The first ever scrim ( training game ) of not only Augusto, but all 4 of his teammate's careers finally began, and the Picks and Bans screen appeared. Behind the team, Cherish, who acted as the coach of the team for the foreseeable future. Cherish paced back and forth behind the team, watching them discuss picks and bans.
"What do we ban?" Ranian, the solo laner of the team asked, a curious expression flashing on his face as he gazed towards Cherish. Augusto also curiously looked towards Cherish, wondering what he would choose.
"First Ban, Yemoja. Their support can play it and Beryl can't." Cherish sighed and said. Ever since her release, Yemoja had been the best Support character in the entirety of competitive Smite, regardless of region. From NA and EU to China and Korea, Yemoja was the most banned character in competitive leagues and also had the highest win-rate of any character picked 10 or more times, at 90%. ( These stats are untrue for the real world! )
Thus, with Beryl being unable to play Yemoja and the enemy team, Evil Geniuses' Academy Support, IGN Varex, being proven to be able to play Yemoja, there was no choice to ban her, even if they were first pick.
Thus, the team banned Yemoja first and subsequently banned Khepri and The Morrigan. These two characters are both top characters in their roles, and with Augusto not being comfortable playing The Morrigan, that was banned out.
EGA ( Evil Geniuses Academy ) banned Da Ji, Ah Muzen Cab and Set. For Ah Muzen Cab and Set, those characters were two very prominent mid laners and had immense pressure on their lane opponents due to their abilities and Da Ji was simply the best Jungler in competitive play currently.
"What should we first pick?" Cherish asked his team as the remaining time to choose their pick began to tick down.
" Take Cabrakan for Beryl maybe. It gives us pressure in Duo and de-incentivizes them from picking Cupid, since Cabraken has a good matchup." Augusto suggested. This was the first scrim game, so Augusto definitely didn't want to chose his pick first, and besides the reasoning he gave was very believable.
Cherish looked at Beryl, who nodded, and Cabrakan was selected first pick.
EGA immediately selected King Arthur, a solo laner, and Nemesis, a Jungler.
"Get me Hel." Augusto immediately said after seeing the two picks from the enemy team. Hel is a unique mid laner, with two stances. A light stance, where Hel can heal her teammates and cleanse them of Crowd Control, and a Dark Stance where Hel damages her enemies and debuffs them.
Hel was immediately locked in, and Cherish then advised them to take Cthulhu for Tenacity. Since Hel's damage wasn't as efficient as other damage dealers due to her being half healer, Cherish decided to take Cthulhu, who was a Guardian that was meta in solo lane, to make sure the team composition had enough Magical Damage.
The enemy team then took Bacchus, a support.
After several more minutes passed, the picks and bans finished and looked like,
ClockWork Vendetta Esports ( CVE ) = Solo Cthulhu, Jungler Tsukuyomi, Mid Hel, Support Cabrakan, ADC Rama
Evil Geniuses Academy ( EGA ) = Solo King Arthur, Jungle Nemesis, Mid Tiamat, Support Bacchus, ADC Heimdallr.
After the game finally loaded in, Augusto opened his Item Store and after short contemplation, took Beads for his first Relic and for his items took Sands of Time and Spellbook, a T1 Item.
The smiling and laughing that occurred previously between the five members of CVE was gone, replaced by serious expressions of focus and concentration. The game began in peace, Augusto and Nikachu quickly cleared Red Buff and then moved to Speed Buff. Once finished, Augusto arrived at mid lane at 27 seconds into the game timer, 3 seconds before the minions would officially clash in the mid lane.
Augusto quickly manipulated his character forward, knowing that the enemy Tiamat needs to be right at the beginning of the wave to clear using his first ability, Augusto quickly used Hel's Third Ability in Dark Stance, Repulse which did damage around Hel in a area after a short animation, damaging the wave and Tiamat. Without wasting time, Augusto switched stances and used his Third Ability in Light Stance, Inspire, which healed her and increased her movement speed by 25%. Augusto quickly used the increase movement speed to run towards Tiamat, auto attacking them while dodging their auto attacks, poking them away from the wave and denying them farm.
At level, two Augusto used his first ability and continued to poke the Tiamat out while zoning him from the wave, denying him farm and setting him behind. This continued until both junglers appeared in mid.
"Can you blink on him Closer? Tiamat took his two and we win this 2 vs 2!" Augusto quickly called out his thoughts, to which Closer immediately reacted. Closer immediately blinked in, to the shock of both the enemy Tiamat and Nemesis and wasted no time.
Using his Second Ability on Tsukuyomi, Kusarigama, Closer quickly stunned out the Tiamat, forcing their beads and making them begin to back up. Simultaneously, Augusto had stepped forward, and wasted no time using both his First and Second Ability onto the Tiamat, dropping his HP lower. Meanwhile Nemesis had moved onto Closer, using his abilities to try and damage him, but due to Nemesis' weakness at this point of the game, the damage wasn't enough to be deadly.At this time Tiamat's beads effect had worn off and Closer took advantage, using his First Ability, Dark Moon Shuriken, which did damage but most importantly stole the enemy Tiamat's movement speed by 25%, making him walk slower.
Augusto wasted no time, switching stances to Light Stance and casting his third ability which healed both himself and Closer and increased their movement speed. Walking forward, Augusto used his First Ability in Light Stance, Restoration which healed Allies and Hel when Allies are hit with the ability and damages enemies when they are hit. Augusto threw the ability towards the low HP Tiamat. Colliding with the Tiamat, the ability claims the Tiamat's remaining HP and the low voice of the announcer rang out throughout all of the players headsets.
"FIRST BLOOD!"
Augusto smiled, raising his hand from his mouse and giving a fist bump to his jungler, Closer, excited about claiming First Blood and getting a lead. Now, Augusto was already over 600 gold up and an entire level up in experience. Augusto smiled, knowing what he must do. He quickly moved and cleared the minion wave, before turning alongside Closer to clear the nearby Harpy Camps near mid.
At the six minute mark, Augusto cooperated with his Closer and Beryl to kill Tiamat once more and used that kill to invade the enemy Scorpion. Using the pressure through mid, Augusto solo'd the enemy mid laner for his Third Kill, and the third kill of the game, putting him over 1.3k gold ahead of the enemy and two levels up.
Augusto then used his lead to influence the entire map. At 10 minutes, Augusto used his lead to pull and kill the Pyromancer, an objective near Fire Giant which provided Gold, EXP and applies Blazing Haste to their Fountain for 90s. Upon exiting the enhanced Fountain, players gain +40% Movement Speed buff for 15s. Entering combat will immediately remove this buff.
Then at 13 minutes, Augusto and his jungler, Closer, moved towards the Duo Lane, ganking and killing the enemy ADC. Using that kill to invade the enemy purple buff and do the Gold Fury which provides Gold, EXP and it will provide a buff to their structures that boosts it's Physical Power and reduce damage taken.
During that time, the enemy used the fact they were in Duo Lane to gank Tenacity, killing him and invading Blue Buff and Camps, but it did little to stop the massive snowball occurring due to Augusto's lead.
At 34 minutes into the game, Augusto quickly operated his character, using his Second Ability in Light Stance, Cleanse, cleansing his teammates of the enemy Bacchus' ultimate, Intoxicate, which infected them with a Crowd Control in the game termed Intoxication, making him and his teammates partially lose control of his characters movements and aiming ability.
Not missing a beat, Beryl used his Cabrakan ultimate ability, Tectonic Shift, on the Bacchus, which created walls, blocking the Bacchus who had just jumped in and ulted from moving forward. Beryl then quickly used his Relic, Sundering Blast, onto the Bacchus. Beryl then shouted into his Microphone, " Bacchus NO JUMP! I walled and sundered him. KILL HIM!" Augusto and Proper turned to the Bacchus, their eyes seeing red as Augusto used his First Ability in Light Stance, Restoration, to kill the Bacchus.
"DIVINE!" The voice of the announcer rang out in Augusto's ears, signifying he went divine, meaning he had killed Nine ( 9 ) enemy gods in a row without dying.
Augusto then swiftly used his Third Ability in Light Stance, healing his Teammates in an AOE ( Area Of Effect ) and increasing all of their Movement Speed including himself. Tenacity wasted no time and used his Cthulhu ultimate, Descent Into Madness, transforming into a massive Eldritch monster and boosting all of his stats. Tenacity charged forward, knocking up the enemies in his path as Closer used his Ultimate, Piercing Moonlight, making him damage all enemies his beams of light touch and teleport through them, dealing damage.
The enemy tried to defend, with the enemy Heimdall using his ultimate, Through the Realms, to hit Amplify, and remove him from the fight while the enemy Nemesis used their Ultimate, Divine Judgement, on Tenacity's Cthulhu, dealing 25% of Tenacity's HP instantly and reducing his protections by 25%, but that did little to stop CVE.
Augusto moved forward with his team, using his Third Ability in Dark Stance which he had switched to, instantly killing the enemy Nemesis before using his First Ability onto the enemy King Arthur who was being focused by Proper, killing him.
"TRIPLE KILL! IMMORTAL!" The announcer's voice rang out, announcing his Triple Kill and him being Immortal, meaning he killed Eleven ( 11 ) enemy gods in a row without dying.
Meanwhile, Proper used his Ultimate, Astral Barrage, which shot his character, Rama, into the air with three deadly arrow shots. Proper used the First Shot, instantly killing the enemy Heimdallr, before using his remaining two shots to kill the enemy Tiamat.
"I DON'T MISS!" Shouted Proper as he smiled and roared into the microphone, hyped at what happened.
"DEICIDE!" The announcer said, announcing that they had killed the entire enemy team in one fight. With that wipe, the game was effectively over.
Augusto and his teammates on CVE, ran to the enemy Titan and quickly killed it, bringing this game to an end.
ClockWork Vendetta had officially won their first scrim as a team!