Event
The 2020 SMITE Pro League, being the competitive title’s seventh season, was set to return roughly about now, though the show was delayed. Since then, the community has been awaiting news of whether the competition will be moving online or cancelled indefinitely. To everyone’s delight, SMITE isn’t going anywhere and will be kicking off on the 4th of April!
Indeed, the 2020 SMITE Pro League Phase 1 will be taking place as announced by the organizers of Hi-Rez Studios and Skillshot in an official press release a few days ago – below, we’ll be spilling all the details and most importantly, how to watch it!
The 2020 SPL is the largest SMITE has ever been, for those unaware, kicking off of the success achieved by the previous season, to now host eight franchised teams working to qualifying for the massive event at the end of the year called the SMITE World Championship 2021 with this upcoming event being the very first step towards this goal.
So far, the first 5 weeks have been confirmed for online play: regardless, all points will be earned towards World Championship qualification while the top 6 qualify to the Phase 1 Playoffs.
As such, the Phase 1 event will not have a prize pool, as the two months of gameplay all build-up to the Phase 1 Playoffs set to take part afterwards: a spot is precisely what the teams will be competing for. Speaking of which, here are the eight franchised teams taking part in the SPL 2020:
- eUnited
- Ghost Gaming
- Obey Alliance
- Knights
- Renegades
- Sanguine Esports
- Spacestation
- Team RivaL
Last year’s SPL did have 10 teams – the decision to lower the number to 8 looks to tighten the competition further. Almost all of the eight teams present have returned from last season, with some newcomers looking to shake up the board in the likes of Sanguine Esports, Obey Alliance and Ghost Gaming.
Format and Schedule
The format should remain similar to what was planned for both online and offline, simply shifted a few weeks back. Kicking off on the 4th of April, the Double Round Robin in play looks to conclude on the 7th of June.
Within the Single Group, Double Round Robin, all matches will be best of three and so far, the first five weeks have been confirmed for online play while not excluding the possibility of extending this period.
After 10 weeks of gameplay with roughly two games per matchday. Points will be earned to fit into those top 6 spots to qualify for Phase 1 Playoffs, while the bottom two miss out completely.
All games will be played and broadcasted weekly across the Weekend: including Friday, Saturday and Sunday, though this may not be the case for each week.
To help visualise it, we’ve got the first two weeks of the Smite Pro League schedule down below:
Week 1
Saturday 04/04
Pittsburgh Knights vs Ghost Gaming (11:00)
eUnited vs Team RivaL (21:00)
Sunday 04/05
Spacestation Gaming vs Renegades (11:00)
Sanguine Esports vs Obey Alliance (21:00)
Week 2
Friday 04/10
- Renegades vs Team RivaL (11:00)
- eUnited vs Ghost Gaming (21:00)
Saturday 04/11
- Pittsburgh Knights vs Obey Alliance (11:00)
- Spacestation Gaming vs Sanguine Esports (21:00)
Sunday 04/12
- Obey Alliance vs Ghost Gaming (11:00)
- eUnited vs Renegades (21:00)
Streams
The SMITE Pro League 2020 Phase 1 will be viewable at the following live streams:
- Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/smitegame
- Mixer: https://mixer.com/SmiteGame
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/smitegame/live
Watch the Smite Pro League Season 7 stream on esportsguide.com
You can also watch smite pro league live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
Although the SPL 2020 is a blank sheet right now, there’s a lot to go on from last season for some of these teams. According to last season’s standings, bearing in mind the teams that aren’t still with us, Team RivaL (14-4) placed first in the regular season with Renegades (13-5) finishing hot on their heels followed by Pittsburgh Knights with an 11-7 performance of their own. However, in the end, SK Gaming did win last season, though no longer housing a team.
Team RivaL had a stellar performance last season, finishing in the top three every time with one exception, earning them a top spot in the season, finishing second place at the Smite World Championship Main Event last year under SK Gaming.
Since then, however, the team has undergone some changes: “Arkkyl” left the roster to be replaced by “Sam4soccer2″ – a player from last year’s champion roster of SK Gaming. The roster has also shuffled some roles around and overall, they seem hungry to claim this year after falling short last season.
Renegades is a whole different story, as they released their entire roster after a top 4 finish last year, who’ve all ended up on Spacestation Gaming together except for one retired player. At the start of 2020, they announced a new roster built from players taken from other teams: ‘SoloOrTroll’, ‘Lasbrai’, ‘Venenu’, ‘BaRRaCCuDDa’ and ‘AwesomeJake408′ all start now.
The organization may have a respectable history but this is a completely new team – how they’ll perform is a gamble for the time being.
Beyond those two, eyes are fixed on eUnited and Pittsburgh Knights. eUnited now packs a new duo in “Variety” and ‘Scream’ that could dominate after powerful individual performances last year.
On the other hand, Pittsburgh Knights signed almost all of last season’s champions in SK Gaming except for one: instead being replaced by “Qvofred”. With that being said, Pittsburgh Knights look to be the favourites heading into the event should the SK Gaming roster maintain their form under the new name.
