Smite and Paladins Oceanic Teams Win World Championship Seats

The Hi-Rez Oceania Championships occurred over the weekend, bringing together Smite and Paladins pro teams from around the region to compete for the USD$70,000 prize pool, and seats on the world stage at the Hi-Rez Expo in Atlanta during January.

On day one, first and second seeds Avant Garde and Pandamonium handily defeated challengers Alpha Sydney and Legacy Esports, facing off against one another in the grand final.

Pandamonium came out swinging, taking the first two games of the grand final against the favorite, but lost game three to Avant Garde. The loss seemed to galvanize Pandamonium, who made some intelligent picks and bans, and executed with precision to take the championship and claim their seat at Worlds.

Pandamonium’s Daniel “Rowe” Rowe, Jesse “Ochita” Cullen, and coach Kurtis “Biggy” Davidson will be attending the Smite World Championship for the second time, having competed at the Season 2 event earlier this year as part of team Avant Garde.

“You can clearly tell how far the Oceanic scene has advanced in just under a year,” said Kevin Meir, esports manager and caster from Hi-Rez in a press release, “Rowe, Ochita, and Biggy learned a lot from the Season 2 SMITE World Championships, and were able to push not only their teammates, but the other teams around them to improve. I feel they have a strong chance of making the quarterfinals with the Placement Stage Group they drew.”

The Paladins Invitational League Oceanic grand final was won in a landslide 4-0 by Abyss Esports against Avant Garde, securing their chance at the USD$150,000 Paladins Invitational at Hi-Rez Expo.

The Paladins open tournament Evie's Winter Classic is running right now through to December 19, which may excite you if you're one of the four million people that have downloaded the game on PC.