. But from what I've seen, it's hard to say how the SPL will be, whether it becomes more brawly or a high pressure meta just because you want to fight all the time because there's less to farm. But it doesn't worry me. I think especially with the roster change we made, we can play multiple styles. It'll just come down to the way it plays out and the way scrims go and what we think is best. We played the way we played in the last map because that's what we thought was best. And specifically at Worlds, the games were really slow, so we said, 'okay, this is how we should play.' So I'm not worried. I think, specifically with our side laners and the way Ben wants to play, that we can adapt to any style.
V: Despite there being less overall objectives to play for on the map, I do think we have really strong laners in all three lanes. I think all of us enjoy picking pressure and trying to win the game. Then the game would probably just go more towards invading buffs rather than rotating for Scorpions or milking cups or setting up to pick up the cups on spawn. Rotate a bit more towards invading the jungle and skirmishing a bit more, and I think all of us enjoy that type of play style, to be honest. I don't think it's going to affect us much in terms of being less objective focused and less stuff to do on the map.
B: Yeah, Sam or Harry can answer better than me just because they've been playing more of the game, probably especially Sam. But I think the roster change gave us a lot more confidence. It gave Ben a lot more confidence in his micro play around the map, invading and stuff. So if that's the way the game is leading, then that suits Ben because he's a brawly, aggressive player. I think it will suit Sam as well because that's how he wants to play. So it's just a matter of waiting and seeing how the meta turns out.
TLL: They introduced shards this season, which are kind of like mini-relics for the early game. For Genetics and Variety, how are you enjoying the addition of shards, and what are the go to shards for your role so far?
V: I've been loving them, to be honest. I do think there is just one standout shard, at least in solo, in my opinion is wing shard. I think that one is super OP. For the first few waves in solo especially, I've been playing a lot of Hercules, and if you pop your wing shard and walk them and swing away, and just save your abilities until they try and escape or dash away, I think that's probably the best one in terms of trying to get kills. The other one for Solo is either the carapace shard, the prot reduction one, and then the claw shard, which gives you power and life steal. I'd say it's probably more god dependent. But overall, in general, I do think that the wing shard is just the best one to get by mile.
G: I'm loving them. I think it's a little bit different for support just because our lane is a little bit less volatile, because there's not really much to snowball off with scepter being gone in season ten. And there's a lot of variety depending on your starter, god, and then duo lane partner combination. For example, like on Yemoja, you want to build horn shard because of the way that it gives back Omi. And then sometimes if you've got a killer you want to go carapace shard. But for me, carapace shard is probably the most common in support, just because taking away their prots and giving it to you is good both on the offensive and the defensive. So that's been my go-to in probably 85% of games so far.
TLL: Speaking of Yemoja, you've been publishing a lot of guides and you're talking a lot about Yemoja specifically with how to maximize her Omi mechanic, and it has been really interesting to see. How important is it for you to kind of bring that cerebral side to the game of constantly thinking about things and innovating things? Do you think it helps you be one of the top supports in the game?
G: Maybe? I think it's maybe a little bit overrated. I don't think the reason why I'm the best support is because of my thought process. I just think I'm mechanically better than every support by a mile. But I guess it matters that I'm thinking about builds correctly and like, I know the Yemoja numbers, but I don't think it really matters, right? If you miss everything, if I know the entire game back to front, but I miss every ability, I'm not going to be in the Pro League, right? So partially, but I actually think it doesn't matter that much. Was that cocky? I don't know. It's true, though.
TLL: The new map has a lot of differences. It's kind of wider, it's a bit of a different shape. What are your impressions, each of you, on the new map so far?
V: At the start I kind of hated it, to be honest. I thought it was very--I guess the word I could use is probably boring. I thought the map was kind of boring, but I've been enjoying it way more the more I've played. And I think it's nice to be able to pick a solo and just farm it up and then rotate to one teamfight mid game, like, let's say Gold Fury or Pyro, just rotate when you're the strongest you can be at that time in the game and winning the game for your team. I guess it's always been like that in solo, but I feel like this season on this map, it's way more prevalent and way easier to do. That's probably my favorite part is there's less stuff to worry about on the map. So you can just focus more on your own lane. You can play the game how you want to play it.
B: Yeah, I mean, I haven't played it a lot. Change is just good. I think the map has been the same for a long time and maybe they'll make more tweaks to make it better. So my opinion is I just think a bit of change is good for everyone and it is just early days. They can make adjustments.
G: I was similar to Harry. I kind of hate the map. I was very vocally against it. I think I put a few rude comments in the balance discord. [Laughs]. I think for me, the biggest problem is that maybe junglers and supports for me are very hot and cold. They kind of neutralize each other. A support's job is to stop the jungler from running the game and vice versa. And with junglers getting bluestone and speed buffed, and then the ability to gank at all three lanes, level two at the start of the game and then support having scepter removed, I think the initial shock of being useless to level five annoyed me. Obviously they nerfed bluestone a little bit and they've nerfed speed buff a little bit more. But for me in ranked I'm definitely having a little bit less fun early game but a lot more fun mid game and late game just because, again, like Harry said, you have less responsibility so you can do more stuff because you won't lose the game. They won't get a free Gold Fury or a Pyro or Cups. You can be wherever you want, which feels nice to have that freedom. But I'm getting more fond of it. I think if they make a few more changes to it, I think the map is probably going to be the best one yet.
TLL: The season ten rosters were recently announced and a lot of the teams chose to somewhat stick with three or so members. Does that surprise you that we didn't see more entirely fresh teams?
V: Not really. One thing that the fans forget is that you have to not only play with these people for your whole year, you also have to live with them for a whole year or at least interact with them in person in some way. And I feel like fans tend to forget that that is the case for every team. Sure you could add a new player to your team, a new rookie, but you have to take into account that you have to live with each other. If things aren't going your way and, let's say the new player is kind of an asshole in real life, then not only are you going to be miserable in game but you're going to be miserable out of the game. That's a whole good gear of your life. You just have to sit there and deal with it. I think a lot of teams and players in general just prefer to stay close with what they already know and what they already enjoy because at the end of the day, after competing, it comes from more enjoyment. If you're enjoying your life in general a lot more, in the game a lot more, then I think you're going to play a lot better that's probably why you don't see as many rookies being picked up compared to fall. And I guess it also helps that there's a play-in tournament now so hopefully the play-in tournament will allow the rookies who didn't get a spot initially to play-in and prove themselves that way.
B: I agree with what Harry said, but also maybe there's a bit of fear of having to play for the spot by making big roster changes. But also, being critical, even myself, I'm a little bit critical of some of the rosters where I think some of the decisions don't make sense with the players that didn't get picked up. But I don't really know, and neither do people in the public, the makeup of a team and you might not know how important a player is to a team. I think Twig is a good example of that, where he catches a bad rap a lot of the time. Maybe he has some really bad sets individually, and people think, 'why wouldn't you replace him with someone like Panitom,' for example, who kind of has a lot of pop off moments. People don't understand the impact that a player like Twig has on our team. There might be games where he goes 2-2 or something, but he plays his role. You don't understand the impact he has on our practice and the amount of games we could probably lose. Even if we “better player”, according to people, we'd probably lose more games. And it goes for a lot of those rosters where you might think they're just running it back again. But you never know the importance of a player to a team and the environment in general.
CaptainTwig finally lifts the hammer.
G: I have a little bit of a different take. I think two things. One is being a player that was looking to get into the SPL for a few years even though I wasn't sure about university. It's very scrappy at the bottom. For example, I'm on a top team now, my thought process is 'who do I want to win with?' But when I was wondering whether I'd make SPL or not, which is a lot of money, it's a cool experience to live here as well. And then you actually need the SPL practice to win worlds, in my opinion, because you need to practice against the best people. So people need to be in the league to win for the most part. So when you're at the bottom, your first thought is, 'okay, what is going to get me in the league?' And you don't think about a lot of the long term stuff. For example, I can't say names, but there's some players that had pretty bad years last year, but they get picked up over players that probably had more potential overall just because it's like, 'okay, this is definitely going to get me in the league, so I'm going to go with this player.'
And the second thing is the play-in tournament removed two automatic qualification spots for the SPL. So that's a quarter of the spots that were available just gone. And for the players playing through the play-in tournament, experience usually wins in tournaments. Especially with the rosters coming together so shortly before the tournament, they only have three weeks of practice. That's not a lot of time to pick up a rookie, like an EU rookie, for example, practice with them for three weeks on ping and then win the tournament with them. So you'd rather stay with a player that, even if they're washed up, you'd rather play with them because they played last year, even if they're bad right now, if that makes sense.
TLL: Are there any rosters that stick out to you as maybe particularly strong compared to the rest?
G: Yeah, the Styx Ferrymen are kind of a big Super Team.
B: Yeah.
TLL: Don't let Aror hear you say that.
G: Oh does he not like that?
TLL: He's lamenting being called a Super Team every year.
G: The thing is, they were a Super Team last year and now they picked up Baskin and Cyclonespin. So they're probably a Super, Super Team now.
B: You're right. Super Team. Super Team.
G: I like super twice, actually. Super, Super Team. It's the new classification.
B: The Superest Team.
G: [Laughs]. Yes. Obviously The Styx Ferrymen. My hot take is that Leviathans have actually gotten worse losing Panitom, but we'll see. I think they had to make a change. They wanted to make a change regardless, so maybe it's better for them overall, but I think they've got less of a chance of winning now.
V: I kind of feel the opposite. I feel like fineokay was an upgrade over Haddix. Fineokay probably brings a bit more to the team in terms of depth of play and frontlining. It's hard to compare frontliners to each other, at least from my perspective, because I don't really see what they do in the game. But I do think that fineokay is probably a better frontliner compared to Haddix in terms of diving the enemy. And I think he tends to have an idea of how he wants to play the game and I think that I'll probably be helpful for Ronngyu as well. Ronngyu is kind of a passive player, so I think fineokay will probably make it more aggressive in terms of late game team fighting and diving if he has to.
B: I think it's a very risky move to replace Panitom, I think. So it'll be interesting to see if that pays off. And then the team that I'm interested in is the Dragons. That Warriors core. They picked up two really solid players in PBM and LASBRA. It would be interesting to see if that makes a difference for them.
TLL: What about this new Oni Warriors Team who picked up Panitom? As you said, he was really strong with the Leviathans. But they also have SoloOrTroll in solo lane who is one of those players who can really show up or sometimes not. And then the duo lane is really interesting for me. Of course you all played with Netrioid and have spoken a little bit about his communication issues and AwesomeJake--it was actually SoloOrTroll in a recent interview, he talked about how AwesomeJake's communication issues are known. They're aware of them. Do you think that team has a lot of potential with their high end mechanical talent or do you think that those communication issues could be a serious problem for them going through the year?
B: They have a lot of skill but I don't really have high hopes for them as a team overall. They're maybe two roster changes away from being a really solid top team. My worry with them is I don't see how they're going to have a good practice environment. I feel like knowing some of those players, they're not unprofessional, but not the most punctual, and how are they going to get along? I think their team, especially if they lose a couple of games, they're going to really struggle to be motivated maybe or fix their problems. There's a lot of pressure on Oxiledeon with that team and probably Panitom as well to be the leaders. I'd be surprised to see that team being a top two team.
V: I do think they probably have the highest skill ceiling of any team in terms of mechanics, just all five of their players. But obviously what I've learned over the years is mechanics and quote-unquote Super Teams--not saying they're a Super Team or anything but Super Teams in general.
B: Ferrymen are the Super Team.
V: [Laughs]. But super teams in general, where you have the best five players in each role, tend to not really work well, and I think that always comes down to communication. That'll probably be their biggest struggle over anything, is how they shot call or try to make plays late game or set up for objectives. I think that's probably going to be the biggest downfall but mechanics wise I think they're probably a top three team mechanically. But mechanics don't always translate to wins so they might struggle until they fix--well I don't know if they have communication issues already but I'm assuming that they probably will. So if they can fix that then they can be a good team but I find that hard to believe that they're going to fix it after playing with some of them.
G: I just think it's eight years too late. Everyone is so good at mechanics now. The difference between the top player and the bottom part in the league is almost so minimal now that it's other stuff that makes a difference. It's almost like an alternative qualification in the league that you have to be good mechanically, maybe apart from support. So for me, if they were eight years ago, maybe their team had potential. They'd stomp everyone with their mechanics. But now if you're just lacking the positioning, the tenure, the practice, the drafting, the communication, I just don't think it matters how good you are at pressing buttons.
V: Yeah, don't get me wrong, they can beat any team in the league on their day. They could probably stomp any team in the league on their day. But if it comes down to a best of five in a tournament setting, I think that will probably be their downfall.
B: That's a good point. I think they can beat any team during the regular season, but I don't see them winning tournaments or being overly consistent.
TLL: They changed tank items more than any other class of items. Specifically hybrid items were completely reworked. You can't get power and protections together in base stats anymore. Of course, some of those hybrid items with damage passives now have felt pretty strong. Gladiator's Shield, Archdruid's Fury, Stone of Binding, those items. Starting with you Variety, how do you feel about the changes to solo lane items? Do you think maybe a little too strong or in a good spot?
V: The Solo items are in a good spot. The change of not having hybrid items is probably a good one overall for the state of the game, especially in terms of balance. You don't have to worry about, let's just use old Glad Shield, for example, you don't have to worry about balancing the power versus the prots now. You can just worry about balancing the prots or the passive, for example. So I think in the longevity of the game, I think it'll make the balance team's job a lot more easier. But in terms of Solo items, I think Solo is in a really good spot right now. I like all the new items. I think they're all usable. I think they all have a place in the game. I do think there's a severe lack of first item power items that you can go. For example, last year, people are going Runeforged first item or Soul Eater first item. And those are the metas I tend to enjoy because it makes the lane less boring in terms of being able to go for a play or having enough damage to solo kill the enemy god, or having enough damage to turn around the 2v1. I think that's kind of missing from Solo right now. I don't know if they have any thoughts on fixing that or changing that. But in terms of the tank items, I think all of them are really good. Maybe you could argue that one of them is OP, which is contagion, but I agree to disagree on that one. I think it's in a fine spot. The one thing I will say, though, is the ADC propaganda needs to stop. They need to stop. They need to stop. I'm so sick of this. I know you asked me about Solo tank items, but I have to say it. They have a crit item which gives them 55 power and 45% crit. And then they have so much pen on the autos. They have Executioner, they have Dominance, and they have Quin's and other items like that. They just need to stop crying. They need to go over it.
TLL: I asked Zapman about hunters, and he actually said that hunters are fine if you get past the early game. He said they feel great. So maybe turning a corner on the hunter propaganda.
V: I love that from Steve. Thank you. PandaCat, though, he needs to stop.
TLL: Specifically for support, maybe Prophetic Cloak is buildable, perhaps this all mitigations build with Oni and Spirit Robe, or is it going to look more towards the Thebes and other items?
G: When a new item gets released, everyone kind of panics, thinking, 'oh, is it broken?' For me, I think they've done a really good job this year spreading out what items I want to go level one. I've got six different items I go level one now, Cloak being the most common one by far, but not the best by far. You have to be able to proc it. The average time of completion for Cloak is around like 30 minutes in the game. And bearing in mind I'm a support late game, I'm going to die. It's just propaganda, unless I'm Ravana with 8% mitigation for 5 seconds, I will not survive a CC chain or seven autos from a Hunter. So you have to be careful how much tankiness you build. And Cloak is really good for that. But then you're giving up a passive or an aura. Now Cloak gives an aura so it's really good, but I don't think it combines with Oni Hunter's Garb and Spirit Robe as well as people think it does. But it's a nice item. It's a very good item for support.
TLL: What about the other items? Do you still look towards Thebes sometimes? Maybe a Contagion? What are you building these days?
G: I have a doc of it, but I think my most common items that I buy first are binding, because it scales really well late game and the tier one is very strong. Mail of Renewal, Thebes, Spirit Robe and Cloak. I build those five the most consistently. I don't really build Contagion. It's kind of a bane in SMITE to build one stat of defense. You should never build Heartward first or Sov first. I only build those five items because they've got joint defense on both.
TLL: Last question. You all currently have an active win streak of eleven sets in a row, which I mentioned earlier is tied for the record. So if you win your next set, should you win your next set, that would be setting the record at twelve. So just for fun, how far will you get that record to start this year?
G: 16.
V: We're at eleven, right?
TLL: Eleven, yeah. Eleven is tied for with the Leviathans for the record.
B: There's a tournament before the league starts, right? Does that count as part of it? Or is it just SPL.
G: No way. Do you remember the one last year where everyone was trying to int to lose it?
B: It matters for seeding. It's for the divisions, because you want to be first seed, right? Then you get to choose who's not in your group.
G: Sure.
B: So there will not be an 0-30 Variety in that tournament.
TLL: You guys gave the Scarabs fans so much hope at the last kickoff tournament only for them to get the biggest letdown of a year.
G: You should have seen it before the game. Both teams in the studio across the hall from each other and we were looking at each other. We were just like, 'we're gonna int harder than you,' but no team wants to get in trouble. Both teams are trying to push the limits and eventually the Scarabs realized that we would go further down the int hole than they would, so they gave up and started trying.
B: They were so mad after that.
G: [Laughs]. Because they had to play more games.
B: It's a nice record, but it doesn't really, at the end of the day, mean that much. It'd be nice to hold it, I guess.
V: I do think we will get the record and I think we'll get it fairly convincingly. I think we'll probably get higher than 12 as well, to be honest.
G: 16.
V: You think 16? Alright, 16 it is.
TLL: Thank you all so much. Congratulations again on winning the Championship, and I look forward to seeing your title defense this year.
V: Thank you very much.
G: Good luck making sense of all that rumbling from me.
The Kings will return to defend their title in SMITE’s tenth competitive season.
