Going into week eight, Dignitas look to secure a spot in the upper bracket of playoffs as they face off against Immortals, Team Liquid and FlyQuest.
In the previous week, Dignitas had one final serious opportunity to better their standing as the final round robin of the season began. It started off strong for the black and yellow as they managed to take down first place team 100 Thieves on Friday. It was then followed however by two losses to Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses. The team now sits four games behind Team Liquid for fifth and with six games left the chances of DIG taking over that spot are extremely slim. The team can however secure themselves the sixth seed this weekend through several scenarios. The one thing in common across these scenarios is beating Immortals and obtaining the head to head tiebreaker against them for the split. Here are three things Dignitas need to do for a successful week eight:
1. Beat Immortals
With Immortals now two games behind Dignitas, the most important thing the team needs to do this weekend is make sure they do not drop their game against IMT on Friday. Not only would the win crawl IMT one game closer to taking over sixth, it would also put the split tiebreaker against DIG in their hands as the teams are currently tied 1-1 in the split. With all the difficulties DIG faced this split, getting into the playoffs, and more specifically the upper bracket, would really allow for the team to take a deep breath and put their challenges behind them.
Dropping to the lower bracket would negatively impact the team’s morale not only because they are young but also because earlier in the season they were being hailed as possibly being a top three team. To drop so low so fast has got to hurt for the DIG players and organization but getting into the upper bracket of playoffs soundly can serve as a chance for redemption of their somewhat salvaged season. Beating IMT on Friday will really help the team’s chance in securing this seed. Luckily for DIG, they play quite well in the first games of the week as they beat TSM on Friday two weeks ago and 100 Thieves on Friday last week.
2. Get Yusui Over His Past Mistake
In their second game of the week, Dignitas will take on Team Liquid. The last time they verused them they quite literally lost on one play. Mid Laner David “Yusui” Bloomquist going in too deep on the Kassadian essentially cost the team the game as after his death TL was able to march down mid and end the game. As a young player, this previous mistake could easily negatively affect Yusui’s performance in his rematch against TL.
DIG must make sure that this previous play of Yusui does not hurt him going forward. The young Mid Laner has played surprisingly well for DIG this season and going into the final stretch of the season they will need him if they want to be successful. A win against TL this weekend will allow Yusui to informally bury his past mistakes, undoubtedly increasing his morale and confidence.
3. Relax
The final thing Dignitas will need to do this weekend is simply take a step back and relax. In their last game, DIG was completely embarrassed by Evil Geniuses as the team was dominating them well before 10 minutes into the game. This straight up beat down is totally uncommon in a professional LCS game and for it to happen to DIG it has to be somewhat demoralizing especially due to the fact that the team is so young.
What DIG must realize is that this loss was just one game out of 27 they play this split. Losses and wins come and go and you cannot get stuck thinking about a previous game. The team must have a short memory and move forward to their next games as playoffs approach. They must realize that they are a playoff team and that they have defeated top teams TSM and 100 Thieves over the past two weeks for a reason. If DIG can’t get over this mental block then they will ultimately not see much success as the split begins to wrap up.
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