After the SMITE World Championship took the eSports scene by storm in January with a $2.6 Million dollar prize pool, we’re ready to go even bigger with Season 2! Here are the details on the upcoming Season 2 structure, which will culminate in the 2016 SMITE World Championship.
Throughout 2015, the best teams in SMITE will fight in 3 different splits (Spring, Summer, Fall) which after each split, we will hold LAN tournaments featuring the top teams in each region. After the Fall Split LAN, only the best of each region will be invited to the next SMITE World Championship (SWC).
All teams (except for the teams who qualified for the SWC) will need to participate in the Spring Split Qualifiers in order to start their journey to the next world championship. The top teams in the Qualifiers will advance into the Spring Split as all remaining teams must fight through the Challenger Cup in order to be eligible to partake in the Summer Split.
So when do the Spring Split Qualifiers begin? February 14 and 15!
Here’s the general timeline of the upcoming Spring Split:
February 14th – 15th:
Week 1 Qualifiers
Monday, February 9, we open signups to be soft seeded.
- Teams from Worlds will automatically qualify for the league and will not be eligible to play in the qualifiers.
- Top 8 teams will be identified by a committee and announced on a live show on Friday, February 13.
- Top 8 teams will get soft seeded into the bracket.
- Signups for seeding will close Thursday, February 12 @ 12:00pm est.
- Saturday February 14th (NA) and Sunday February 15th (EU), Week 1 of Qualifiers are played.
- Open to all teams (but worlds teams) with 8 teams soft seeded.
- Single elimination with points.
February 21st – 22nd:
Week 2 Qualifiers
- Saturday February 21 (NA) and Sunday February 22 (EU), Week 2 of Qualifiers are played.
- Team with points from Week 1 are soft seeded.
- Open to all teams but Worlds teams.
- Single elimination tournament with points.
February 28th – March 1st:
Week 3 Qualifiers
- Saturday February 28 (NA) and Sunday March 1 (EU) Week 3 of Qualifiers are played.
- Top 8 teams with points after Week 2 advance to Week 3.
- Teams will be split into 2 groups of 4 teams in a round robin format.
- Each team plays each other once in their group in Best of 1 series.
- Top 2 from each group advance to the league.
March 5 – April 5:
Spring Split
- Top 6 teams (2 from Worlds and 4 from Qualifiers) play.
- Each team plays each other once in Best of 3 series.
- 5 weeks (Thursday, Saturday and Sunday).
- $250 for a series win // $125 for a series lose.
- Top 2 per region advance to the Multi-region LAN.
March 5 – April 19:
Challenger Cup
A Challenger Cup, similar to last years, will be played simultaneously to the Pro League for all the teams that did not make it into the Spring Split Pro League. This will be weekly, single elimination tournaments where teams earn points. At the end of the Challenger Cup, the top teams with the most points will have the chance to play the bottom teams from the Pro League in order to try to gain a spot into the Summer Split.
April 25th – 26th:
Multi-Region LAN
This is a LAN event where the top 2 North American teams and the top 2 European teams from the Spring Split will play in a competition for not just a big chunk of money. The top team from this event will also win a trip to Brazil to compete against the top teams from Latin America and Brazil at XMA – X5 Mega Arena. Exact structure, location or details of the sort will be determined later.
After the Spring Split LAN, teams from the Challenger Cup will need to relegate into the Summer Split by facing teams from the Spring Split Pro League. More details pertaining to the remaining 2 splits will be announced at a later date.
But before we get into all this exciting action, we’ll be holding a tournament this weekend, February 7 and 8, which includes some of the top teams in SMITE. This will be the first time we’ll see these teams play in a competitive event on the new map and with the new items. And to make it even sweeter, the viewers get to choose what matchup’s we’ll be broadcasting all weekend. To learn more on the event, read this announcement post.
We look forward to seeing both veterans and newcomers participating throughout the entire year of 2015. With a new map, new items and new faces coming into the scene, we expect to see some exciting shakeups in both regions. We wish all of our pros the best of luck!
