The Return
The New-Look Leviathans on Adapting’s Homecoming to the SPL, Their New Roster, and the Changes in SMITE Year Ten
Adapting at the SMITE World Championship in season five, his last tournament with NRG, the team on which he won back-to-back titles. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
As his titan died in game five of the season seven World semifinals, cementing The Pittsburgh Knights’ improbable victory over Radiance, Adapting reacted differently than his teammates. While they stared at the screen in disbelief, Adapting stood up briefly before his camera froze. In the background of Aror’s feed, Adapting could be seen switching off his machine for the last time.
It was to be Adapting’s last professional match. After six seasons of competitive play—which featured back-to-back championships, gaudy kill/death numbers, and unprecedented win streaks—Adapting had decided it was time to move on from the SPL. Everybody makes that call at some point in their careers. A year later, after spending that time in the semi-professional SCC, Adapting retired from that circuit as well, closing the book on one of SMITE’s most storied careers.
Yet, here we are.
It didn’t take long for Adapting to return to the SCC. As many talented players have experienced, the pull to compete always lingers, often hanging around like a dependency. Sooner or later, he would need to exercise that fundamental part of himself. In June of 2022, Adapting was back as the jungler for the Highland Ravens, a team he helped lead to the SMITE World Championship. At that point it was clear: Adapting still had it, and he was quick to announce his intentions to return to the SPL.
On the same day that Adapting’s Ravens were eliminated at Worlds, defending champion Atlantis Leviathans were shockingly swept in the first round by the underdog Titans. Thus began the whispers about how the team would shake-up. When the Dragons were eliminated the following day, roster speculation ran rampant. Ultimately, the Leviathans, led by Zapman, decided to add a new solo laner and a new jungler in fineokay and Adapting respectively.
Like Adapting, Zapman and fineokay are also attempting a return. After the two players dominated the finals for nearly three seasons, with Zapman getting the best of fineokay twice en-route to three consecutive championships, the two players sat out the season nine finals as they watched a new team take the crown. Now they’ve joined forces in a bid to return to the top. The new-look Leviathans feature three of the most storied players in the league all trying to recapture the highs of their fabled careers—and perhaps reach even higher. Yet, even with that pressure, and without the benefit of time to establish a rapport, the Leviathans still seem so relaxed together, and there is a natural synergy even in the way they riff on each other’s jokes. It begs the question of just how well the puzzle pieces can fit together, and how far it will ultimately take them on the battleground.
I sat down with Adapting, fineokay, and Zapman to discuss their new roster and the changes to season ten.
[The following interview has been edited for clarity.]
The Long Lane: I am here with Zapman, Adapting, and Fineokay. Thank you all for being here. Zapman, I'll start with you. You won three championships in a row, and this year you ran it back with the Leviathans. It was a tough year, up and down. You had a really strong finish in phase three, but then a disappointing ending at Worlds. How did you, Ronngyu, and Sheento make that determination to stick together?
Zapman: Me, Ronnie, and Sheento have a lot in common. We get along very well and our year together was just a complacent year for pretty much everyone. That's kind of why you saw us do poorly in spring and summer, then pop off in the fall. So we were looking for a change, something to get the blood flowing again. And we talked a lot and we decided, okay, we'll reach out to maybe one or two people that we would like to play with. And if they said yes, we'll go with that. If they say no, we'll see.
TLL: Adapting, you haven't played in the SPL since season seven where your Radiance team was knocked out in semifinals, but of course you've still been playing SMITE. You've been somewhat dominating the SCC on some really strong teams. What motivated you to come back to the SPL?
Adapting: I think that's one of the sad things. Like in SCC, especially in season eight where we were just winning everything, is it doesn't really feel the same as when you're beating the actual best teams in the world. And I want to feel that again. I want to be the best. And so I felt very motivated to come back to SPL and try to achieve that.
TLL: Was that spurred on by being back at an in person Worlds? Obviously you ran into a very tough Kings team, but you gave them probably the best single-game challenge in that whole event, even though they didn't end up dropping a game. You pulled out the Fenrir, a signature pick, and the crowd was really into it. Was that a big factor?
A: Just the fact that in-person Worlds is back more than anything, and the fact that it feels like Hi-Rez have looked at the format and decided that there needs to be improvements. Hi-Rez have realized they should be doing in-person Worlds, they shouldn't be doing the online ones. It just brought back that feeling of life into SMITE that I felt had disappeared for a bit. When my last Worlds was played online, it just felt so odd. It did not feel like playing a proper tournament, like it didn't feel like a World Championship and the same for most of that year, but [in-person Worlds] sort of confirmed my thoughts about wanting to come back. I could feel like I really want to be back on that stage and do well.
TLL: Aside from that Radiance team, you've never really been on a roster that wasn't primarily EU players. Was there any talk about maybe forming another team of those top EU SCC players try to get another European team into the SPL? Or were you always hoping to land with one of the top existing teams as you did?
A: I think had I not managed to get on top team, then maybe I would have tried to see what EU players would have been willing to go for a play-in spot, et cetera. But I think that most players who I would have wanted to play with from EU don't want to play in the SPL. So I feel like most of the options with the players I actually really want to play with were already in the SPL.
TLL: And fineokay, even without winning a championship, you were part of one of the most successful cores in SMITE history. What are your emotions now that you're moving on to a new roster?
fineokay: I'm so happy to get away from those guys. [Laughs]. I'm a little bit sad. I'm going to miss them. We are all still really good friends and everything. We'll probably be doing stuff outside of the game still, but I'm also just excited. At first I was a little nervous switching teams. We've had a couple different teams, but still, like you said, the same core, so I know what to expect. But I think the not knowing is going to make this season a lot more exciting. Whereas maybe the past couple of seasons it's been a little bit more similar to what Zap was saying, just a little bit more stagnant and complacent, where you kind of know what to expect and fall back on knowing exactly what your teammates are going to do. Whereas this year I'm going to have to learn a lot more. Maybe have to teach people a thing or two about me and I think that's going to be really fun.
Fineokay takes the stage for RivaL prior to the season six grand finals. Season Ten will be fineokay’s first season on a new roster after four years with the RivaL core. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
TLL: And the Dragons last year turned a corner when you acquired Screammmmm, and he was particularly good at playing through the solo lane. Pressuring that side of the map, invading blue buffs et cetera. For you, fineokay, and Adapting as well, how do you two see the changes to solo lane in season ten? The blue buff nerf some of the neutral farm being removed the, cool down buff, does that make that side of the map less of a priority, at least in the early game?
fo: Maybe with the totem being a little bit further away, it makes [solo lane] less enticing to the jungler. But they put a buff in its place that gives XP now. So that's a buff the jungler could do if they wanted to. I think it's still going to be pretty much always the same. It's not always about exactly how much farm you can get over there, but more so getting your solo laner ahead and them walking over and controlling things. But it depends on how the map plays out. But I'm always down to play around solo.
Z: Listen Mohn, solo lane is always a priority on this team.
fo: [Laughs].
Z: Let's get that straight.
A: I mean, personally, I like playing around solo. I feel like it's usually easier because you won't have as many players around generally, so it's a little bit less to be focused on. I actually really like the small camp, as you said, that give XP. It gives me a big reason to come over and not just control buffs. I feel like being able to have control over neutral farm is extremely important and every little bit counts.
fo: Yeah, they're even better than the mid camps. The mid camps give like ten gold for each harpy and they're so hard to kill. Like, harder than Gold Fury, basically.
A: Yeah, they are chunky.
fo: Might as well just do the little side camps.
TLL: Zapman, you joke about prioritizing solo lane, but do you feel like hunters this season are overall weaker with the nerfs? Lost one of the best early-game crit items hunters have ever had in Shadow Steel, and spectral was buffed. There's a lot of talk about mage ADCs now being stronger, but in general, do you just feel like the role is weaker?
Z: I'm not really joking. Pretty much my philosophy has always been getting the sole laner ahead and I have written proof of that, that I wrote many years ago. But I think hunters are fine right now. The only problem with hunters right now is that they're just weak early game compared to their counterparts, like compared to mage ADCs. Literally, mage ADCs do double their auto attack or basic attack damage right now. And then assassins with bluestone can just pressure the hunter. But full build, hunters are still very good. Or even four items in hunters are still very good. It's just they can get bullied pretty hard in the early game and that's the main weakness, I think. People perceive that hunters are generally weak, but it's really just the early game.
TLL: And you been teasing us for a long time now about potentially playing jungle. Was that ever in the cards for this season, or are you still happy to be playing in ADC?
Z: That happened after season Seven Worlds, because that was the worst year, in my opinion, for hunters. We literally played against double blink thorns. That was literally the meta. The support would get blink thorns and then the solo would get blink thorns and they both blink on you as a hunter and you just die. So that was a miserable year for me, and I was so over it. And because I'm a very vocal player when I play on teams, and the ADC role is so passive, so AFK. So after that year, I was like, 'I don't want to play this role anymore. I want to do something more proactive.' So I thought, 'oh, jungle.' You know what I mean? Then after that, hunters got better. They nerfed thorns, so that's not really in the cards anymore. And it's just become a meme every year, like 'jungle, maybe?'
TLL: And you've been long hailed as one of the best leaders in SMITE's history. You led three teams seeded outside of the top two to championships. Two of those were actually sixth seed. This is the most experienced roster you've been on in some time, maybe ever with twelve finals appearances between the six of you. How much of a difference does that make for your workload, as opposed to, say, the Scarabs early in season eight, which was a very inexperienced team.
Z: I would say, generally speaking, a lot of people don't like to talk on teams or SMITE. So I just do that and I guess that's where maybe that comes from. A lot of my other teams were a lot of soft spoken people. But on this team, we got a lot of experienced players, like you said. And it really just comes down to all of us buying into the same overall philosophy. We think about the game the same way. That way we're all on the same page. And in games, it's not really like one person doing all the talking. Everyone gives information and then plays get called and things like that. Like,' I'm strong in duo,' or 'I'm strong in solo,' 'here, this purple is coming up,' stuff like that. It's a flow of information, not really one person doing all the heavy lifting. But I would say for me, I guess I would consider myself a vocal person. So maybe that's where that comes from. But overall, on this team, I feel like everyone's going to be contributing equally, and it should be interesting.
Zapman and Ronngyu, left, celebrate with their Leviathans teammates following the season eight SMITE World Championship. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
fo: I'm not going to say a word Zap, you're going to have to call things in my lane.
Z: Where's my Ku?
fo: [imitating Zapman making calls for solo] 'All right, solo laner ult is down. Alec is doing Ku right now.'
Z: Blue's coming up. Alec, you ready?
fo: [Laughs]. You're like clearing your purple.
TLL: We should make Zapman play professional SMITE like it's an RTS, just moving you all around.
fo: That would be cool.
Z: I used to play RTS, actually. The game I played the most besides SMITE was Warcraft 3, like Reign of Chaos, Frozen Throne. I played that a lot. I would watch my replays, make sure my APM was high, all of that stuff. So yeah, it actually comes from that background.
TLL: Fineokay, we talked a little bit about the map changes to solo lane, but the item changes were drastic for your role. Hybrid items were basically completely reworked. No item offers both protections and power as base stats, so it's either one or the other. And some of the passives still provide a lot of damage. There have been a lot of posts on Reddit and Twitter about Contagio,n Bluestone, Sundering Axe and Glad Shield out-damaging the base kit. Sometimes 1500 damage combined from some of these items on the death recap screens. How do you feel about the changes to solo lane items? Do you think maybe a little bit overtuned or close to a good spot?
fo: I think some of them are overturned. For example I think contagion is not really that healthy of an item for the game. I've talked about it for years now, but just getting punished for playing the game correctly isn't really like a fun thing for anyone. And it may not be that annoying in team fights, even though I've seen some recaps, like you said, where people have contagion hitting for 500 on four separate people. But just in lane itself, the lane has become more and more dumbed down where it's really hard to kill each other, really hard to punish each other. And then, just take a random example of a lane like Herc versus Arthur or something, and if you're hitting every single one of your Herc 2-1s on the Arthur, you're just getting punished for it and that's not an easy thing to do. So you're getting punished for doing something hard in the lane and the lane is already hard to kill each other. So it makes the lane unhealthy in my opinion. But in general, I think the item is actually closer to balanced than people think. Glad Shield I actually don't think is that strong anymore. It's a balanced item now. It doesn't have power on it. And I also think the more they take away these power items and stuff like that, they need to be careful because it's really hard to run around the map and clear stuff without any damage in your build. Just play support once, and you'll realize that. So you have to be a little bit careful. Because if the actual tank items themselves aren't any good and we don't have power on items, then it's just going to encourage people to play more and more like maybe like mage solos or even damage solos. But I think right now they're definitely strong and in a good spot.
TLL: Adapting, we haven't talked much about the jungle changes. A lot of the itemization I think is pretty similar. They buffed rage, which might help Mercury a lot. I know you've played that a lot in your career. Are you happy with the state of the Jungle items? Do you feel it's maybe too similar to last year?
A: I feel like you have similar build paths to last year. But, for sure right now, if you have six slots, it feels crazy. You feel so powerful. And in general, right now I feel like jungle feels really strong. I guess it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out in competitive, but I think there are a lot of fun items now. I actually think that there is definitely more variety now. Like the Shadow Drinker item, for example, can be built. It does have some times where it actually can be worth it. And I think Bloodforge right now is actually an item that I've always been like a big lover of, but it's always been hard to fit into builds. But now I feel like it actually has the stats and its price along with its passive actually make it like a really strong item. So I think it's fun to be able to fit that into more builds and having the extra movement speed on it. But I think it's a lot of fun. The one thing I don't like that they've done, I feel like right now there's a lot of neutral farm that you can contest, but I don't really like the state of having back camps on a four-minute timer, which is the same as Gold Fury. It's the same as Fire Giant. It's the same as Pyro. I don't think that makes sense. I think it should, at the absolute longest, be two to two and a half minutes. But even that I think is too long for back camps. I think you should have more leeway in trying to look to control those as well because right now there are not that many counter jungling possibilities. Most buffs will be matched to each other's buff. So at least you know when those are coming up, but you can't really do anything around back harpies that much.
Z: Can I chime in here real quick? When he said how the builds are similar, it's been an issue for SMITE for a long time. And I was thinking about this. I'm just going to pitch an idea right here because it came up. I feel like for damage items, there's always a statistically best build, like for DPS or damage and all that stuff. That's why, for junglers, everyone's building the maces, and Heartseeker, and serrated. I feel like a lot of the items should have the same exact stats, but then different passives. For example, the glyphs. I think glyphs are a really cool idea to create build diversity. And I feel like more items should have similar stats but different passives because otherwise one item is always going to be mathematically better than another. So I feel like that could be like a way for them to create more build diversity. Because I've been building Qin's Sais all my life, you know what I mean?
fo: That is a good idea. That is cool. They could explore glyphs more, for sure. They put them in the game, then nerfed them so you couldn't buy two, even though people weren't really buying two, and then never made them stronger.
Z: Yeah, because different gods can benefit from different types of passives or passives on the glyphs. So that could add build diversity. Because mathematically speaking, I'm never going to build heavy executioner because it just doesn't make sense, you know what I mean? Things like that.
TLL: I think part of the philosophy, at least from what I see in the item design, is I guess they want some items to be cheaper, more gold effective, so that if you're behind, you can build those items. But if ADC is behind and they're building cheaper items, they're just hurting themselves even more. It never really works out that way.
Z: Exactly.
TLL: Adapting you mentioned the spawn of the back camps. If they made that shorter, would they need to maybe nerf the spawn of some of the other camps? Like maybe the two speed buffs, or the green camp, so that junglers don't just hit 20 at 17 minutes and just run around?
A: That is one of the other problems. I don't really know what they want to hit because I feel like maybe some of the neutral farm would get targeted instead. But I'm not I'm not sure what would be the best. We do have two speed buffs right now, which is fun but also interesting.
Z: One of them is mine.
TLL: You have to give one to Zap, in case he Ishtar dashes into a team fight again. He needs speed buff to get away.
Z: I just take the farm. I just pull it every time it's up.
A: I'll be there on cooldown, don't you worry.
fo: You know what’s OP? You take your speed buff, you go gank, solo or mid, dive the tower and die. Get first blood though. Come back out of base, get the second speed buff and go somewhere else.
A: That is so funny because sometimes you actually will trade a one for one, and it will be worth it because I know that when I spawn, I'll just go pick up another speed.
Z: When Adapting comes to the speed buff on my side, I'm gonna be like ‘yo, blue buff is up.’
TLL: This is a question for all of you. The map is very different from any map we've really had, at least in a long time. It's wider, it's kind of shaped differently. It's more compact and maze-like in the jungle. What are your impressions so far on the new map, and how do you think it will impact the picks in season ten?
Z: The map looks bigger, but I would say it's less complicated than previous seasons because there's just less objectives. All it is, is like, a bigger map with a little more camps, but they're just camps. There's no Obelisk to milk, there's no Scepter to fight over, so there's no Scorpions to really group around. So there are a lot fewer variables on the map, I would say. The game is kind of simpler in that regard because all you have to focus on is, 'okay, speed is coming up. Okay, red is coming up,' so it's easier to make plays like that. There's no, 'we'll give up the Scepter,' or 'while they're getting all the cups on the right side, we'll milk the Obelisk' or something like that. You know what I mean? There's a lot less of that dynamic macro gameplay. So I'd say the map, even though it looks bigger, I would say it's a bit more simple to play on. And as far as how it's going to play out in competitive, I don't really know. I think mid 3v3 is probably going to be way more important than it was before, because before you could just avoid fighting and play different objectives. If they're on the Scorpion, we milk the Obelisk, stuff like that. You see that a lot last year. But here I feel like there's going to be a lot more fighting, and the mid 3v3 might take priority like it did in the earlier seasons, like five and six.
fo: I actually really like the map. I think they've done a really good job with it, first of all. I think that people say this every year, but mobility is a little bit stronger just because of how many walls there are and how many, at least at the beginning when people don't know the pathing in the back of their head, just makes it a little bit stronger for that. And as the year goes on, maybe people get more comfortable with other things. But similar to what Zap said, everything is set in stone as far as buffs and neutral camps, there's nothing really too crazy. I think it's going to be a lot of ebb and flow of like, 'give this little neutral camp up and we'll go contest this.' Maybe they're invading a blue or invading a purple, go invade the other thing if we're not strong. Similar to how it's always been, but less so about these like neutral objectives in the middle of the map. And Scorpion for a lot of teams became the complete identity towards the end of last year. So maybe even seeing less fighting in the early game where people are farming up their own buffs. I think it's pretty easy to farm your own buffs right now, at least in ranked. That always changes in competitive, but there's a lot of farm on your own side that makes it a little bit easier to just chill and do your own stuff.
A: I agree with what's been said, and especially invading buffs now, at least in ranked, feels like way more difficult because, well, if you can get over the walls then you're fine maybe to escape. But you're running entirely into the enemy jungle to get into the buffs. For all of them, but blue and purple are probably the easiest buffs to invade, whereas red can feel kind of sketchy and speeds are super deep. But yeah, that's one of the things that I'm going to be interested to see how it plays out right now because there is less opportunity for looking to steal away things, but we'll see.
fo: I also think the fact that there is no downtime between objectives now is pretty interesting for competitive. I think it's going to change up a little bit because before, there was a minute where people get wards, people would push out a wave. Like sometimes you'll get a phoenix and the enemy team will have to push out that wave right before Fire respawns. And you don't have Fire anymore, so you can't really threaten it as hard. But now you can have Fire up until the Fire respawns. So you can walk up to a phoenix, threaten, get them low, maybe even get the phoenix, and then immediately run back straight to fire and burst it. I think that opens up some opportunities. Same thing with Gold. It's only a minute faster, but it seems so much faster after ten years of five minutes. And it seems like if you're on top of your timers over there, you can start to develop a lead pretty easily.
TLL: How do you all feel about being able to pull the jungle camps around the map without leashing them? Adapting you're the jungle, I'll start with you.
A: I've actually enjoyed that mechanic. We'll see how it feels in general, but I think it's nice being able to group up the buffs, and especially if you're two-man farming them, it's always more efficient to split the farm. So pulling my speeds to the red buff, for example, is really nice. Or even sometimes you get to pull it to blue as you're on your way there. I think right now the starts are a bit interesting because everyone pulls all the buffs on solo side, you put all the buffs in the back and you have like World of Warcraft gameplay for 15 seconds. I've been enjoying pulling them around, and sometimes you can get greedy. You can pull them to mid harpies. And then in ranked, if you know that other people aren't going to really take that much farm, you can just get mega farm too easily.
TLL: Is that a concern, Zapman, with the clearing multiple camps together? Especially at the start, a lot of hunters really struggle with AOE clear. So is that going to limit the picks that are viable in ADC?
Zapman an interview following his championship in season six, the first of three consecutive titles. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
Z: Yeah, you make a good point with that. If you're going to pull all the buffs, then yes, that's the case. But I feel like because you can pull any amount of buffs and to anywhere, it creates for a lot of unique starts. Like, I believe you can easily play a non cleave hunter, non aoe hunter, and only pull two buffs, do them quickly, like just the backs and the purple, you'll be level one, but you get to lane way faster than the other guys. And getting to lane first basically equals pressure. They clear a couple of melee creeps and they're level two. So I feel like it creates a dynamic start. I know everyone's just clearing all the buffs now because it's in ranked, but there are definitely ways or strats where you can just pull maybe a couple of buffs, get the lane first, get the pressure, maybe get the first bastion. There's multiple different strategies that can be employed and I feel like, because you can pull the buffs, it's going to create some interesting stuff depending on picks.
fo: I talked about this on stream the other day, but I think this change with the buff camps is one of these changes where you're like, 'I can't believe this wasn't in the game sooner.' This just feels so much more right. That's kind of how I feel about it. It feels so nice being able to do these things. It feels so nice, if you're playing a ranged character, autoing a camp outside of the camp or outside of its range and having it come to you, it feels so much better for farming and running around the map. I agree, I think that these early game starts can be different. Just yesterday I was watching somebody stream. I think it was maybe Screammmmm, and they had a Cu Chulainn and then Baba Yaga mid and I was like, 'Baba Yaga doesn't really need that red buff. Just give the red buff to Cu Chu and then give the blue buff to Baba Yaga.
Z: He's already lobbying. He's already lobbying. [Laughs].
fo: [Laughs]. I was like, 'that's a sick start with a red buff Cu Chu just running it down.' But then also as to what Zap was saying, when it comes to how you start the game with these buffs and stuff and how you get pressure, the fact that there's shards in the game now, I feel like the lanes are a lot more volatile. Every lane has kill potential, especially duo with them having two shards over there. And I think that it can be really important how you start the game and what you do with your jungler, like where they're going to go on the map. Maybe not quite pre 9.5 levels, because the time-to-kill is still going to be a little bit longer just because people are still a little bit tankier, but kill potential is definitely like around pre 9.5 with how the shards are.
TLL: Let me get this straight, you join a new team and you're already trying to steal the red buff of one of the best mid-laners in the game?
Z: Don't worry, he [Sheento] is in Uruguay. He can't hear this.
fo: I'll convince him. I'll be like, 'I'll get every totem.'
Z: [Laughs]. He'll love you.
TLL: Shards are an interesting change. They definitely make the early game more exciting, different kinds of plays you can make. What are the shards for you all that you think are the most viable in your roles?
Z: Wing Shard for sure. It increases your movement speed and attack speed by a lot. 40% attack speed. I absolutely love this shard because it's such a small window, but it gives you the opportunity to get a kill, like Alec said. And I love that about it. If you use your shard well, it can give you such an advantage. Like in a 1v1, if the other guy doesn't have a shard and he's contesting the shield buff 1v1, you can all-in him because you know you have the shard advantage. It just adds another dynamic to the gameplay and it's a lot of fun.
A: I feel the same way. I love it. It's the same for Jungle where the Wing Shard is very good. It's pretty much never bad on anyone. But you can also go Claw Shard or even maybe even the carapace shard. I'd say I usually go claw if I can stick to people easily. So like a Susano or like a Fenrir, where you don't really need movement speed, that walk up to people and your abilities are doing a big part of your damage. And then you go Wing Shard on anyone that you want to stick to people with like Mercury, Ao Kuang, anything like that.
TLL: Is that going to make auto-attack junglers more effective in the early game? Or is it maybe too inconsistent to move that needle too much?
A: It makes it a lot more consistent for them. Because kind of when you decide that you want to take a fight, assuming you can actually find someone to fight, you almost get like a fatalis effect with speed buff plus shard. So say you go for a gank, then most of the time, as long as you don't misuse that shard, you have like a really high chance of being able to secure a kill with it.
fo: I think in my lane as well, it's just made a lot more kill potential. And the ones I usually go, I like to go Wing Shard still. I think 15% movement speed early game is really strong and a lot of characters can use that attack speed to get kills. I've been trying basically everything. Horn Shard is also pretty underrated right now. People are buying it more and more though technically it's bugged right now and I don't know if they're actually going to fix it (editor's note: as of 10.2, Horn Shard has been updated to stay at 3 seconds of reduction). Maybe they're going to keep it like this, but it's reducing 1 second. So it's actually three second reduction over the use of it, which is really strong, all cooldowns being reduced by 3 seconds. It's like a little meditation for yourself. So I've been spamming that basically in every role, especially mid and support and solo. Other than that, I think the cool part about the shards is that they all have their use and they're all strong. Probably the weakest is the power one, but even that is still viable. And I think it's just another change where you think, 'I can't believe this wasn't in the game sooner.' It adds so much to the early game. Even though it's like just this one thing that you can use every 120 seconds or however long it is, it just adds so much, I think.
TLL: lot of teams, yourselves included, kept three-man cores together. In fact, only the Dragons core is gone. Do you all find that surprising or expected?
Z: I think especially people that are veterans of free agency, it's to be expected when you are in a group, it gives you a lot more stability in the free agency period because free agency is basically the wild, wild west. I mean, that's just how it is. There's no way around it. Everyone becomes a free agent. Everyone's scrambling to get teams, everyone's scrambling to just make it back into the SPL. No job is safe. For me, after I won my second World Championship, I didn't have a team because of the whole jungle fiasco. I went to bed, woke up, wasn't on the team anymore, and I had to make one with the Scarabs. And luckily there were no relegations back then, so I was like on the 8th place team to get in, otherwise I would have had to go through relegation. So when you have situations like this, you have more power when you're in a group. So I'm not surprised that a lot of three-man cores stayed together because when you're [together] as a three-man core, it gives you the power in the negotiation. This is just the reality of it. Back to the point, I'm not surprised. That's just how it goes down.
TLL: And for you all, how did this roster come to be? Obviously moving on from Panitom and Haddix, how did you make that decision? And then how did you arrive at Adapting and fineokay to fill those shoes?
Z: Every team goes through issues throughout the whole year. I don't think I've been on a single team that doesn't have an issue or something you have to get through. Throughout the year, personalities may clash or something happens where maybe you get like an odd feeling or whatever. And just like with us, me, Sheento, and Ronnie probably knew we were going to stay together, so we still liked Panitom and Haddix, but something wasn't really right there. Maybe we try to see one or two people here and there. If they would like to join, we would like to play with them. We'd love to play with Alec, we'd love to play with Adapting, and stuff like that. And if they would join, it would kind of reinvigorate the team, reinvigorate everyone involved. So at the end of the day, there are never any hard feelings. It's nothing personal, it's just how it goes down. We liked Haddix a lot and stuff, but we were still thinking of a change. So the only person we asked was fineokay. Basically, if he said yeah, great. If not, we probably would have stuck with Haddix and then for Jungle, with Panitom, we've had some internal issues a little bit with him every now and then. So we thought, maybe if the King wants to return, we would replace him [Panitom].
TLL: And obviously the Kings stuck together after winning Worlds. They've only team that stayed, made no changes whatsoever. Is that going to give them an advantage, at least in the early part of the season over the other teams? Do you think it's going to be tough to catch them?
A: I think it depends on their approach, but I feel when you win a championship, it's very easy for people to start getting complacent. So in one sense, it's good that they already have their dynamic sorted and everything and they already know how each other works, but then it's going to depend on how it's going to be. It's an advantage, but it might not be as big of an advantage as people think.
fo: Plus, it means seven honeymoon phases versus one no-honeymoon phase, so they're done for. But in all honesty, it is funny how people talk about honeymoon phases. Sometimes they say, 'oh, they're just like playing really well because they're new and they like each other,' but then sometimes people are like, 'oh, it takes a little bit of time to understand each other.'
Z: Whatever fits the narrative.
fo: [Laughs]. Yeah, exactly. It goes both ways. So I don't think they're personally going to be that hard to play against. A lot of what they were good at has been changed. With the Scorpions and the contestable farm early game, I think they were the leading force on that when it started happening with the Scorpions being meta. They're going to adapt, obviously, but I think that that issue of complacency could hit them. Like, I know personally, just during the offseason, a couple of the people on the team were considering switching even though they just won a world championship. So it's not all 100% going into the new season completely motivated. I think that they probably do feel complacent a little bit.
TLL: Zapman, a lot of the teams changed their brand identity this year. When given the opportunity, was there any thought process to sticking with the Leviathans brand or you just wanted to keep that continuity?
Z: We basically asked everyone, and pretty much everyone was like, 'yeah, let's just stay Leviathans.' And that was kind of it, I think, right, guys? I don't think there was any other brand anyone was strongly considering. And Levi's is a cool ass name and logo. And it's blue. That's always good.
A: Yeah, I mean, Leviathans was my favorite name before, so I definitely didn't want to change that.
fo: Yeah. If you have three people on the team that were on the team before, you've got to stick with that same team name. You just have to. If you do otherwise, you're crazy.
Z: I did put in Yomi Tanuki, though, on the form, just in case.
fo: [Laughs]. Plus, there's the team skin already and you want to keep representing that. I get it though. People are going to have to buy new jerseys for some of these teams, which I'm sure Hi-Rez will love. And, you know, it's just good marketing, but you want to do right by your fans. If I had stayed on the Dragons and we had at least like three of us together, there's so many people that bought jerseys. I don't want those people asking me a chat, 'what do I do with my jersey?' I'm just like, you can still use it as memorabilia or whatever. I'm burning mine. Whatever.
TLL: Yeah, I've got this SoloOrTroll Titans jersey. It's just worthless now.
Z: It's like he got traded.
fo: Yeah, it's history.
Z: You have the history that he had on the Titans, even though I guess it was only for one year.
fo: Although it is sad that the Titans aren't even in the SPL anymore.
Z: I feel like there's multiple ways to look at this, and I think Hi-Rez's discretion is very important here. For example, if teams are switching the brand willy-nilly, I feel like that's on Hi-Res to step up and say,' hey, this doesn't make a lot of sense.' But if there are teams that have a bad history with a brand and they want to reinvent themselves, let's say the Titans, they didn't like the whole debacle with Layers and having the Titans name associated with what happened there, then I think it's a great idea for Hi-Rez to give them the freedom to choose a different brand. Or let's say the Bolts, for instance, just to rationalize their switch to the Highland Ravens. They're kind of associated with never making the finals or choking at the tournaments. So I think it's okay that they want to reinvent themselves. Maybe they get a new motivation, being under a new brand. I agree. But some of them maybe don't make too much sense. Like the Oni Warriors, for instance, I would say if I was Hi-Rez, I probably wouldn't have given them that brand name. I would have given them something completely new, you know what I mean? Because they have no association whatsoever with the Warriors. So I feel like it's cool that they gave us the freedom up to a point. And I feel like that it's really on Hi-Rez to step in and use their discretion, use some common sense and a little logic when it comes to this changing of brands, because it is a big deal. And there's a lot of fans that may take things a little more seriously than others, which is fine. And I just feel like some of the changes were justified and some of them weren't. That's all I have to say about that.
TLL: Outside of the Kings and yourselves, I guess focusing on these new rosters, who do you think is the most compelling roster this season?
Z: I would say the Styx Ferrymen look pretty solid, and I would say the Oni Warriors are actually a team that I think people are sleeping on because they are very mechanically good and we'll see how they gel, really. Just depends how well they work together. But I think maybe those two teams are really interesting to me.
TLL: Yeah, that Warriors team came out of left field, and I think because of that, people don't really know how to feel about that roster. But if they can find how they want to play the game together, they could be definitely a really interesting team. Obviously the Ferrymen made it to Finals last year for the most part, and you guys also keeping the core of a championship team. So there's definitely a lot of intrigue at the top this year. Last question, with the changes to the format for the SPL, there is now going to be divisions where you play everyone in your division twice and everyone in the other division just once. And I think that they hinted at more tournament events. Are you all looking forward to these changes to the SPL format?
fo: I am. I think it's a pretty cool thing to do to liven up the SPL even more. They've been making pretty good format changes overall the past few years, such as just having double elim tournaments, making it so SCC team doesn't have to come over and play a single game and then immediately go home. That was always depressing for everyone. They've been making some good changes overall. And I like this idea. It's similar to how sports are run with divisions and everything. And I think it can maybe develop just like a hint of that EU versus NA rivalry where you don't really see each other as often. So maybe, at least for the fans, maybe it's a little bit more enticing when you play the team that you haven't really played that much. Because we're still going to be scrimming everybody for the most part. I doubt it's going to be like, 'oh, we can't scrim them, they're in our division.'
Z: When I see the double block, 'I'll be like, yo, that second block.' [Laughs]. 'They're in our division, are you sure about this boys?'
fo: [Laughs]. Yeah, I think it'll be cool. Hopefully, it will just add just a tad bit more to the games themselves. Just a little bit more on the line.
A: I feel the same way. I think it's going to be really interesting to see how it plays out. And I think it's going to be for the fans more than for the pros for sure. Because as Alec said, we're still going to be scrimming everyone. So you'll still get the same practice and you get to see what people whip out on game day either way.
Z: For me, I feel like the theme so far this year has been more engagement with the fans. Right? If you look at the years past, there has been so much dead air between the seasons, and then even the roster announcements, there are months of dead air. It kind of loses the hype, right? But after this Worlds, I haven't really lost the hype. They've done a really good job teasing the rosters and then releasing them right away. Every week has been a new thing. Roster hint, season 10 PTS, season 10 release, now it's going to be the play-in rosters, you know what I mean? There hasn't been any dead air, which I thought has been really good. And I feel like on that theme with the divisions, they're just creating more artificial storylines, more ways to get the fans engaged, more ways to create some rivalries and things like that. So it gives it a fresh feeling, kind of like what the season 10 map did for SMITE. It gave it a fresh feeling of playing, and I feel like they're doing that again with the SPL. So I'm liking it. I'm liking the way Hi-Rez, or the Esports team, I should say, [I like] the direction they're going, and I feel like it's going to be a really good year.
The new Leviathans will attempt to return to the top of the SMITE World in the SPL’s tenth season.
