The Wildcard
SoloOrTroll and Pegon on Year Ten, The New Oni Warriors, and Challenges They Face Heading Into Season X
Pegon with the Dragons during a season nine regular season match. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
This team shouldn’t exist.
Consider where these players were a season ago. Pegon was proving to be the mid-laner the Dragons needed, leading them to several impressive phase finishes and a tournament victory. Panitom and Oxiledeon were still members of the defending champion Atlantis Leviathans, who won a record-breaking eleven straight sets in Phase 3. SoloOrTroll was on the Titans, who made an improbable run to the finals to cap off their season. AwesomeJake408 helped the Bolts to a solid albeit ultimately underwhelming finish to their year. Only Netrioid, who was suffering through the unsteadiness of the Solar Scarabs after being dropped from the Kings, was a sure-fire free agent before the offseason began. And, in yet another year where most teams kept their cores together, it would have made sense for these players to wind up in more comfortable positions, playing alongside a collection of former teammates with some new faces sprinkled in. That didn’t happen. Instead, the Dragons core elected to part ways, paving the way for at least one team auto-admitted into the SPL to feature an all-new assembly of players.
With that context, the roster makes some more sense. Pegon, SoloOrTroll, and AwesomeJake408 have been friends for a long time, but scarcely teammates outside of a phase and half in season seven where SoT and Jake played together on the Renegades. But Netrioid and Panitom, who were teammates on Sanguine, seem somewhat out of place. Something about this team feels like mixing water with oil. The North American trio is known for its brazen, sometimes ranked-like plays, exhibiting a flashiness that is often more spectacle than sound SMITE. The Latin American players, on the other hand, have often demonstrated a more measured, methodical (though still fast-paced) style that made Sanguine a top team in season seven and helped the Leviathans win a championship in season eight. Even the team’s brand—the Oni Warriors, last held by a European team known for slow, teamfight-based play—seems like a mismatch for the personalities it now represents.
That being said, something this roster has in spades is raw mechanical skill. Some of the aforementioned flashiness of, say, Pegon and SoloOrTroll comes from their ability to outplay even the best players in the world, pulling mechanical feats out of a hat as if by magic. What worries me most is who will lead this team, but as Pegon tells it, he is excited to step up and help this team find its identity. According to him, the lack of a veteran presence will help this team coalesce around a variety of voices and perspectives. I too am excited to see this team in action, because I truly have no idea where to put their ceiling—or their floor.
I sat down with SoloOrTroll and Pegon to talk about the coming season, their challenges as a roster, and their takes so far on the new year of SMITE.
[The following interview has been edited for clarity.]
The Long Lane: I'm here with the new Oni Warriors, Pegon and SoloOrTroll. Solo, I'll start with a question for you. Obviously, you had a nice run at Worlds, made it to finals with the Titans. It was a disappointing finish, of course, with the 3-0 loss to the Kings. Were there any discussions about keeping that team together, maybe running it back, or were you always planning to look for new opportunities?
SoloOrTroll: It would have been nice to try again, but I think the other guys probably would rather have Baskin. It would be cool. I'm not sure what they preferred, but at the start before I had any offers, I thought it'd be cool to run it back. At the after party, I thought 'cool, we did pretty good and if we had more time, we'd probably do pretty well.'
TLL: Was that their decision then, to go to Baskin, or was it somewhat mutual? What led to that parting?
SoT: I guess yeah. It's mainly them. But I did switch to mid before they got Baskin, so I don't know. Maybe it was somewhat mutual. But if they really wanted me back, I would have said ‘hell yeah.’
TLL: That switch to mid, that was something I know you had mentioned in our previous interview last season, that if you hadn't teamed with Paul or Sheento, you were going to maybe go mid yourself. Is it something that's been on the horizon for a while? And then why didn't it work out?
SoT: It was either Paul or Daniel (Pegon) I would love to play solo lane for, and maybe if it was a top three, top four mid, I would have probably been happy to play solo lane. I didn't end up going mid because I got a really good offer on this team. So I was already with 'Roid, and then Daniel is a free agent and it's hard to find a good solo laner. I would be a pretty average mid at first and then we'd have an average solo laner, or we could have a really good mid laner and a pretty decent solo laner. That seemed better than average and average, so we thought 'we'll just get Daniel.'
TLL: Do you think that not having to play a new role is going to make it easier to adjust to a new roster? Because you've been playing solo lane for basically the entire time you've been playing SMITE, almost a decade now.
SoT: It probably will, but I think it wouldn't be hard either way.
TLL: And obviously you teamed with Stuart on the Scarabs, and then he came over and joined you on the Titans. He looked really strong last year, especially down the stretch at Worlds. Were there any discussions of maybe getting him to be your ADC?
SoT: I thought about it, but I was with 'Roid from the start. There's definitely some potential there to team with Stu, but it ended up being me staying with 'Roid and then we make a team around this. It would have been a lot of fun to team with Stu, but sometimes business is business. I think it has been cool to team with Stu, but I’ve played with him for a while. It's also fun to team with a new ADC.
SoloOrTroll with the Titans during picks and bans before a season nine regular season match. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
TLL: And Pegon, you came into the league last season as a rookie on a team with really high expectations and I think it's fair to say that you really rose to the occasion and had a very strong rookie year. Of course, you were named rookie of the year, and then widely considered one of the top mids all season. With that Dragons team not staying together, what were those talks after Worlds with the fate of that team?
Pegon: Initially, I wanted to stay together as a team but it seemed Screammmmm wanted to leave. Me and Alec were a pair, a package deal at the beginning, but we couldn't really find a roster where we were both happy, I'd say. It was hard to find a support. We both wanted to get Mike again, but it seemed like Mike wanted to play with new teammates to learn from other players. I wanted to stay together as a core, and then Screammmmm and Mike wanted to leave on their different teams.
TLL: So I guess then Alec found the Levi's offer and took it. So that left you to explore your own options. How did this Warriors team come to you, what did the roster looked when you were approached with an offer?
P: Yeah, Netrioid was messaging me at the beginning. The idea was going to be me, Netrioid, and Alec, and then we were struggling to fill in a support and jungle that Alec liked. Once Alec left, 'Roid brought up the roster with SoT and Panitom and Jake. That sounded pretty fun to me. Me and SoT have been friends for so long and Jake as well, and I think Panitom and Netrioid are such good players, too. So I went with that roster. I'm pretty happy with it, too.
TLL: The Kings had Netrioid and moved on from him, then the Bolts core, now the Ravens, who had teamed up with Jake no longer have him, and the number one cited problem for both has been the communication. Obviously Jake and Netrioid, very sick mechanical players, but for those teams, it was their communication that wasn't quite what they needed as a roster. So is that maybe a little bit of a concern for this roster, this communication coming out of the duo side? And is that something you're aware of?
P: It was a small concern. I've never played with Netrioid, but I feel like he seems like a pretty good caller. I'm not sure about Jake as much, but it's honestly exciting to have something we know we can improve on, and I can be someone who can step up and be the leader and talk with our team. That just gets me excited to start already.
SoT: I think what he said is true. I'm also excited to find a workaround to put in a team effort, because that's our number one issue. So we want to make sure we nail that down and make sure we have a hold on that. And it is very exciting to have an issue that we all agree on and we're all on the same page and we're like, 'okay, we need to make sure this is handled.' That's good.
TLL: Another potential concern is that you are, at least before the play-in, the least tenured team in the SPL. Jacob, you are actually the longest time player on this roster. You joined the SPL in season six. Is there a concern of maybe a lack of veteran leadership on this roster?
SoT: No, I don't think it really matters. I think as long as you're all on the same page, you have decent strategies, you understand the meta, you understand your game, and you just play your game, you can be number one even without having a single veteran. Honestly, maybe it's even better to not have veterans. Probably. I don't know.
P: I was actually thinking that as well.
SoT: It might be better.
P: Usually if there's a veteran, you feel you should, and you kind of have to, listen to this person because it seems they know more. But we're on the same page. We all trust each other. We can practice so many more ideas and just try out new things.
TLL: So you think that not having a singular voice that has more experience sort of enables you all to contribute equally to the identity of the team, you'd say?
P: Yeah. And I feel throughout practicing and stuff, we'll naturally develop a leader if need be.
TLL: And that's another thing people have raised about this team, is the potential questions about the practicing environment. You all have a reputation of being a little bit on the more relaxed side of things, staying up late with the rank streams and not always being the most punctual to scrims. Is that something y'all are hoping to prove people wrong about and show that y'all can be the most dedicated, hardest working team in the league?
SoT: Yeah, for sure. I mean I think every team should strive to be the hardest working team. But you have to work smart, not just waste your brain away and develop bad habits from ranked and all that. But as long as you try really hard in scrims, you put everything in scrims, and I think being fresh for scrims, having good sleep and having some caffeine if you need it or just working out before scrims. Whatever it is to make sure you're in the zone, I think is pretty important. And overall, just having the drive and the passion over time. It's definitely a long game. You've got to make sure you're in it for the entire year.
P: Yeah, I'm already motivated to practice. I feel I'll be a pretty good scrimmer throughout this year.
SoT: Yeah. And I think, for me, I make mistakes every year. Like sometimes in the Titans year I would be too tired or something or have bad habits in scrims or not take it as seriously as I could have. So I think it's always fun every year to reflect on mistakes that you've done and then just try really hard to not do those [things again]. So that's what I plan to do. Try not to grief as much.
TLL: Looking at these season ten rosters, is there any team, aside from the Kings, that you really think is the team to beat or maybe a team that you're excited to face?
SoT: I think we have five grudge matches. So, I mean, it'd be cool just to see all our grudge matches. But no, it's not really a specific team. Maybe the Kings, because they're the number one and we'd be able to play them in the finals again, and hopefully this time in our favor. But I don't have a specific team to beat. I'm not sure about you Daniel.
P: I want to beat Mike, Screammmmm, and Alec's teams because I hate them all now.
SoT: [Laughs]
P: Not actually. There's no specific team, I just want to beat everybody.
TLL: But is there a team that maybe you think stands out as maybe stronger than the rest?
P: I'm not sure. Honestly.
SoT: No, I'm not sure. It doesn't even matter. I don't see the point looking at which teams are good. Just focus on ourselves. There are decent teams but I'm not really sure.
P: Teams look good but it's not much different from last year.
SoT: I'd say it's not too different. Every team has their weaknesses. So let's see what happens.
TLL: I think that could actually be a real advantage with this roster is that, as Daniel just pointed out, it's not too different from last year with a lot of the teams, but this roster is basically completely new and so I think maybe the ceiling is not quite as known with this roster. Perhaps the potential is a little bit higher with basically five new players playing together.
SoT: Yeah, no, 100%. I think that will be pretty useful. I think in the past you can see similarities with how teams play over the years and so I think it'd be cool to see how we progress as a team and evolve over time.
P: Also, for me at least, there's not much pressure playing on this team. I think we were pretty much introduced as the sixth seed from how they did on Twitter, right?
SoT: Yeah.
P: And on Dragons, if we lose a set, Reddit people go crazy. The Twitch haters go crazy. I feel there's no pressure for me this split and that's probably a big advantage.
SoT: Yeah, 100%. I enjoy being the underdog. On Scarabs, there was not much pressure to win worlds. When we beat Dragons, it was pretty hype that Worlds. So I think being an underdog is a lot more fun and it's just better with less pressure on you. On Titans as well, they won every tournament in season eight then lost at Worlds. So there was some pressure there as well. I enjoy being on the underdog and the "sixth team."
TLL: Daniel, obviously mages had a lot of weaknesses as a class, especially throughout the middle of Phase 3, and you were exploiting that all season with the Susano, with the Set. Do you think that in season ten, maybe the item changes, the changes to the map, the jungle camp spawns—maybe those things have helped mages out a little bit? What's your take on the class so far this season?
P: It's hard to tell, but with the Bluestone nerf and the Tablet buff, it seems mages are getting stronger. But yeah, it's just hard to tell without actually getting the practice at first because anything works in ranked.
TLL: Yeah, I'm interested in Tablet because you have to hit people 50 times to get those stacks and you're just not fighting nearly as much in a competitive setting. Do you think that that could be a problem for the item? Do you foresee that maybe making the item harder to build in a competitive setting versus ranked?
P: Yeah, I was sort of thinking that, in the lower elo games, you can just fight forever and stack your Tablet really easily. But once we got to the higher ranks, I felt people were not just letting me hit them. So I was thinking maybe it's not worth buying an SPL game, but certain gods like Tiamat or Merlin, it should be really easy to stack it with your poke abilities, so maybe it's worth it for them still. So it's hard to tell, but it's definitely something worth considering.
Netrioid with the Kings during a season nine regular season match. Netrioid joins the Pegon and SoloOrTroll on the Warriors after ending last season with the Scarabs. Image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.
TLL: What about the changes to the red buff? It seems a little bit easier to kill. Does that help mages out, especially in the early game?
P: I didn't know there was a change, but it would yeah, it would.
TLL: It seems weaker, right? Am I imagining that?
P: I have no clue. It always seems OP to me.
TLL: At least you can pull it into the tower if you need to. You may lose a little bit of gold.
P: Pulling it away is really nice to stop invades, which could be an issue if you're playing a mage against a hunter or something.
TLL: Is splitting with the jungler going to be even more prioritized this time now since the jungler can pull camps to the red and you can clear them together?
P: Yeah, except I'll be bringing camps to Panitom. [Laughs]. His time to shine.
TLL: Do you plan to be playing through jungle? I guess jungle is a standout role this season so far.
P: That role is so OP.
SoT: Yeah. [Laughs]
TLL: What do you think it is that makes it that way?
P: Well, it could be just because no one wards in ranked, and it feels like they get two kills every two minutes from random ganks, but it seems they do so much damage. Maybe it's a little different now with the bluestone nerf. I mean, jungle is always op, though.
SoT: Yeah, it's always op. And they had bluestone and they had really OP speed buff, and they cleared their early jungle and stuff pretty fast with the three man split. Then they just gank solo lane level two, or gank duo lane as well.
TLL: So, Daniel, your early take, obviously bluestone nerf hurts it a little bit, but do you think assassins could still be viable or even hunters in the mid lane?
P: Yeah, I think so. I feel you can always play everything in mid until the meta gets really... what’s the word? Defined. Until the meta is defined, you can play whatever you want, I think.
TLL: For you, Jacob, obviously there were a lot of changes to the hybrid items. You can't get power and protections in base stats anymore. Damage has been shifted all the way into item passives. How do you think those changes have reshaped the solo lane role?
SoT: It hasn't really changed that much. But it does feel lame sometimes. Your auto attacks, your abilities are hitting less, because smaller number equals less fun. There are a lot of ways to do extra damage, but they're all getting nerfed. But yeah, I don't know. It doesn't change much. But what does change is a bit boring. It makes it a bit less fun, but it's probably a bit more balanced.
TLL: Do you think that those changes to the hybrid items kill the warrior jungle?
SoT: Hopefully, but I'm not too sure. Probably not. I feel they probably just go they probably just go power items and damage items first, like Golden Blade or Jotunn's Wrath. And then they go a defense item later in the mid game and then be pretty tanky. That's what I think would happen. It'll probably still be good, but I don't know. We'll see. It'll be okay, probably.
TLL: What about the addition of Shards? Do you both feel that it spices us up the early game a lot?
SoT: I thought it did more in PTS, because maybe people were getting into it, but I feel now sometimes you forget to use it or usually get one ability's worth out of your power shard, for example, because it only lasts 3 seconds. And maybe an auto attack with an ability out. So, I don't know. I thought it affected it more, but on certain gods, it can be really good. On Set, for example, you can get the wing shard. You dash in, you ult, and then you pop your wing shard, and you just stack your passive and your ult stacks a lot faster. But I don't know. I think it's cool, though.
P: I like the idea of it a lot, but from my experience, it's usually just the jungler blinking on the mid laner level two with their power shard and killing them. And then I feel mid laners don't actually use their shard as often. It might just end up going vision shard most games probably, even though that's not fun.
TLL: Yeah. What's definitely a concern for me is everyone's having fun with the Shards and we'll get to May and we'll just be in a five Vision Shard meta because wards are OP.
P: Yeah, there's a good chance that might happen.
TLL: What about the map in general? It's wider, a different shape. Are you all enjoying the new map? How do you think it will change things at the competitive level?
P: I actually really dislike the map. I don't the walls around red buff and green buff. I think there's too many walls. And at first I really liked the roaming harpies, but after playing a little bit and having my abilities get blocked by it and it blocking my auto attacks randomly, I've started to hate those. But those are my main issues with the map.
SoT: Yeah, the season eight map and the season nine map as well were just really fun and it's hard to beat that. But I'm not too much a fan of the new map. It's not bad map by any means. I do think the other one was better. I'm not a fan of the roaming harpies, like Daniel said, it blocks your shit sometimes. I think the best part of the map is the buff leashing. That's so much fun, but I don't know. I really dislike the environment, the scenery in solo lane, I'm not a fan of the hue and the color of the lane. I'm not a fan of them taking cooldown out of the blue buff. Blue buff is kind of useless now. I think the Fire Giant 360 pit is pretty cool, but I don't know, I miss the old Pyro. I don't like how mid camps are so tanky. The bastions are pretty cool, but I don't know. Like Daniel said, some of the walls are weird. Although I do like the green buff wall. I think that wall is pretty fun to dance around. But I'm just more of a fan of the other map, I think.
P: I like the old map so much better.
TLL: What was it about the old map, Daniel, that you thought was more enjoyable?
P: I feel I just enjoyed walking the jungle a lot more. There's too many walls on this map and I'm always lost. And you have to walk so far to get your red buff if you're not going behind your tower, then you have to walk so far to get it. Same with Green.
TLL: Yeah, the pathways are narrower. And I also feel, in my experience, the towers themselves are choked out by the jungle walls. On the old map, the walls that hugged to the towers were a lot shorter, which made it easier to go from your tower to the jungle. If you were going to gank duo lane and go behind their tower, the wall around purple to get there is so lengthy. And it's the same on solo side with the blue buff or with the wall by their tier one. So it's just hard to get around into the towers from the jungle, which makes playing those scenarios awkward, I guess. But do you all think that maybe that's just because we're used to the way things used to be? Or is it actually having a negative impact on how enjoyable the game is?
SoT: It's partly because change is different, but when season eight came out, I was extremely happy, I loved the map. So I don't know. But that was after three years of the season five, six, seven map.
P: I think I just don't like the map.
TLL: They took a lot of the objectives off the map as well. Especially those objectives you prioritize in the mid game. The Scorpions and scepter are gone. You don't have to chase cups around. It simplifies what you do on the map as opposed to just farming. There are fewer things to worry about. And also they changed the spawns of Gold and Fire. So when Fire ends, it's already respawning. Do you think that those simplifications are bad for competitive play and sort of flatten things too much? Or will they be interesting and exciting?
SoT: I'm not really sure. Probably interesting either way. But I do know for solo lane though, you clear your wave and what else is there to do? I guess get totem and the cooldown buff. But that's literally it. [Last season] you'd go get cups, you'd get double back camps, or you get mid camps, or you could go to Scorpion or to Pyro. There's a lot of things you could do. But now there's not a ton to do. Pyro spawns pretty late. The mid camps are really tanky. Back camps are a f---ing four minute cooldown.
P: I do like bastions a lot. It's a lot of fun to hit in lane, but I'm not sure how realistic it is to just stand there in the early game and just hit it, but they're a lot of fun so far.
TLL: For pulling camps, especially in the start, there are a lot of gods that really struggle with dealing AOE damage. Do you think that that's going to limit the gods that you can play or will other starts be viable? Doing camps in sections rather than all three at the same time?
SoT: I think pretty much any combination of gods clear. Some gods take a little bit more damage than others if you have 'worst case scenario' gods, but I think the majority of gods would be fine as long as you have at least one decent clearing god and then another average clearing god and another average clearing god would be fine. But if you have three really bad clearing gods for camps, then you probably get screwed. But I mean, pretty much every god has a decent way to clear, so it won't be that bad.
TLL: Are you at all surprised that Stuart, after the showing that he had at SWC, had to try his luck in the play in?
SoT: I mean, it's unfortunate, but business is business. I don't know, sometimes it be like that.
P: Yeah. Too many good ADC players.
TLL: Yeah, that's definitely true.
P: OP role.
TLL: Is it an OP role?
P: I think it is.
SoT: Yeah, it actually is.
TLL: Is that because hunters are in a good space, is it their itemization, or maybe mage ADCs?
SoT: All the above.
TLL: So you all are lobbying for more hunter nerfs?
P: Always.
TLL: Y'all aren't scared that Zapman is going to come after you?
SoT: Nope. Jungle and ADC nerfs I'll always be happy for.
TLL: What would you nerf?
P: Less damage. They do too much damage. Everybody does too much damage. Besides mages.
SoT: Less healing, less crit, less pen, just less everything. And supports are really OP as well.
P: Too tanky.
SoT: Yeah, one of the most OP roles, they're way too tanky.
P: Too much damage.
SoT: Too much damage, too much healing, med healing.
TLL: Everything's broken now.
SoT: Except solo lane and mid.
P: We should keep jungle good this season.
TLL: Actually, you have Panitom. Maybe it's in your best interest for jungle to be good.
P: We need jungle buffs.
SoT: Yeah, I think the meta has changed a bit over the last few seconds and I think jungle is not too great right now.
TLL: [Laughs] So you two have been friends for a while. Are you all excited to finally have a chance to team together on the SPL stage?
SoT: Yeah, I think it'll be fun. Jake as well.
P: Yeah, it's going to be fun living together.
SoT: Maybe we will do some cooking streams or something fun.
P: I do not cook.
SoT: Yeah, exactly. That's the point. Daniel, you can coach us. You can wear a chef hat, and me and Jake would try and cook a five course meal.
P: We could do… what's it called? Iron Chef? Is that what it's called?
SoT: I think so, yeah.
P: We get the mystery ingredients and then you have to make something.
SoT: Yeah, exactly.
P: I could give you food poisoning.
SoT: [Laughs] Our apartment's getting burned down, bro. Jake and I can compete. We'll make the same dish and you'll test which one is better.
P: Jake cooked for me once. He burnt the eggs and f---ed up the rice.
TLL: Maybe stick to letting him cook in SMITE.
P: True
TLL: Well, but then he's going to whip out the—I don't know—Cupid support.
SoT: The Scylla.
P: I don't want to see that. He's getting kicked. I don't want to see that.
The Oni Warriors will face off against the Highland Ravens during the SPL Kickoff tournament, Friday March 31st on Twitch.tv/smitegame.
