Metyankey, the current Mid player for SoaR Gaming on PC Smite, gives us some of his time today as he explains his road to the competitive scene, his Smite experience. SoaR Gaming is currently the second seed team in North America.

Image courtesy of Metyankey's Twitter

What exactly got you into playing Smite? And how long have you been playing the game?

Metyankey: I started playing Smite basically because of a school project. I believe in 9th grade, I was assigned by a teacher to research gods and goddesses. I then came across a picture of a Hades icon so I decided to try out the game. The time I started playing the game was in the month of July in 2012, so I’ve been playing for about four and a quarter years or so. I’ve taken some months off the game here and there sporadically but roughly around that time.

As a professional Smite player, what is one thing you enjoy most about the game?

Metyankey: The thing that I enjoy most about Smite is the community that has stuck around throughout the years. I have met so many people that I can consider my friends and will still talk to them once I’m done playing competitively in the future. As for the gameplay itself, I love how fast paced the matches are and how you can massively outplay your opponents. Being a game so focused around mechanics and skillshots, you will get to feel so rewarded for landing your abilities and/or juking them.

So tell us a little about how you became a professional player? What drove you to be competitive and what did you go through to get to where you are now?

Metyankey: I was honestly trying to have fun when I first started playing Smite - just like any other normal player. Then I saw that you could actually make money playing the game which was exciting to me. Being able to get paid for doing something you love sounds awesome. Unfortunately I had already tarnished my name in ranked so I couldn’t land on a solid team. At the time I also didn’t really want to play competitive because I didn’t know how to explain it to my parents. After a while I matured a bit and told myself, “Whatever, I’ll just play and stop caring about what anyone else thinks” so I changed my attitude and got on Elevate. I was in the Challenger scene for about 2 years as well, and I was super determined to prove everyone that I wasn’t just a “ranked all-star” or whatever people say.

And that was how you eventually ended up to where you are now on SoaR Gaming?

Metyankey: Yeah, when we did inhouses after worlds last year, everyone was looking for players to form their new teams. I ended up playing against BaRRaCCuDDa after they threw me in because no one else wanted to do it, and I did well against them so people gave me a chance.

How did you feel throughout the entire season? How are you feeling now that you’ve ended up in one of the best teams in NA? There were many team changing going on throughout the entire season for various teams, but you stayed on SoaR the entire time, correct? Tell us about your experiences with this team you’ve stuck to this entire time.

Metyankey: I think the season went very well for me personally, as well as SoaR as a whole. Once we picked up Andinster and Snoopy our team atmosphere got a lot better. We have some of the better mechanical players in NA and our synergy becomes stronger by the day. I’m super happy with how things turned out.

You were the ADC for SoaR and now a Mid player. Are there other roles you can play at a professional level? You talked about how you're comfortable with both ADC and Mid. What made you decide to be the hunter player for SoaR for most of the season?

Metyankey: I was ADC for SoaR Gaming mostly because no one else wanted to play that role at the start of the season and it kind of just stuck with me up until now. I had pretty good success too on the ADC position so I was fine with playing it. As for what other roles that I can play at a professional level, I’d say Mid and Support, with Support being my favorite role, probably.

Can you say what was the reason behind the role swap? Was it so that Snoopy feels more comfortable in the ADC position? You've been playing as SoaR's ADC all season so how do you feel knowing that you're about to face some of the best and most experienced Mid laners in the world?

Metyankey: Yeah, Snoopy feels more comfortable in the ADC position and I am pretty confident in my ability to play Mid. Also, we mainly did the role swap because of how we did in the EGR Saturnalia event, and it was an idea that was thrown around in our team for a while.

I don’t really get too caught up in who I’m facing. There is only so much they can do with a god, so if I just play my game right I know that I can compete with any Mid laner I face.

Alright, sounds awesome! Thanks so much for your time with us. To close this, do you have any shout-outs you want to make?

Metyankey: Shout-outs to SoaR Gaming for being a great sponsor and shout-outs to my teammates for being world class gentlemen!