Ten teams are going head-to-head today in the SMITE World Championship to compete for the $500,000 grand prize. The tournament runs from today through Sunday, January 10th, and can be viewed on Twitch.
Hi-Rez is expected to make an announcement during this event concerning new champions coming to the MOBA. The studio is also hosting an Xbox One Invitational today and tomorrow with a $25,000 prize pool.You can watch the keynote address beginning at 11 a.m. EST today on Twitch.
Season 3 of SMITE will focus heavily on improving the game’s overall user experience, including changes to the in-game shop, the introduction of Daily Quests and a host of user interface updates. But most notably, Season 3 will introduce the long-awaited Japanese Pantheon. Amaterasu, the Goddess of the Sun, will be the first of these new playable characters based on Japanese mythology to join the Battleground of the Gods, starting Jan. 12 on PC (and late February on Xbox One). Amaterasu’s release also begins the new multi-week event, Rising Dawn, which will include many Japanese-themed skins, such as Kaiju Sobek and Harajuku Neith. Learn more about Amaterasu in a special making-of video from the developers, located here.
SMITE will also feature a 3v3 Joust League, a highly requested feature from the community, as well as an all-new 3v3 Joust map, a Chinese-themed environment based on the sky palace from the famous Sun Wukong legend. Hi-Rez dives into the new map in a new developer diary, available here, and in-game cinematic video, found here.
In addition, Hi-Rez has officially launched its first mobile game, Jetpack Fighter, a swipe-to-attack, high-speed platformer with gear progression. One of Jetpack Fighter’s heroines, Leona, will also appear in SMITE as an alternate skin for the goddess Nemesis, and Nemesis will be a playable character in Jetpack Fighter. The game is available today in all English-speaking territories as a free-to-download title on select iOS devices via the App Store; additional markets will follow in the coming months. Jetpack Fighter’s gameplay trailer can be found here.
Hi-Rez also revealed that Grover, the treant of SMITE’s Sylvanus, will be the next playable Champion to join Paladins, its team-based, first-person shooter, currently in closed beta on PC. A first look at Grover in Paladins is available here. Hi-Rez announced the first official Paladins tournament, expected this spring with a prize pool of $100,000. More information about the game’s development will arrive throughout the year.
The SMITE World Championship is currently underway and will conclude on Sunday, Jan. 10. The winning team from the PC World Championship will take home the majority share of a $1 million prize pool, while competitors in the Xbox One Invitational will battle over a $150,000 prize pool. Watch the SWC at www.twitch.tv/smitegame , and follow the action on the official SWC website, Facebook or Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
