SK Gaming’s sam4soccer2 on ‘surreal’ SMITE Championship and MVP

After a historic SMITE championship victory over Team RivaL, SK Gaming’s Samuel “sam4soccer2” Waxman spoke to Melissa ‘thebesttaco’ Posada and Dexerto about his team’s road to the finals, his MVP trophy, and what he’s looking forward to in the next season.

The Cinderella run is complete, as SK Gaming has claimed the 2019 World Championship with a win over top-seeded Team RivaL. 

• Read more: Paladins and SMITE World Championships 2019 – Final Placements

After the confetti fell and the trophy was lifted, MVP sam4soccer2 spoked to thebesttaco and Dexerto about his accomplishment.

Sam described the moment as “crazy, surreal” and “like a dream” following SK’s 3-1 victory over RivaL. He credited the comeback in game three as the tipping point in the series, saying that after a game like that the team just had a feeling that everything was going to go well.

Sam said one of SK Gaming’s biggest strengths is their ability to play from behind, and not getting flustered in those situations.

He acknowledged that SK’s start to the regular season did not go well, citing work on team communication and consistency as being key to beginning their run towards the tournament. SK went 4-5 in both phases of the SMITE Pro League regular season this year, meaning they’d have to run through the Placement tournament to make it to the Worlds main event.

SK went 4-0 across the Placement tournament in early November to earn one of two open spots at the Main Event. They would defeat the top three teams from the regular season throughout the main event, in Splyce, Renegades and eventually Team RivaL.

SK Gaming won seven straight series across the month of November between the Placement tournament and the main event to take home the championship trophy.

Looking forward to next season, Sam said that he would be most looking forward to some potential map changes as well as some new jungle buffs, but also said that he wasn’t even going to think about season 7 just yet.