The Double Guardian Composition of Sanguine Esports

Sanguine Esports had a rough time in the online stage of the Fall Split, coming in last place in Europe. Thus, when the LAN group stages were announced, there were low expectations of Cherryo and his team. Sanguine surprised the world by making top 2 in their group and advancing to the Super Regionals. Much of Sanguine’s success comes from a team composition that they often ran. They were the first to run such a tanky sustain comp at LAN and helped mold the Smite meta for the group stages. This article explores how the composition is formed and why it was so successful for Sanguine.

The Composition

In its most basic form, Sanguine’s composition is similar to a standard team comp, with the exception of a Guardian in the jungle. The mid lane is mostly limited to a Ra or Isis pick while the support tends to be a character excelling in team fights. The hunter and solo positions are open to any standard pick, with the solo having to be a warrior.

The defining characteristic of this team composition is a Guardian in the jungle. There are only three Guardians that make viable junglers: Athena, Ymir, and Cabrakan. In general, Guardians are a low damage class, but these characters have high enough base damage in their abilities to clear jungle camps. Having a Guardian in the jungle means that your team has another frontliner that can protect their team and a character with incredible crowd control for team fights.

This trio of gods are better junglers than the other guardians for a couple reasons. Their abilities do a lot of damage early, which allows for efficient jungle clear and map rotations. Another reason is that they are great at ganking lanes, with Athena’s global ultimate or Ymir and Cabrakan’s abilities to raise walls and change the map. Also, these Guardians are great from ahead. Jungling allows them be a higher level and have greater damage than they would have in the support role.

The mid role is the strictest in the Sanguine team comp. Ra or Isis were selected whenever possible. Isis was Sanguine’s primary choice, but Ra turned out to be the more meta-defining pick. These mages bring early laning prowess and strong team fighting. Both provide mid-fight healing, but where Isis brings more in-fight utility, Ra shines between fights and during sieges. The sustain provided by these mages backs up the triple tank composition.

The support pool in Sanguine’s composition is pretty open. The only requirement is a strong team fight presence. The support Guardian selection can shore up the weaknesses of the jungle tank. Geb or Bacchus can be selected with a Ymir for initiation or a Khepri can be played with a Cabrakan to have a backline peel tank. The support pick is best used to fill in gaps left from the rest of the composition.

In Sanguine’s composition, the Hunter and Solo positions are rather bland. The gods selected in these roles come down to player preference, playstyle, and counter picks. Any strong character could fill these roles and they can be selected early in a draft to hide the comp or late to round it out and win their lane matchups. The solo just must be a warrior because a double guardian lineup heavily favors magical damage and a physical threat is needed in the solo lane to balance out the damage profile of a team.

Like most good team compositions in Smite, Sanguine’s double Guardian creation has flexibility. Bans and takeaway picks can ruin a non-flexible team comp, but having more options allows compositions to still excel. The flexibility of the support, hunter, and solo roles in this comp allows other roles to be pinched. If both Isis and Ra are removed, a burst mage can be selected in the mid lane as long as a Guan Yu is in the solo lane or a healing god is played in Support. If Athena, Ymir, and Cabrakan are banned or picked away and a team still wants to run a triple tank comp, warriors such as Guan Yu and Amaterasu can be played in the jungle with a guardian in the solo.

Why It Works

The double Guardian composition put together by Sanguine Esports excels at team fighting. While it may have lower overall damage, this setup has the sustain and durability to outlast opponents in fights. In addition, the crowd control provided by the two Guardians allows the carries to survive and kill enemies.

Having a Guardian in the jungle means that there is one less squishy target that can be instantly blown up in a fight. When most of your team is very tanky, it is hard for opponents to knock down characters. This is compounded with the sustain out of the mid lane. As the tanks take damage, they can be healed back up with a Divine Blessing or brought from the brink of death with a Circle of Protection. These factors combine to allow the triple tank team to outlast its opponents.

There is also a lot of damage in this comp. Hunters can tear through enemies if protected, and the double Guardians can provide enough control to lock down enemies or peel for the carry to let this happen. In addition to their sustain, Ra and Isis have strong burst potentials to take down foes. If a jungle Guardian gets ahead, they can also deal out unexpected burst from their abilities.

Beating the Composition

Bans can disrupt team comps and force a team to use a different strategy or play with suboptimal gods. When Sanguine had 2 of their junglers banned and the third first picked from them, they went with a completely different game plan.

Odin is a clear counter to the Sanguine draft. His ultimate prevents healing and locks down all mid and jungle selections. Only Athena can leave and she has to ult to do so. This is the reason that Sanguine banned Odin early in almost every game they played. The team comp can also be shut down in team fights. If you get a clean initiation on the Hunter or Mage and kill it, they may not have enough damage or sustain to keep up in fights.

Sanguine Esports surprised the world by making it out of their group as the last seeded team. A large part of their success was the unique team composition they brought. Sanguine often played a double guardian, triple tank comp with sustain from the mid lane. This dominant setup paved the way for Sanguine to compete at Super Regionals.

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