In the fifth week of the LCS summer split, Dignitas picked up some of their lost rhythm, going 2-1 and securing a valuable win against then first-place team TSM.
After going 1-6 in their last 7 games, Dignitas managed to finally have their first positive week since opening week. The team secured wins over TSM and Golden Guardians on Friday and Saturday but fell short to Immortals on Sunday. They still sit in sixth place but now with a record of 17-16. Here are three takeaways from the week five performance of Dignitas.
1. Chemistry is Building
In their three games this past weekend, Dignitas proved that their team chemistry and cohesion is building. This point has constantly been targeted as the reason for the team’s struggles and rightfully so. The two in-season roster changes of Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett and Max “Soligo” Soong have without a doubt impacted the team’s chemistry and communication over the past several weeks. This is best seen when looking at all the leads DIG managed to blow. With communication lacking, DIG failed to properly transition into the macro game with their early leads, allowing enemy teams to climb back and win. In only their second week fully together, the black and yellow managed to pull through and secure two wins, one of which was against top team TSM.
As the season continues the team chemistry will only, of course, get better and better. The issue that stems from this however, is the fact that the other teams in the league, especially those who didn’t undergo significant roster changes, are many steps ahead of them in terms of chemistry.
2. Akaadian is Looking Strong
After looking decent in almost all of the games he has played with the team thus far, Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham played amazing this past weekend. If it weren’t for the team’s loss against Immortals, he would have most likely secured the Player of the Week award. The Jungler is beginning to define his style as someone who wants to apply pressure to lanes early in hopes of an early kill. In the games against TSM and Golden Guardians, Akaadian managed to secure himself very early kills, allowing him to snowball and ultimately help secure the win for Dignitas. Also, despite ganking early and giving up a farm lead to the opposing Jungler, Akaadian still managed to not fall extremely far behind.
It should really not come as a surprise that Akaadian was able to play up to the level that he did this past weekend. The DIG Jungler has been at the top before. Specifically, back in the Spring of 2019 when he reached the LCS finals as the Jungler for TSM. Ever since that loss, he has struggled to find his rhythm and fell to the Academy ranks. Now, back in LCS and in a secure position with DIG, there is no reason why he can’t continue to progress throughout the season.
3. Aphromoo will be Aphromoo
Great players come up big for their teams when they are needed most and that is exactly what Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black did this past weekend, especially in the team’s game against TSM. In dire need of a win and up against one of the best teams in the league in TSM, the former MVP let the LCS know that he, along with Dignitas, are not going out this split without a fight.
On the Alistar, Aphromoo knew exactly where to be on the map and what to do, most notably when it came to the later portion of the game. His mechanics were very clean as well, especially his perfect flash engage on Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon’s Gnar which was then followed by him headbutting Mingyi “Spica” Lu’s facechecking Lee Sin into his team. He also shot-called his teammates perfectly into the right positions and led his team to victory in a slow-paced game where they continually suffocated TSM. With Dardoch gone, Aphromoo is the sole leader of this DIG squad. It will be up to him to lead this young squad in the right direction with four weeks remaining in the regular season.
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