With the SMITE World Championship event in Atlanta, Georgia soon approaching, developer Hi-Rez Studios has announced that the MOBA's prize pool surpassed $2 million today, further showing the force of MOBA games.

As Valve used the DOTA 2 Compendium to raise this year's International prize pool to ridiculous levels, Georgia-based Hi-Rez Studios ran a 21-week Smite Odyssey event, in which players could purchase special limited edition skins and such, with a portion of each sale going to the prize pool. Players who purchased each of the 21 special items in the mythology-based MOBA were rewarded with an extremely special skin for the character Thanatos, as seen in the video below.

This isn't no small feat of course, and in passing $2 million it has poised SMITE as the first MOBA to gain such lofty offerings in its initial competitive tournament. The first prize in January's tournament will be over $1 million, for a game that's only technically been out since March. To have that kind of prize pool is exceptionally awesome for a growing eSports community.

I'll be over in Atlanta come January, so make sure you keep your eyes peeled on AusGamers for all the latest coverage of the event including some exclusive interviews with those competing in the tournament.