On Sunday, October 9th, history was made in Group A of LANS in the SPL. In the final game between Sanguine and OrbitGG, a character that had never been chosen in the three years of the SPL was chosen in the mid lane position. This character was Anubis. The game ended with Orbit GG victorious. Tragically, this means that Ah Muzen Cab no longer has a 100% win rate in the SPL (winning 3 out of 4 games he’s been played in). This means that Anubis is now the only character in Smite that has a 100% win rate.

He’s never been picked because his abilities (or kit) aren’t suitable for any metagame. His passive ability reduces the duration of CC (crowd control) effects, temporarily takes protections from enemies who are hit by his abilities, and grants bonus lifesteal scaling. Basically it gives him some CC immunity, take less damage and makes his abilities heal him.

His first active ability is locusts which deals damage every half second, his second ability is a line which stuns an enemy briefly, and his third is a circle he can place that does damage and slows every half second. His ult (ultimate ability) gives him full CC immunity and does damage in a line every .1 seconds.

His kit has no shortage of damage and his passive gives him decent utility, but he has no ability to escape making him vulnerable if he gets caught out of position. In addition to this, his first ability and his ult lock him in place until he cancels them.

Despite this, he has a win rate of 53.38% in ranked conquest. But he has a .71% pick rate making him a niche pick even in non-competitive settings.

The lack of mobility he has forces the player into a passive playstyle. Throughout early and mid game, the best an Anubis can do is punish his opponents mistakes and farm. Late game is when Anubis shines.

Though he has no way to escape his foes, it won’t matter in the late game. A good Anubis player will be able to kill enemies before they have the opportunity to kill them. This makes Anubis a late game hypercarry. This means that he’s not a major threat until the late game where he’s nearly unstoppable.

Though he has the capacity to do this (and other hypercarries are played in the SPL), his early and mid game are generally too weak for a pro player to consider picking him.

AHS Student and Smite player Ryan Tate says, “Anubis is garbage.”

But in the Sanguine versus Orbit GG match, both teams won enough to be guaranteed a spot in super regionals.

Both teams made several “off-meta” picks including Daniele “TheDarkDodo” Minnielli picking He Bo as a mid laner and Kenny “Arkkyl” Kuska picking Ah Muzen Cab. But no pick the teams made were as disorienting as Lawbster’s (team captain and mid laner of Orbit GG) Anubis pick.

Most games have face cams of the players stone faced and concentrated, but in this game, they were laughing. To many fans, it seemed like a friendly exhibition instead of a competitive game.

Lawbster started the game with solo kills, and out farming his lane opponent. With a jungler as immobile as Ymir (played by Mohaned “Cherryo” Deweder), Sanguine couldn’t gank Lawbster in time to shut him down. By the end of the game, Lawbster’s K/D/A (Kills/Deaths/Assists) was 12/3/17 which is much better than the average mid laner’s K/D/A in the SPL.

Now Group A is done playing with Orbit GG in first place, Sanguine in 2nd, Dignitas in third and Elevate in fourth. This Friday Group B (consisting of Luminosity, Team Allegiance,Team Eager and Noble eSports) will have their first matches in what will undoubtedly be an interesting group.