Kotas Reviews the HiRez Expo 2017

You know, I've never been into sports, not like many other people are. I appreciate the levels of athleticism and skill that are required to be good at many sports, but in a detached sort of way. I will often root for an arbitrary team, but I can still be impressed by a good play by other teams (to the endless frustration of my sports-loving companions) enough to cheer for them. What I do enjoy though, are e-sports. E-sports are video games that can be played competitively and share a lot of similarities to physical sports: They require skill and physical ability (especially hand/eye coordination and reflexes) to excel in, and generally have teams competing against each other for glory. The best e-sports are those that can be viewed and enjoyed by people unfamiliar with them, much like many real world sports. I don't have to know much about baseball to appreciate a sweet catch.

Anyway, Mobas are some of the biggest e-sports in the world right now. Five players come together against five other players, each using individual characters with unique abilities, to ultimately destroy the other team's fortress or titan or whatever. The third biggest Moba in the world is SMITE: Battleground of the Gods. It was developed and published by HiRez Studios, out of Atlanta, GA. I've played the game a little, but never seriously. When a buddy of mine suggested I attend the HiRez Expo to watch the Championships...well, color me intrigued.

The view from the 3rd Floor

The Expo was held at the Cobb Galleria in Marietta, GA. This was a convenient venue with lots of parking nearby...for a fee. Still, it was pretty convenient to park there, given the terribly cold weather. The Expo exists to show off the company's major titles (SMITE, Console SMITE, and the newest one Paladins), and the official esports leagues associated with them. SMITE and Console SMITE were full on tournaments that have the backing of the company and run a full league throughout the year. The Paladins competition was an invitational, since the game isn't out of Beta yet. There were also some displays that showed off their newest games: Smite Tactics, which uses Smite characters for a grid-based, card-using tactical combat game, and Smite Rivals, which is a more different version of Clash Royale and meant for mobile gaming. Both titles were playable, though I unfortunately did not get any time with them. I did however get a Smite Tactics Beta Key as a part of the swag. 

Look at all that majesty!
Picture from: @philippawarr on Twitter. She writes for Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

The main arena is where all the action was for SMITE, and it was pretty awesome. There were three levels of seats: The Main Area, which filled up very quickly with fans, the First Balcony, reserved for media, friends and family, and other VIPs, and the Second Balcony, which is for everyone else. Needless to say, I and my companions sat there for the entire tournament. Luckily, the view was really good from the majority of seats. It was a little hard to tell some of the statistics if you weren't familiar with the graphics of the game, but all the action was very clear and easy to follow. Unfortunately, the seats themselves left a lot to be desired. It wasn't awful, but at the end of the day I was glad to not have to sit in them anymore.

I'll be honest, I know only the bare minimum about SMITE. I know the basics, and the abilities of maybe 3 characters (or Gods in SMITE parlance), and that's it. Even so, I was able to follow the action of the games well enough to have a favorite player and favorite god by the end of the whole thing (Ra is my BAE!), and to understand WHY the crowd would cheer and holler during particular plays. SMITE is really good for watching, though it isn't quite as polished a viewing experience as, say, Hearthstone. Still, way more action than Hearthstone which made it super fun.

The venue was busy, but it never felt too crowded, even when the arena was packed. The Expo room had free Red Bull, but that was the only provided consumables. The refreshment stand had your basic arena fare: Pretzels, soda, coffee, candy, etc. I was a little disappointed at the lack of popcorn, but pleasantly surprised at the booze selection. Not just crappy domestics, it had a decent store of hard liquor too! The prices were venue prices, and thus high. Still, man does not live on pretzels alone. For more substantial fare, several food trucks were parked outside for most of the day, serving a variety of foods. I sampled a couple of hot dogs on one day, that were fancy and tasty, at fancy food truck prices. Eating offsite was the better option, if you didn't mind missing some stuff. Since I was mostly interested in SMITE, only the Semi-Final day (which was all matches all the time) kept me in the arena the entire day. 

It was nice to be able to meet with some of the casters and players up close, though I didn't really want to bother them. We had one guy commenting from behind us during the first of the semi-final sets, and the second one had a player from the first set and his posse sitting in front of us. It added a touch of the personal to the proceedings, as we all groaned about a terrible Izanami pick in the last game of the Semis. If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it too much. The cosplayers were out on a few days, though the contest got culled from the schedule due to bad weather. That was a shame because some of those costumes were incredible. Sadly, no Ra Cosplay was to be found. #NeverRa.

While we got a few nice things for attending the event, I wish there had been more rewards for people who actually went and watched the events, instead of just streaming it. It is really nice of the SMITE folks to stream every match via Twitch, and they even let you link your Twitch and HiRez accounts so you can get free in-game items randomly as you watch the stream. That's awesome, but some of my companions simply left the stream up at home while we all went to the event. I didn't do this, because I didn't even know that was a thing, and thus I didn't really get anything for SMITE for going to the event. Since I left early though, I caught the finals on stream and got a bunch of little things. Again, that's very generous of them (and gets them the Twitch views they crave), but I paid a lot of money to actually attend the event and didn't get anything for SMITE out of it. This is a nitpick though, because I really enjoyed the experience. 

On the FACE Rating System, I give the HiRez Expo 2 Smiley Faces. It is the sporting event I didn't know I wanted to go to, but boy am I glad I did. For a 4-Day event, the price was pretty reasonable at $100, the swag was okay, and the action was fast and furious. There is something magical about watching a competition with a crowd (but not too much of a crowd) in a mostly comfortable space. Even if you don't attend, do try to catch a match or two on a stream and see what all the excitement is about. SMITE is a pretty fun game, and the HiRez folk are good people.