Kicking off on July 13th, the Summer Finals for the SMITE Pro League will be held at DreamHack Valencia. Our SMITE team heads into this tournament as the top seeded team after an incredible performance over the Summer Split. Their first matchup is against the Brazilian powerhouse, Black Dragons, a team who put on quite a showing at the SMITE masters tournament earlier this year. Let's take a look at what we might expect to see out of this international matchup.

Preview:

Team Dignitas' first opponent of DreamHack Valencia will be the Brazilian powerhouse Black Dragons who made quite an impact at the SMITE Masters tournament. At this tournament, the Brazilian squad were able to take North American powerhouse and top NA seed for the tournament to the third game in their best of 3 series, including an incredibly dominant game 2 by Black Dragons. Team Dignitas were able to take down Team Eager 3 - 0 in the semi-finals and fell just short of winning the entire tournament against Obey Alliance in the Grand Final. Throughout the Summer Split, hunter Kenny "Arkkyl" Kuska showed why he is quickly becoming one of the most feared players in the world, finishing the split with a team-high 4.36 KDA. Overall Team Dignitas finished as the top European squad in the SPL and the top seed heading into DreamHack Valencia.

Looking back at their play in SMITE Masters, Black Dragons is a squad that is run through their jungler Feipe "oShip" Sicóti Pellizzoni - however, the Brazilian will face a tough challenge in the form of Anders "QvoFred" Korsbo who has been playing outstandingly this split, garnering a 4.14 KDA for himself.

As well as this, Black Dragons showed vulnerability against healing compositions and Team Dignitas midlaner Joakim "Zyrhoes" Verngren is always more than willing to take an inconvential pick into the midlane to help his team, maybe in the form of an Aphrodite or Chang'e.

The matchup of Arkkyl and Black Dragons hunter Marcel "MarcelZ" Onisaki should be a fiery one, both players willing to fight 1v1 and find success. MarcelZ also has an incredible Rama, something that coach Kurtis "Biggy" Davidson has taken note of.

With Harry "Variety" Cumming again showing why he is considered currently the best in his role, with the highest KDA of any solo in Europe, Rodrigo "Kliz" Sampaio Costa will need to pick a heavy pressure warrior to be able to compete. This could potentially force Black Dragons to heavily prioritise Osiris and Bellona with their early picks and bans and thus give up strong picks throughout the rest of the map.

In any case, Team Dignitas look to be in a solid position to take this first match and kick off their DreamHack Valencia campaign with a bang.