Hinduman’s Unofficial Smite Rankings are here.
On Sunday, HiRez’s Esports talent manager, lead smite caster and resident Brit Graham “Hinduman” Hadfield released his first Smite “Power Rankings” of season 5. As a team-based game in Smite, individual rankings based on pure statistics don’t work as well as with many other more individual based sports. This being said, Hinduman’s opinionated rankings are as close to a formal ranking system as Smite gets.
The latest rankings are the first since September 2017, and with Super Regionals and Worlds both having passed since then, there were many changes to the rankings. This article will break down the risers and fallers, as well as give some opinions on what The Game Haus’s Smite writers think Hinduman could have done differently!
Solo Lane Rankings
In North America, the main change here is the return to the league of Nicklaus “Divios” Neumeyer. Although he sat out for Season 4, he instantly returns at #2 in the rankings and will hope to resume his Season 3 reign of terror in the North American solo lane this split. Ryan “Aquarius” O’Neill’s solid season 4 and resulting promotion to a top team (Spacestation) is also reflected by his modest +2 rise to #3. The big loser in North America was ScaryD. Unable to produce his best play in the Fall split and on his third roster of the year he falls a huge 4 places.
In Europe, a strong showing from the Croatian Adrian “Deathwalker” Benko throughout season 4 has led some to pronounce that he might be the best player in the world. Although it may be too early to make such a sweeping declaration, his place as #1 in Europe was made clear by his continual redefining of the solo metagame throughout the last season. A modest showing from Jeroen “Xaliea” Klaver at Worlds was the only factor keeping the flagging Harry ‘Variety’ Cumming from falling further, meaning the Season 3 Worlds MVP falls only a single place.
Mid Lane Rankings
Starting out in North America once again, the two Worlds Mid Laners both make rises in the rankings. A huge +3 for Kim “Baskin” Woon-young reflects the superb team carry he has once again become. Known in Season 2 and 3 as one of the best Solo Lane players in the world, he took a few months to establish himself in the Mid Lane. However he showed up with a huge performance at the World Championships in January bringing him into consideration as one the top players in the world. A more modest +1 rise from Brandon “Venenu” Casale was also clearly deserved. The biggest story, however, has to be the three new, returning or role-swapping players to the position. More changes are therefore certainly coming in the next iteration of these rankings.
Europe, however, is a completely different tale. Although there is one new face, the rest of the rankings remain exactly as they were, with Emil “PrettyPrime” Edström and Joakim “Zyrhoes” Verngren retaining the top two spots.
Jungle Rankings
Similar to the Mid Lane rankings, In North America again we see a meteoric rise for one of the SPL’s younger players, Lucas “Screammmmm” Spracklin. Almost a completely new player to accompany his name change from Varizial1, Spracklin has risen to the top of the region, reflecting his team’s World Championship victory. The other players in the region all shuffle down to reflect this, as well as to make room at #4 for the return to the Jungle of the former NA king Andrew “Andinster” Woodward.
Over in Europe, good overall seasons for British standout Benjamin “CaptainTwig” Knight as well as Bulgarian ace Aleksandar “iceicebaby” Zahariev have finally displaced long-time favourite Kennet “Adapting” Ros and Summer Split standout Anders “QvoFred” Korsbo at the top of the roster. It will be interesting to see if the Season 5 meta helps the latter return to former glory.
ADC and Support Rankings
In North America, the EUnited ranking revolution continues further with Support Michael “PolarBearMike” Heiss and ADC Maksim “PandaCat” Yanevich rising four and three places respectively, with a couple of returning players and role swaps the only other major changes to the rankings.
A similar story can be seen in Europe, with Team Rival’s strong end to the season reflected by the respective improval of Liam “Vote” Shanks and Petar “KaLaS” Matejić.
Our Perspective
Personally, the biggest disparity in the rankings to me was Venenu’s somewhat modest rise to #3 considering his domination playing The Morrigan and Discordia at Worlds. I would honestly have been fine with him being rated #1 in his position along with the rest of his team.
TGH Smite writer Nolan Evans believes that KikiSoCheeky did very little to deserve holding onto Fourth place in the solo standings. Indeed, he reckons that both Fineokay and ScaryD deserve to be above him!
What do you think? Have your say in the comments or on twitter, you can tweet me @KingHazzam or us in general at @TheGameHausEsports
All rankings are the opinion and sole work of @HirezHinduman on twitter and do not reflect the official views of Hirez or The Game Haus. All Images created by The Game Haus using these rankings.