eSports
After
the
community’s
purchasing of the premium
Poolsiden skin added $5 per skin
sold, the prizing was increased
to $200,000. The eight teams
invited to compete for their
portion of the large prize pool
were hosted in Atlanta by HiRez for the weekend. Unlike the
qualifying weekly tournaments,
region. Teams that lost fell to the
losers bracket where they could
fight their way back into the top
bracket and the finals.
In the first round Team Solo
Mid (TSM) dominated Denial
eSports. This was despite these
matches being the first TSM had
ever played at a LAN (closed
Team Snipe faced off with Cloud
9 HyperX (C9) on the main stage
for their first matches. In what
would turn out to be exciting
the event was a best of three
for every match-up with the
finals being a best of five. The
brackets were created by pairing
the first place team from each
region against the fourth place
team from the opposite region;
the same was done for second
and third place teams from each
network) event and against a
Denial team that had placed
second at PAX Prime just seven
months earlier. While Denial
dominated the early game, TSM
came back in both matches to
neatly win. Team Coast, which
had a roster change at mid just
after qualifying for the event,
games, C9 came back from a
loss to take first blood on Snipe’s
Apollo (Allied) at only two minutes
into the match. This was followed
up only forty-five seconds later
with Bakasura (Xaliea) getting a
kill in the solo lane on to Chaac
(Wolfy). Only three minutes
later, Snipe turned what was
Issue 1 • May 2014
also struggled in their matches
against COGnitive Gaming. COG
dominated throughout both
matches and easily secured their
continuation in the top bracket.
29 • GameOn Smite Community Magazine