How Dignitas Went From Contender to Pretender in a Matter of Weeks

After a tough week two where Dignitas lost to top teams Team Liquid and Cloud 9, they went into a much easier week three where they were set to play the ninth and tenth place teams CLG and Golden Guardians. A jungle swap and three losses later, all hell is breaking loose for DIG as they go from being a potential top team to a potential bottom feeder. Here is how Dignitas went from Contender to Pretender in a Matter of Weeks.

Chemistry MIA

It should not come as a surprise to anyone that Dignitas are clearly having communication and chemistry issues. After the team swapped out its Mid Laner Max “Soligo” Soong for David “Yusui” Bloomquist right before week two and veteran jungler Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett for Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham in the middle of this week, the team is destined to lack strength in these categories. How can the team possibly thrive on stage when they have barely even played with each other? 

In the three games this weekend, the team’s synergy was clearly absent especially in the second and third games where Dardoch was swapped out. Objective rotations were weak, team fights were off and early leads were thrown. As to where DIG goes from here could be anybody’s guess. They could go back to their original team and work from there or they can stick with the current roster and just give it some time for the team to gel together. DIG currently sit in fifth place with a 14-13 record. The team is 1-5 since the Mid Laner swap and 0-2 since the Jungler swap.

Replacing Soligo

Despite the terrible record of 1-5 with Yusui in the team, there is still some optimism to have for the new Mid Laner. Yusui has had strong outings in his two weeks such as his Ezreal against Golden Guardians and Viego against TSM but has failed to fully implement his leads to help DIG win games. This is something that Yusui will have to learn over time so leaving him in the roster wouldn’t be the worst-case scenario. Also, in the games where Yusui has played enchanter supports he has looked good at times. If he can become more comfortable on these champions it will prove to be very beneficial for himself and DIG.

Replacing Dardoch

Dardoch has built a reputation throughout his LCS career of not being the best teammate. He has failed to stick on a team for a good amount of time and has had some incidents with teammates and coaches. Despite this history, the move to bench him in the middle of week three might have been the stupidest thing Dignitas has done this split. 

It is unclear what exactly happened behind closed doors within the DIG organization but this move felt like an impulse one after a tough loss to Golden Guardians on Friday. When Soligo was benched it felt like it was something DIG was planning for as it happened during the week and they released a video on Twitter about it. When Dardoch was benched, however, the team just released a little blurb on Twitter about it on Friday night.

The argument could be made that Dardoch isn’t playing up to his regular self in the past two weeks, but to say he deserves to be benched is completely an overstatement. Dardoch is an important piece on an inexperienced team as he, along with Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black, are the veterans of the team and play a big role in communication. To swap him out in the middle of a week is detrimental for the team. DIG also has been drafting team comps that go around supporting Dardoch to carry, such as when Toàn “Neo” Trần played Seraphine against Cloud 9. This isn’t the right way to go for DIG and putting all the pressure on Dardoch is not fair. The bot lane of Neo and Aphromoo have shown how strong they are and building a comp around them could be just as, if not more, important.

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