Day two of the Hi-Rez Expo is done and dusted. With it, came a whole lot of epic esports actions as we edged ever closer to the conclusion of SMITE and Paladins action for another year. ESI has provided a brief recap event-by-event of what happened, including some notable esports announcements.
This year, the event features four esports events – with three world championship titles on the line. There’s two in SMITE, and one in Paladins and a lot of money and prestige on the line in both titles. You can read more about the overall event in our comprehensive preview. All of the action is going down at DreamHack Atlanta as HRX expands this year.
Day two saw the Semifinals across SMITE and Paladins in preparation for the super Sunday Grand Final showdowns.
Full day VODS for both SMITE and Paladins can be found on the links.
SMITE World Championship 2019
Day two saw two clean sweeps in the semifinals providing us with a truly special Grand Final. NA 2nd seed Splyce were yet again dominant as they brushed aside EU first seed Dignitas 3-0. On the other side of the bracket, EU fourth seed Team Rival dominated the conquerors of last year’s champions, Trifecta, to make the final. It’s a NA versus European final but it’s far from the match-up that anyone expected coming into the weekend.
By this time tomorrow, SMITE will have a new champion. It was far from the result that anyone expected, but that’s what has made this SMITE World Championship just so epic. Going into the tournament no one would have given either of these teams a chance of winning – but now they’re both just one game away from creating SMITE history.
SMITE Console World Championship 2019
Over on SMITE console, we had NA 2nd seed Flash Point eSports take on EU’s last hope Team Rival. While Team RivaL did their best to fight Flash Point, it was not to be as the EU side crashed out 2-0, meaning no matter who wins between Flash Point and Astral Authority in Sunday’s Grand Final, the title will be heading back to NA and the winner will be coming from the Xbox community.
Paladins World Championship 2019
Day two saw Paladins shift over to a best-of-seven format as the tournament headed into the all-important semifinals. Game one saw Na’Vi take on Fnatic with the current holders Na’vi taking the series in a fairly convincing 4-1 fashion meaning the EU first seed will stand strong in tomorrows final and have the opportunity to defend their Paladins World Championship title. On the other side of the bracket, we had a much closer series. NA first seed Team Envy took on Brazilian side Spacestation Gaming and it went to the wire, however, the NA side managed to just about edge the series, despite it going the full length (4-3) and thus have set up the predicted final of an EU versus NA top seed contest. Can Natus Vincere retain their title or will Envy manage to snag it?
Paladins Console Wars
The Console Wars’ final is bound to be tasty at DreamHack Atlanta, with Elevate taking the second semi-final the full distance as they came away 3-2 winners. They have now set up a Grand Final matchup with Vexed Gaming to see who wins the 2018 Console Wars on Paladins.
Check back tomorrow for a full recap of the final day of HRX action.