Hi-Rez Announces $600,000 SMITE World Championship
I guess you can say you've made it as a MOBA if you've got yourself a World Championship. While League of Legends and Dota 2 have paved the way for high-stakes MOBA tournaments in the west, Hi-Rez Studio's third-person mythological MOBA SMITE can now proudly count itself among the elite with the recent announcement of SMITE's upcoming $600,000 World Championship.
Scheduled to be held on January 9th through the 11th of next year, SMITE's inaugural World Championship will take place in Hi-Rez's home town of Atlanta where the top two teams from North America, Europe and China will be joined by the top team from both Brazil and the Spanish-speaking portion of South America to battle it out on stage at the 2750-seat Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
Like Dota 2, which used community driven crowdfunding to boost this year's TI4 championship to an astronomical prize pool of 10 million, SMITE too will also use community contributions and exclusive content sales to boost the initial prize pool even higher. Hi-Rez has said they'll have more details regarding the crowd-funding options in the near future.
Hi-Rez has already announce when and where qualifiers for the SMITE World Championship will take place in Europe and North America which can be seen below:
● In Europe:
- * A $50,000 LAN Event will be held Saturday, July 26, 2014, at the ESL Studio in Cologne,
- The SMITE European Championship will be held Saturday and Sunday, November 15 to 16, Germany, featuring the top four teams to emerge from the 10-week EU SWC On-line Qualifying Series. 2014, at the ESL Studio in Cologne, Germany. This event will feature the top six teams from Europe, with the final two teams continuing on to the World Championship.
● In North America:
- A $50,000 LAN Event will be held Saturday, August 9, 2014, at the Kessel D. Stelling Ballroom
- The SMITE North American Championship will be held Saturday and Sunday, November 22 to in Atlanta, within the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Complex, featuring the top four teams from the 10-week NA SWC On-line Qualifying Series. 23, 2014, at Kessel D. Stelling Ballroom in Atlanta, within the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Complex. This event will feature the top six teams from North America, with the final two teams continuing on to the World Championship.
Other region qualifiers are said to be announced at a later date. For those interested in finding out more concerning SMITE's eSport scene, you can check out the official SMITE eSports website here.
About the Author
Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play MMO title since 2009.
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still got long way to reach lvl of dota2
I still have a good laugh at all the little guys trying to get in on a piece of the MMO-hype pie, who go against DOTA2 and LoL with the oldschool archaic MOBA style. Talk about doing it wrong, companies should be competing with Smite in the new age. I'd say it's in a very very solid position, but you never know. Companies have a better shot of taking out the new guy than two juggernauts.
I wonder if its just a passing fad or if esports are here to stay.