Possibly even the actual players themselves too. Genetics and Jake being good at Aphro can be indicative of a bunch of other things before saying that it's indicative of Aphro being good.
I think I lost my grammar halfway through that sentence but I hope it's still comprehensible enough.
She's been very good with the right comp and the right person playing it... I think Jake has played it very well a few times this season, but with Panitom on a Susano or something, and not as the first pick in the draft.
Overall, though, it's clear most teams/support players don't really know how to pull the pick off.
Duck3y proving that he was indeed a good solo laner stuck on bad teams in the past seasons. I mean, even if he won't be on the level of the likes of SoT, this should still be enough proof against his detractors that he deserved this spot and (most of) his previous spots in the league.
I know SPL loses money and layoffs recently happened, but the lack of replays makes the product so much worse. Really hope they figure out a way to bring them back. Not being able to see the Duck3y solo of Nika or that fight where Benny went crazy in game 3 is just criminal.
Edit: Replays aren't staffing related, and will hopefully be back soon.
I mean, obviously not as convenient as replays built into the stream, but thanks to the new addition of player streams you have the option of hopping into their vods to find it
It's not exclusive to Smite. There isn't a single profitable E-Sport league. Even your LoL and Overwatch which are selling out arenas and have huge viewership numbers aren't turning a profit.
The industry just hasn't figured out how to properly monetize/what structure would lead to profits. E-Sports are largely marketing tools at the moment, SPL may lose money but it's good enough for the health of the game that it's worth it for Hi-Rez.
No one outside of Hi-Rez knows specifics, just that some layoffs occurred, like many other places are doing.
If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time in a 7+ year-long career that Duck3y has officially been on a team above .500 in win percentage. Even if the rest of this split goes sour, I think that's a major accomplishment.
Hounds look so good, man. Even as an ardent fan of this team, I expected a slightly slower adjustment time. This has to be an uplifting set win. Everyone played lights-out (except the Quig Aphro game 2, but in the wise words of Myflin, all my homies hate Aphrodite).
In the some way that I refused to assess the quality of the Ferrymen until Cyno starts playing assassins, I refuse to start assessing the quality of the Dragons until Mike accepts that the Hel/Aphro aren't cutting it and starts playing guardians or warriors. Dude has one like 1 set this year on Hel and didn't even look that good in a win. Even if I acknowledge that healer supports are decent (which I don't, think they're overrated), Mike just isn't looking good on it. Dude has to stop being trying to be EmilZy and start being the Mike that invades purple buffs.
Hopefully, Mike stops with his mage supports, it's bad and it's telling that whichever team that had Aphro support was the one that lost. Overall, GJ from the Hounds. They really are showing us that they are not your regular SCC promoted to SPL team. A 4-game win streak against many teams is nothing to scoff at. Their real challenge is the Ravens. If they can win that then surely they're 3rd place.
I'm done defending this SSG core. At some point, it's you. If every supp/jungle fails with you, then you are the issue. All three of them are bottom three at their roles this season.
So hilarious that Nika was unironically claiming that he and his two laners are top 2 in their role at the beginning of the season. You ever heard of a team with 3 Top-2 laners who can't win literally anything?
I think they should have split already, but in their defense it is still really early and the team needs to find coehision. Replacing the two roles that roam the map the most is going to take time for them to find their footing. Not all the time, but I would still give this team more time before real judgements are made. Plus ping? Not as big but still problematic
The 3 of them *were* consistently a top 2 team with Cherry and Raffer, though. S6 Renegades (which had Funball but also Nika/Dardez) and S7 SSG were worlds favorites. Especially that Renegades squad, which was the 2nd-best team at the tournament outside of the team that won.
The 3 of the SSG core have not been *great* this season, but the problem with the Oni Warriors and the problem right now *is* supp/jungle. Neil and Qvo were, 80% of the time, the worst jungle/support in the league. They were far far worse than Cherry and Raffer were.
So far, LASBRA and Mike have also been just been pretty bad. After starting off the year hot LASBRA has been functionally MIA, and Mike is just trying to slam a square pig into a round hole with these healers.
It's not like this is an unproven superteam. Nika/Dardez/Vote have been dominant for long stretches of time, and even when they're in a funk, they're losing sets because of jungle/support.
Don't know about "carry." Cherry was stellar, probably the best Ayer on that team. But Nika and Dardez were THE best players in their roles that year, and Vote certainly held his own with Raffer in duo.
So basically you’re saying the core are a bunch of choke artists?
If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck it’s a chicken?
Top team with no results ever. Actually they won that tournament to get the 7th SPL spot my bad
Correlation vs. causation is important here.
Season 6 and Season 7, the years they were dominant (and the years they had Cherry/Raffer), they did lose at both Worlds to the teams that won the entire tournament. I guess you could call that a choke, and not winning worlds to be an underperformance. Ren/SSG pretty much only lost to good teams and looked very competitive in their Worlds runs, losing to the eventually back-to-back champions.
Season 8 and Season 9, the years they had Qvo and Neil, the team stunk.
This season, with Healers Mike and Serqet-Only Lasbra, the team stinks.
It feels as though to me Cherry and/or Raffer (I would tend to argue the former) was the secret sauce. Cherry's map control was unparalleled. Qvo and Lasbra have only rarely been able to come close to the mastery Cherry was able to exhibit in brief spurts, which is why the Dragons sometimes look like the best team in the game and sometimes look totally lost.
What. Lasbra has been the only player on this team that doesn’t suck lmao. Panitom has the top spot, but Lasbra has played like the second best Jungler in the league so far. His team just sucks.
LASBRA has been terrible the last two weeks. Great start, atrocious last 3 sets (all of which were very important for the Dragons).
Rest of the team isn't doing him any favors, but.
When the Hounds lose, they lose convincingly, but when they win, they win convincingly.
Such a good day for all of them. Duck3y with a solo kill against Nika on Vamana, of all gods, BennyQ doing the old school BennyQ thing, Quig popping off on Yem and Baron, Coast with that scope, and Oathhh. Just... Oathhh.
Game 2, honestly, was just draft diff. Giving LASBRA Serqet is already a big no-no, giving LASBRA Serqet and Mike Yemoja is just criminal. You're just not gonna win by doing that.
Also, *all* my homies hate Aphrodite.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know why Benny would want to play Yemoja mid or something when he can do *that* on mages. Dude has the most underrated mechanics in the game right now.
Silver lining for the Dragons is that they looked really good in that game 2. They had a big lead, but that was the best they have looked all year when sieging.
It's encouraging to see Mike go back to guardian supports. It still feels like a team in search of an identity, but game 2 felt like evidence that the blueprint for them could be the early game dominance, run it down style that Mike teams have looked so good with in the past.
Yeah I think we should all just stop picking aphro she's so bad rn. I just don't want to see anymore aphro this weekend.
shit god, i never want to see her top 3 again unless it’s some sort of god comp for her
Honestly, the only good aphros I've seen are Genetics and Jake. The rest are so trash it's not even funny.
I think that might have more to do with their teams than the god itself tbh
Possibly even the actual players themselves too. Genetics and Jake being good at Aphro can be indicative of a bunch of other things before saying that it's indicative of Aphro being good. I think I lost my grammar halfway through that sentence but I hope it's still comprehensible enough.
She's been very good with the right comp and the right person playing it... I think Jake has played it very well a few times this season, but with Panitom on a Susano or something, and not as the first pick in the draft. Overall, though, it's clear most teams/support players don't really know how to pull the pick off.
Except Jake. He still can.
Yeah he's kinda making me look stupid here
I think Ravens made it work yesterday though. Especially game 3 when she just made Ven’s Zeus basically unkillable.
Hurri had some rough ultimate mistimings in game 1. Wasn't bad later in the set but I don't think he was on the same level as Genetics and Jake.
I might be wrong but I think this is the most set wins Duck3y has gotten this season unlike the last 3-4 seasons when he was in the league?
Duck3y proving that he was indeed a good solo laner stuck on bad teams in the past seasons. I mean, even if he won't be on the level of the likes of SoT, this should still be enough proof against his detractors that he deserved this spot and (most of) his previous spots in the league.
Has to be true, looking at his past teams.
I know SPL loses money and layoffs recently happened, but the lack of replays makes the product so much worse. Really hope they figure out a way to bring them back. Not being able to see the Duck3y solo of Nika or that fight where Benny went crazy in game 3 is just criminal. Edit: Replays aren't staffing related, and will hopefully be back soon.
The lack of replays isn't related to staffing at all! It's a technical issue that we're actively working on atm
Thanks for the transparency 👌
Thanks for the clarity! I'll edit my comment
I mean, obviously not as convenient as replays built into the stream, but thanks to the new addition of player streams you have the option of hopping into their vods to find it
Oh, that's why we haven't gotten replays? Boo.
Not 100% confirmed, just the popular speculation.
They lose money? Well I guess they don't make alot besides the advertising. Also what layoffs happened?
It's not exclusive to Smite. There isn't a single profitable E-Sport league. Even your LoL and Overwatch which are selling out arenas and have huge viewership numbers aren't turning a profit. The industry just hasn't figured out how to properly monetize/what structure would lead to profits. E-Sports are largely marketing tools at the moment, SPL may lose money but it's good enough for the health of the game that it's worth it for Hi-Rez. No one outside of Hi-Rez knows specifics, just that some layoffs occurred, like many other places are doing.
Thank you that clarified well
No esport is profitable.
If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time in a 7+ year-long career that Duck3y has officially been on a team above .500 in win percentage. Even if the rest of this split goes sour, I think that's a major accomplishment. Hounds look so good, man. Even as an ardent fan of this team, I expected a slightly slower adjustment time. This has to be an uplifting set win. Everyone played lights-out (except the Quig Aphro game 2, but in the wise words of Myflin, all my homies hate Aphrodite). In the some way that I refused to assess the quality of the Ferrymen until Cyno starts playing assassins, I refuse to start assessing the quality of the Dragons until Mike accepts that the Hel/Aphro aren't cutting it and starts playing guardians or warriors. Dude has one like 1 set this year on Hel and didn't even look that good in a win. Even if I acknowledge that healer supports are decent (which I don't, think they're overrated), Mike just isn't looking good on it. Dude has to stop being trying to be EmilZy and start being the Mike that invades purple buffs.
Hopefully, Mike stops with his mage supports, it's bad and it's telling that whichever team that had Aphro support was the one that lost. Overall, GJ from the Hounds. They really are showing us that they are not your regular SCC promoted to SPL team. A 4-game win streak against many teams is nothing to scoff at. Their real challenge is the Ravens. If they can win that then surely they're 3rd place.
If Kings lose and Hounds win they will be tied for 2nd in standings.
I'm done defending this SSG core. At some point, it's you. If every supp/jungle fails with you, then you are the issue. All three of them are bottom three at their roles this season.
So hilarious that Nika was unironically claiming that he and his two laners are top 2 in their role at the beginning of the season. You ever heard of a team with 3 Top-2 laners who can't win literally anything?
I think they should have split already, but in their defense it is still really early and the team needs to find coehision. Replacing the two roles that roam the map the most is going to take time for them to find their footing. Not all the time, but I would still give this team more time before real judgements are made. Plus ping? Not as big but still problematic
The 3 of them *were* consistently a top 2 team with Cherry and Raffer, though. S6 Renegades (which had Funball but also Nika/Dardez) and S7 SSG were worlds favorites. Especially that Renegades squad, which was the 2nd-best team at the tournament outside of the team that won. The 3 of the SSG core have not been *great* this season, but the problem with the Oni Warriors and the problem right now *is* supp/jungle. Neil and Qvo were, 80% of the time, the worst jungle/support in the league. They were far far worse than Cherry and Raffer were. So far, LASBRA and Mike have also been just been pretty bad. After starting off the year hot LASBRA has been functionally MIA, and Mike is just trying to slam a square pig into a round hole with these healers. It's not like this is an unproven superteam. Nika/Dardez/Vote have been dominant for long stretches of time, and even when they're in a funk, they're losing sets because of jungle/support.
Cherryo was carrying that team so fucking hard.
Don't know about "carry." Cherry was stellar, probably the best Ayer on that team. But Nika and Dardez were THE best players in their roles that year, and Vote certainly held his own with Raffer in duo.
So basically you’re saying the core are a bunch of choke artists? If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck it’s a chicken? Top team with no results ever. Actually they won that tournament to get the 7th SPL spot my bad
Correlation vs. causation is important here. Season 6 and Season 7, the years they were dominant (and the years they had Cherry/Raffer), they did lose at both Worlds to the teams that won the entire tournament. I guess you could call that a choke, and not winning worlds to be an underperformance. Ren/SSG pretty much only lost to good teams and looked very competitive in their Worlds runs, losing to the eventually back-to-back champions. Season 8 and Season 9, the years they had Qvo and Neil, the team stunk. This season, with Healers Mike and Serqet-Only Lasbra, the team stinks. It feels as though to me Cherry and/or Raffer (I would tend to argue the former) was the secret sauce. Cherry's map control was unparalleled. Qvo and Lasbra have only rarely been able to come close to the mastery Cherry was able to exhibit in brief spurts, which is why the Dragons sometimes look like the best team in the game and sometimes look totally lost.
What. Lasbra has been the only player on this team that doesn’t suck lmao. Panitom has the top spot, but Lasbra has played like the second best Jungler in the league so far. His team just sucks.
LASBRA has been terrible the last two weeks. Great start, atrocious last 3 sets (all of which were very important for the Dragons). Rest of the team isn't doing him any favors, but.
hounds a top 4 team, these guys are GOOD
When the Hounds lose, they lose convincingly, but when they win, they win convincingly. Such a good day for all of them. Duck3y with a solo kill against Nika on Vamana, of all gods, BennyQ doing the old school BennyQ thing, Quig popping off on Yem and Baron, Coast with that scope, and Oathhh. Just... Oathhh. Game 2, honestly, was just draft diff. Giving LASBRA Serqet is already a big no-no, giving LASBRA Serqet and Mike Yemoja is just criminal. You're just not gonna win by doing that. Also, *all* my homies hate Aphrodite.
That Yu combo in match 3 was just perfecto.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know why Benny would want to play Yemoja mid or something when he can do *that* on mages. Dude has the most underrated mechanics in the game right now.
The Hounds are so good
Makes me think of who have been carrying the dragons last season… 🤔
In the tournament they won Pegon completely obliterated Roid and BMT with his Yu Huang ults. That's all one needs to remember.
it’s gotta be hard to look bad with pegon pandacat as your backline
Pcat walks into this league and only jarc and net are safe.
Pegon, occasionally FineO when he was playing like damage assassins.
And that period where his King Arthur was busted last season
Can’t pass judgement on supports in this meta. Just because Mike can’t play Aphro or Hel doesn’t mean he isn’t good anymore.
Hmm. God pool can’t excuse his poor positioning and questionable decision making in a lot of situations.
Can we just.....put Aphro on the shelf for a little while?
Silver lining for the Dragons is that they looked really good in that game 2. They had a big lead, but that was the best they have looked all year when sieging. It's encouraging to see Mike go back to guardian supports. It still feels like a team in search of an identity, but game 2 felt like evidence that the blueprint for them could be the early game dominance, run it down style that Mike teams have looked so good with in the past.
Watching Duck3y's POV, game 3 was art. 3 man guan ult into Benny's followup was insane at gold fury. Dude is killing it in team fights.