LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 22: Woonyoung "Baskin" Kim of the Spacestation Gaming esport team gets ready to play in a "Smite" video game competition during the grand opening of Esports Arena Las Vegas, the first dedicated esports arena on the Las Vegas Strip at Luxor Hotel and Casino on March 22, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Esports Arena Las Vegas)
SMITE: Season 5 is going backwards in its meta
Many of the SMITE Pro teams are going back to the gods, strategies, and drafts of season four. This could be both good and bad moving forward.
During the SMITE Pro League in the last few weeks, you may have recognized some of the metas being played. There have been many season four flashbacks in pro games. Gods like Fafnir haven’t seen a ton of play in the pro league so far, but are starting to make a comeback.
A lot of these picks are ones I don’t have any complaints about. It is great to see a lot of variation in god picks throughout the league. This has allowed for a wider range of gods to be acceptable picks or bans.
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The strategies are horrible ones to bring back from season four. The revival of the mid and ADC both starting in mid lane with just the support in the duo lane makes me laugh. It splits experience between two of the most important roles.
Most of the strategies have not been resurrected from the last season though. This is mostly due to the change in how the gold and experience is shared along with the size of the map change.
The most confusing things to return, however, have been in the drafts. The double hunter strategy can work, but it is difficult to execute and needs to be balanced. The biggest strategy that has returned has been from Mousesports.
Mouse has three of the five people from the former Elevate roster that made it to the World Championship Tournament. This may be why they brought back the Elevate drafts. They have been challenging other teams with the triple guardian and double hunter draft.
Often times when strategies are revived, they did well previously. The god picks had done well historically, but the others are on a different page. The mid and ADC team-up was a “snowball” strategy. The Elevate draft was what lost them their matches at Worlds.
I encourage the old god picks so it can spread out the variability. However, I discourage the strategy and the draft from being used professionally. This is because it is easily countered.
