In week five, Spacestation Gaming became the first team in North America or Europe to clinch their spot at the SMITE Masters LAN event.

After going down in their first game against Counter Logic (4-4) on Wednesday, Spacestation (7-1) came back to win the set convincingly 2-1. On Friday, they went on to defeat an inconsistent Luminosity (3-4) team in a 2-0 set. With the victories, Spacestation separated themselves from the rest of North America as the team to beat going into the spring finals LAN event in May.

Spacestation Gaming vs Counter Logic Gaming

Game 1 – (CLG)

SSG picks:

Solo: Ryan “Aquarius” Oh Neill – Artio (0/4/2)

Jungle: Andrew “andinster” Woodward – Nemesis (1/5/0)

Mid: Woonyoung “Baskin” Kim – Ullr (1/2/1)

Support: Rosario “JeffHindla” Vilardi – Athena (0/2/1)

ADC: John “BaRRaCCuDDa” Salter – Jing Wei (0/1/1)

SSG bans: Terra, Janus, Achilles, Odin

CLG picks:

Solo: Alec “fineokay” Fonzo – Sobek (1/0/7)

Jungle: Alexander “Homiefe” D’Souza- Ratatoskr (3/0/9)

Mid: Tyler “Hurriwind” Whitney – Sol (6/1/5)

Support: Connor “Jigz” Echols – Fafnir (0/0/12)

ADC: Evan “Snoopy” Jones – Hachiman (4/1/4)

CLG bans: Camazotz, Da Ji, Serqet, Cerberus

Game one of this set saw little competition as Counter Logic snowballed their way to victory. Spacestation fell behind early due to the pressure that Homiefe was able to provide by playing Ratatoskr.

With a Fafnir and double ADC on their side, Counter Logic was able to turn their early pressure into objectives. Those objectives allowed Counter Logic to dominate the team fights and win the game game convincingly in 29 minutes.

Player of the game: Homiefe

Game 2 – (SSG)

SSG picks:

Solo: Ryan “Aquarius” Oh Neill – Artio (4/2/12)

Jungle: Andrew “andinster” Woodward – Nemesis (2/2/8)

Mid: Woonyoung “Baskin” Kim – Ullr (9/3/6)

Support: Rosario “JeffHindla” Vilardi – Athena (0/2/13)

ADC: John “BaRRaCCuDDa” Salter – Jing Wei (4/1/10)

SSG bans: Achilles, Terra, Ratatoskr, Janus

CLG picks:

Solo: Alec “fineokay” Fonzo – Sobek (0/1/6)

Jungle: Alexander “Homiefe” D’Souza- Awilix (6/4/4)

Mid: Tyler “Hurriwind” Whitney – Sol (3/5/5)

Support: Connor “Jigz” Echols – Fafnir (0/5/6)

ADC: Evan “Snoopy” Jones – Hachiman (1/4/5)

CLG bans: Da Ji, Serqet, Camazotz, Cerberus

Game two saw almost a direct replay of game one picks from both teams. The only difference came after Spacestation banned away Ratatoskr, forcing Homiefe to select Awilix. While Awilix’s ultimate counters Jing Wei and Ullr, the missing global presence from the Counter Logic jungler was felt.

Spacestation’s early game execution prevented a repeat of game one, as Aquarius was able to put the team on his back and front line his way to victory. Artio’s cripple field proved too much for Counter Logic as Aquarius was able to lock down his opponents for his teammates to clean up. This led to the game going in Spacestation’s favor, 33 minutes in.

Player of the game: Aquarius

Game 3 – (SSG)

SSG picks:

Solo: Ryan “Aquarius” Oh Neill – Odin (0/4/2)

Jungle: Andrew “andinster” Woodward – Serqet (1/5/0)

Mid: Woonyoung “Baskin” Kim – Ullr (1/2/1)

Support: Rosario “JeffHindla” Vilardi – Geb (0/2/1)

ADC: John “BaRRaCCuDDa” Salter – Sol (0/1/1)

SSG bans: Thoth, Terra, Discordia, Janus

CLG picks:

Solo: Alec “fineokay” Fonzo – Cu Chulainn (1/0/7)

Jungle: Alexander “Homiefe” D’Souza- Camazotz (3/0/9)

Mid: Tyler “Hurriwind” Whitney – Hel (6/1/5)

Support: Connor “Jigz” Echols – Fafnir (0/0/12)

ADC: Evan “Snoopy” Jones – Hachiman (4/1/4)

CLG bans: Athena, Da Ji, Artio, Achilles

In a complete reversal of game one, Spacestation dominated Counter Logic from the start.

Homiefe and Hurriwind teamed up to make repeated mistakes early in the game, allowing Baskin to build an insurmountable lead. First, Homiefe went for an early invade of Spacestation’s blue buff instead of clearing his own. The invade came up empty handed forcing Homiefe to go back to finally clear his own buff. This allowed andinster and Baskin a free gank onto an out of position Hurriwind in mid lane for the first blood.

To make matters worse for Counter Logic, Homiefe followed this up with dangerous pathing that led directly into Baskin and andinster waiting around the corner for the second kill of the game.

At this point Baskin’s two level lead on Hurriwind turned into a quick third kill as Hurriwind was once again caught out of position by a ganking andinster. At only three minutes into the game, these three kills gave Baskin an enormous lead on a character known for snowballing. Spacestation went on to dominate the rest of the game, leading to the quickest victory in the SPL this season at 19 minutes in.

Player of the game: Baskin

Spacestation Gaming vs Luminosity

Game 1 – (SSG)

SSG picks:

Solo: Ryan “Aquarius” O’Neill – Cerberus (0/1/6)

Jungle: Andrew “andinster” Woodward – Da Ji (3/1/5)

Mid: Woonyoung “Baskin” Kim – Apollo (5/2/3)

Support: Rosario “JeffHindla” Vilardi – Athena (0/1/8)

ADC: John “BaRRaCCuDDa” Salter – Sol (2/2/7)

SSG bans: Janus, Terra, Discordia, The Morrigan

LG picks:

Solo: Ismael “KikiSoCheeky” Torres – Artio – (0/2/4)

Jungle: Kurt “Weak3n” Schray – Achilles (3/2/2)

Mid: Keegan “keegsmate” TwoEagle – Poseidon (0/2/4)

Support: Michael “NotGeno” Lukashin – Sylvanus (2/3/3)

ADC: Conor “Clout” Roberts – Hachiman (2/1/4)

LG bans: Ullr, Camazotz, Jing Wei, Odin

Luminosity got off to a strong start in game one, getting the first blood along with an early team fight victory. While this put them up 5-1 in kills, they were not able to capitalize on this by capturing objectives. Instead it was Spacestation securing the big objectives on the map, allowing them to stay in the game.

As the game went on, Spacestation continued to outclass Luminosity. Objective after objective went in Spacestation’s favor allowing them to close out the game in 26 minutes.

Player of the game: Baskin

Game 2 – (SSG)

SSG picks:

Solo: Ryan “Aquarius” O’Neill – Odin (7/0/10)

Jungle: Andrew “andinster” Woodward – Da Ji (4/4/7)

Mid: Woonyoung “Baskin” Kim – Apollo (8/2/8)

Support: Rosario “JeffHindla” Vilardi – Geb (1/1/9)

ADC: John “BaRRaCCuDDa” Salter – Sol (2/1/4)

SSG bans: Janus, Terra, Discordia, The Morrigan

LG picks:

Solo: Ismael “KikiSoCheeky” Torres – Camazotz – (0/5/1)

Jungle: Kurt “Weak3n” Schray – Achilles (4/6/3)

Mid: Keegan “keegsmate” TwoEagle – Raijin (0/6/4)

Support: Michael “NotGeno” Lukashin – Ganesha (0/3/6)

ADC: Conor “Clout” Roberts – Hachiman (4/2/0)

LG bans: Ullr, Camazotz, Jing Wei, Odin

It was all Spacestation in game two as Baskin continued to show why he is in discussion for being the best player in the world. Once again Spacestation’s objective play outclassed Luminosity’s allowing Spacestation to quickly finish the game in a dominating 20 minutes.

Player of the game: Baskin

Takeaways

Baskin continues to show he can make anything look overpowered in mid. Whether it be Camazotz in previous weeks, or Apollo this week, Baskin has proven his god pool has no limit.

Aquarius has been noted by casters as a role player in recent weeks, but he continues to prove that analysis wrong. The 19 year old Canadian has the ability to put the team on his back and dominate from the solo lane.

As two teams that started the split hot, Counter Logic and Luminosity are both in danger of missing the first LAN of the year. The two teams need to iron out their inconsistencies if they want to be considered as true contenders in the upcoming summer split.

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Top image courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios.