Sanguine has been a breakout team in the pro league. They’ve been dominant in SPL play, with the team taking zero losses in Phase 1 of the SPL. However, during their set against Spacestation Gaming on Week 2 of SPL play, there were reports that Sanguine used a bug to exploit Fire Giant and take significantly less damage than intended from its moveset. This exploit allowed Sanguine’s Netrioid to kill the fire giant by himself with relative ease, a feat that wouldn’t be possible without this exploit.

So, how’d he do it? Well, there’s a sweet spot on the edge of Fire Giant that allows the player to take no damage from its meteor attack. The attack spawns five meteors in the air, and those meteors get distributed amongst the players that have Fire Giant’s aggro. HiRez’s purpose in creating an attack like this is to incentivise teams to take the objective together rather than solo it. Thus, Netrioid’s tactic goes against the way HiRez designed the objective.

This game wasn’t an isolated incident; Sanguine has been using this bug since the SPL’s start this year as well as in the pre-season PK tournament. As stated in the official Smite Pro League ruling,

“After reviewing VODs from all of Sanguine’s matches in Phase 1 of the SPL so far, our team found that this Fire Giant method was used in three out of four games — meaning what we saw in the SSG set was not an isolated incident, and the team has intentionally exploited this mechanic multiple times in the SPL.”

Sanguine has been given a warning and a $500 dollar fine — a relative slap on the wrist by comparison to similar competitive rulings in other eSports. Sanguine will keep all their victories attained while using the bug, but have been giving a warning not to exploit the game any further. The decision has created a divide amongst Smite pros and casual viewers alike. Most people seem to think HiRez either went too far, or that they didn’t go far enough.

eunited s6 - 8 minutes late 2 games get conseded and team gets fined 5k$, sanguine s7 - abusing bug wins game cuz of it, gets fined 500$ ... injustice! — iceice (@iceice_az) 16. april 2020

How is this any different then pulling goldfury back and forth and taking no damage? Definitely should of been a warning. — EL LEON (@SSGELLEON) 16. april 2020

Sanguine issused a statement regarding the competitive ruling here

Our statement regarding the Fire Giant Competitive Ruling: pic.twitter.com/uM5X8WeyxD — Sanguine Esports (@SanguineEsports) 16. april 2020

In addition to the announcement, HiRez has announced that they’ll be working to remove the bug from the game in the coming weeks. It remains to be seen whether or not Sanguine’s performance will be affected by the effective ban on their Fire Giant strategy. For coverage of Sanguine’s set next week, along with anything else SPL, stick with STIX.

You can find the Smite Pro League official ruling here: Competitive Ruling: Fire Giant Exploit in SPL Week 2