Oni Warriors

 is a team participating in the Smite Pro League. The team is owned and operated by Hi-Rez Studios.

History
The Oni Warriors formed ahead of Season 8 of the SPL in February 2021, alongside seven other teams managed directly by Hi-Rez. The initial roster consisted of a mixture of Spacestation Gaming and Pittsburgh Knights. From Spacestation Gaming came Nika, Dardez, and Vote while from Pittsburgh Knights came, at the time, World Champions QvoFred and NeilMah.

2021 Season
The 2021 Season was a rough season for the Oni Warriors. The Coronavirus Pandemic, which was still in full force at the time, made the Smite Pro League go from a LAN league into an Online league. The Pandemic made travel very hard if not impossible for some smite players. The Oni Warriors were one of the teams most affected by the Pandemic. While Nika and Vote were in Georgia, the rest were not. NeilMah lived in Canada, QvoFred lived in Denmark, and Dardez lived in France. This was a major disadvantage to the team as the servers were played in America and the other teams were from America. Due to this, the Oni Warriors experienced high ping. Due to this, Phase 1 was not a good start for the Oni Warriors. They were 8th place during the spring season and 3-4th place during the Phase 1 Playoffs Tournament. During phase 2, as teams started to change or players got used to their new team members, the Oni Warriors stayed at a solid 6th place in both the regular season and Phase 2 Playoffs Tournament. During phase 3, not much had changed with the Oni Warriors. On September 21st, NeilMah announced on Twitter that he will be coming down to Georgia. While this meant that NeilMah would no longer be playing on ping, Dardez and QvoFred were still playing from their respective countries. The Oni Warriors would spend the rest of the season as a bottom team. Once Phase 3 regular season was done, Dardez announced that QvoFred and he would no longer have trouble with ping, as they were able to start their departure to the United States. Unfortunately for the Oni Warriors, they only had 3 weeks of practice for the Group Stage of SPL. During this stage, the winners would advance to the last Playoffs Tournament which would determine seeding for the Smite World Championship 2022. The losers would lose their chance to make it to the last Playoffs Tournament. Unfortunately for the Oni Warriors, they lost. Their one chance to make it back would be the Placement stage that was part of the Smite World Championship. The Oni Warriors would be able to beat the Winner Dogs but would get knocked to the Elimination bracket by the Solar Scarabs, who would then beat them again during the elimination bracket. That would be the end of the season for the Oni Warriors.

Play-in Tournament
Before the official start of the SPL, Hi-Rez decided to host a tournament, the Play-in Tournament in order to find out who will become the next Oni Warriors and Valhalla Valkyries. Since both teams lost during the SWC Placement round, Hi-Rez relegated both teams. Players Nika, QvoFred, Dardez, NeilMah, and Vote decided to stick together and try to earn their way back to the SPL. Titling themselves the "Oni Homies," the team decided to try out for the Play-in Tournament. While their performance was a bit shaky at the start, they ultimately won the tournament. Having won the tournament, the team would now again be called the Oni Warriors.

2022 Season
The 2022 Season has been a lot kinder to the Oni Warriors. The team ended phase 1 with the Oni Warriors being the 3rd seed. The only teams they lost against were the Jade Dragons and the Olympus Bolts, the latter being a team that they historically have not done well against. During the Springs Masters Tournament, the team lost in the quarterfinals against the Atlantis Leviathans and the Tartarus Titans. Coming into the summer season, the Oni Warriors became a bit inconsistent. They would be able to sometimes beat strong teams like the Atlantis Leviathans and Tartarus Titans but not consistently. This would earn them a 6th place spot during the regular season. During the Summer Masters Tournament, the team was able to overcome this inconsistency. They were able to convincingly defeat the Olympus Bolts, a matchup they have struggled with in the past, and the Tartarus Titans, a very strong team. This would earn them 3rd place during the Summer Masters Tournament. Starting the Fall season, the Oni Warriors started off on a very strong foot. They would 2-0 the Atlantis Leviathans and stop the Jade Dragons from breaking the record held by NRG Esports for the longest win streak. The Oni Warriors continued their strong start with only one small failure, which is losing 2-1 to the Camelot Kings. It wouldn't be until the middle of the phase were the Oni Warriors would start a decline. They would lose back-to-back to the Olympus Bolts, a team that they have struggled to beat during the regular season. The team would start to struggle to beat top teams like the Jade Dragons or Atlantis Leviathans. They would win a game against the Atlantis Levaithans toward the end of the phase, but the Atlantis Levithans were trolling while the Oni Warriors took the game seriously. Even in their final game of the set against the Solar Scarabs, the team struggled to win a set that should have been a clean victory against a fractured team. While they did end the phase in 4th place, consistency is the bane of the Oni Warriors.

The Oni Warriors were one of the 6 teams that would qualify for the Phase 3 Playoffs to qualify for SWC. Their first match will be against the Tartarus Titans, who had their jungler Layers leave them 48 hours before the tournament. The Tartarus Titans team would have Cyno as his replacement for the tournament and the rest of the year. Despite this, the Tartarus Titans would 2-0 the Oni Warriors. Unfortunately for the Oni Warriors, their match in the loser's bracket would be against the Jade Dragons. While the Oni Warriors would be able to take a game, better play from the Jade Dragons and an unlucky crash of the game would result in the Oni Warriors losing all of their momentum. Now Disqualified, the Oni Warriors' hope to make it to SWC would be the SWC group stage. The team would make short work of the Xibalba Storm, but they would lose to Hex Mambo in a 3-1. In a nail bitting set, the Oni Warriors would win 3-1 against the Solar Scarabs. The player cams after the match would reflect the weight off the team. The last game against the Solar Scarabs was very close and had the Oni Warriors lost, many believed that they would lose the set too. The core of Nika, Dardez, and Vote is known to be reverse-swept, and the pressure of losing a set that was very much in their favor could have resulted in the team's morale being low enough to self-fulfill the reverse-sweep prophecy. The team had their sight set on the SMITE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, and their first opponent would be the Jade Dragons. The team would give it their all during the quarterfinals. In the end, the team would lose 2-0 to the Jade Dragons. The team was Heartbroken. Soon after, QvoFred would announce his retirement after playing for 10 years. Weeks later, NeilMah would announce his move to coaching and is not sure if he will return as a player. The Oni Warriors would end how they started, with their core of Nika/Dardez/Vote.