Smite Oceanic Pro League Week 3 Preview and Predictions

By HughZ

Current record – 14/16

Hello and welcome back to my weekly Smite Oceanic Pro League Preview and Prediction’s series. Now with the OPL being added to the Smite Season ticket, information on the teams becomes even more important so you can get yourselves so more fantasy points. Here I will be providing you with some up to date information on all the teams as they head into their Week 3 matches, as well as giving my own personal prediction for how I believe those matches will go. If you have any comments are opinions, please feel free to send them to @MrHughZ on twitter. As well as this my fellow OPL casters have given their predictions which I will list at the bottom. So without further ado, let’s dive into Week 3.

Current Standings

Saturday 8th of August

Game 1

V

Quick Take

These two old foes are in the top half of the OPL after 2 weeks of competition with Avant Garde in 1st and InVidious in 4th. Avant Garde have been absolutely dominate in their victories, staving off some surprise tactics from Lore Gaming in Week 2 and again establishing themselves on top of the Oceanic Scene. InVidious have been a part of some less one-sided victories, particularly their Week 1 battle with Ivory Gaming but looking extremely strong in Week 2 against Synapse Gaming. A rematch from their Invitational and Open Ladder days is on the cards for us this weekend and everybody should be looking forward to this one.

How Avant Can Win

Avant Garde are students of the game and research every opponent, every god, every ward placement down to the most minute of detail. That being said, an obvious pattern has emerged from InVidious in terms of draft strategy and it doesn’t take a pro player to figure it out. Avant can look to ban away this comfortable comp InVidious have found success with and possibly create disruption with InVidious’ strategy. As well as this, the map control Avant likes to have will allow them to shut down InVidious and not let them get to the late game where they thrive.

How InVidious Can Win

InVidious may get called out for having only one comp they play but as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. InVidious have found success with this draft strategy and it suits their play style very well and if Avant is confident enough to let it through InVidious could pull off an upset. As mentioned previously, Avant loves map control and if InVidious can out ward them it will prevent many of the great rotations Avant likes to pull off.

Final Prediction

Avant Garde 2 – InVidious 0

Game 2

V

Quick Take

Both of these teams have had a rough start to their OPL campaigns, both going 0 – 4 through the first 2 weeks of the competition. Both teams have shown a great fighting spirit in their defeats and it is worth noting they both played two of the three teams tied for first place. That being said, for either of these teams to have a chance at making the cut for PAX they will need to go 2 – 0 this week so you can be sure that they will both be putting in the hard yards in scrims and research.

How Lore Can Win

Lore Gaming showed that they were not afraid of being bold last week by invading Avant Garde at the start of both their matches and having a couple of lane swaps in Game 1. Similarly bold ideas will be needed to beat Team Kamikaze in Week 3 as well as sound picks and bans. Lore struggled to find anything of their early rotations against Avant and will need to rectify this in order to win.

How TKAM Can Win

Team Kamikaze has held the upper hand in many of their games this split but have simply been unable to capitalise on their advantage. Chasing kills and map control have been two of their biggest issues and both can be traced back to a problem with communication. having everyone in the team on the same page, rotating early and often as well as a solid draft will allow TKAM to take this one.

Final Prediction

Lore Gaming 0 – Team Kamikaze 2

Sunday 9th of August

Game 3

V

Quick Take

These are two teams moving in opposite directions heading into Week 3. The Chiefs roster is starting to find that synergy that hasn’t been present before due to the roster moves made prior to the OPL whilst in contrast Synapse is going through its own changes at the moment. Faunkeh has left the team, the ADC HeartsGoBoom has moved to the Jungle role and ChurchX135 has been picked up to fill that carry position. Furthermore, Entropy has been moved to the bench and Theodoree will be the new support. The Chiefs have started 4 – 0 and Synapse have gone 0 – 4 and it looks like that trend could very well continue this week unless Synapse can pull off a surprise.

How Synapse Can Win

Synapse will need to into this series with a strategy and stick to it in order to take a game off of the Chiefs. Shutting down Maxen should be the primary objective of Synapse’s plan, as well as making sure they can spot out rotations from the Chiefs. A couple of early kills may be enough for Synapse to get rolling but they will need to play to near perfection to beat the Chiefs.

How the Chiefs Can Win

The Chiefs have been playing extremely well over the first portion of the Pro League and if they can continue that run of form they should take this series comfortably. Minimising silly mistakes, controlling the jungle and solid lane play will be enough to keep Chiefs on their winning streak.

Final Prediction

Synapse Gaming 0 – Chiefs eSports Club 2

Game 4

V

Quick Take

Dire Wolves have started the split in tremendous fashion, going 4 – 0 with only two-fifths of their starting line-up from the Invitational Ladder. Ivory Gaming has had a rough starting schedule with InVidious and the Chiefs through the first 2 weeks, splitting the series with InVidious and falling 0 – 2 against the Chiefs. With the return of Dire Wolves captain and starting support RichardCastle, as well as Kikiomeo and JustLaney finding their feet in their new role and team respectively, Ivory will be facing a steep challenge this week.

How Dire Wolves Can Win

Dire Wolves cannot relax this weekend simply because RicardCastle has returned and practice will be needed for Richard to return to his old form. However, if he does manage to recapture some of the old magic we saw in the Invitational Ladder the Dire Wolves will be in a great position to win this series. Having learnt from Avant the value of map control and vision, look for ElChuckles to expose any weakness the DireWolves see in Ivory’s plan.

How Ivory Can Win

Ivory will need to pick on Kikiomeo in the mid-lane and focus him in team fights as we saw Team Kamikaze doing over the weekend. Jak47 needs to be a disruptive force early against Dire Wolves as we’ve seen him be in the past and the rest of Ivory will need to rotate to make sure the team fights are 4 v 4 or 5 v 5 instead of mismatched 3 v 4s or 4 v 5s. As with every team, map control is essential to victory but also to prevent ElChuckles from snowballing again.

Final Prediction

Dire Wolves 2 – Ivory Gaming 0

Caster Predictions

All of the OPL games will be broadcast on twitch.tv/teamdowntv2 at 6PM AEST every Saturday and Sunday.

For more details on Oceanic Smite, check out the CybgerGamer and eSportspedia pages. CyberGamer: http://au.cybergamer.com/smite eSportspedia: http://smite.esportspedia.com/wiki/Main_Page Smite OPL tipping competition: Here