If there is one gaming premise that never seems to grow tired, it’s the prospect of playing as a god. Hi-Rez Studio’s SMITE lets you do just that, but not in the deity-in-the-clouds sense of games like Populous and Black & White. SMITE is a third-person MOBA where you get down and dirty with gods, goddesses, and legendary heroes (as well as villains) from various world cultures as they do battle with one another in competitive laning-style combat. It’s also receiving a world championship tournament this week, as well as an upcoming series of playable Japanese gods.
The SMITE World Championship 2016 begins January 7 and runs until January 10. Professional teams from all over the world will converge upon the Cobb Energy Center in Atlanta, Georgia, to compete with one another for a $1 million US prize pool.
To promote the event, Hi-Rez released a nifty trailer today that showcases some of the game’s most popular deities duking it out in high-definition.
In addition to the tournament, Hi-Rez will be discussing two of their latest projects at the Championship. One of their panels will explore their new shooter-MOBA Paladins, and the other panel will unveil more of SMITE’s upcoming pantheon of playable Japanese deities, which was first teased late last year. The first deity to be revealed is the sun goddess Amaterasu, who appears to don a suit of samurai armor and a katana.
The SMITE World Championship’s official site can be found here. For more information on the tournament’s nitty gritty, such as list of teams and their competitive standings, you can visit this handy writeup woven together by the fine folks over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.