The Rocket League Championship Series is only a few weeks away. That leaves enough time for weekly team-by-team previews of the world’s best Rocket League teams. This series will act as a preview for what to expect during Season 7 for each team. Check out the rest of the previews here.
This preview features the New York Yankees of Rocket League: Dignitas.
Season 6 Results: 7-0 in League Play. Didn’t drop a series all season until the Grand Final at the World Championship. Dropped consecutive series to Cloud9 in Grand Finals to finish in second place.
Off-season Movement: Said goodbye to former star Alexandre “Kaydop” Courant (1.09 GPG, 0.60 APG, 1.63 SAPG) who joined Renault Vitality. Added former Flipsid3 Tactics standout Maurice “Yukeo” Weihs (0.69 GPG, 0.56 APG, 1.77 SAPG).
Off-season Performance: DreamHack Leipzig Champions. 3-4th place ELEAGUE Cup 2018. 5-6th at WSOE 4.
Team MVP: Jos “ViolentPanda” van Meurs
Realistic Team Goal: RLCS Season 7 World Champions.
Background and Team History
Calling Dignitas the Yankees of Rocket League is one heck of a compliment. The team’s previous roster composition of Kaydop, ViolentPanda and Pierre “Turbopolsa” Silfver is unquestionably the most successful team in Rocket League history. They won back to back World Championships, and won 17 straight RLCS series.
Let that sink in for a moment. They won 17 consecutive series. It’s amazing to think about.
Now all of that is over. Their dominance came to a halt after Cloud9 ran circles around them in the Grand Finals. It lost all hope of ever returning to prominence when Kaydop announced he was leaving. Traditionally when a star player moves on, the team suffers. When you’re a team like the Yankees or Dignitas, you can go out and buy the next best thing.
That comes in the form of Yukeo, a standout star who rose quickly from a relatively unknown player to one of EU’s most prolific talents. The Austrian seemed to improve with every game with Flipsid3 over the last two seasons. Now he finds himself surrounded by two of the greatest players to ever play the game.
If Rocket League ever creates a Hall of Fame, ViolentPanda and Turbopolsa will be first ballot entries. They could carry a sack of potatoes to a LAN appearance. With the right teammate, they’re virtually unbeatable.
With all that being said, roster transitions rarely go seamlessly and there is a heap of hungry contenders wanting to dethrone the undisputed kings of EU. Will they defend their crown and assert themselves as the world’s premier team once again?
Dignitas’ Best Case Scenario
After Dignitas’ spectacular performance in Leipzig, it felt inevitable that once again we’d see the boys in black hoisting up trophy after trophy. When they put everything together and play their game for all five minutes, they’re almost impossible to beat. Only a handful of teams can hang with them in a series, let alone win it.
Yukeo is like the Chicago of EU. He was a great player over the last two seasons and is still yet to reach his potential. There were nit-pickable lapses in rotation with Flipsid3 and in some of the team’s offseason performances, but that will likely resolve itself in time.
Dig’s best case scenario is that Season 7 is the first of another dynasty. They could cruise through League Play with a 6-1 record, win the Regional Championships and then take care of business at LAN. If everyone is happy and wants to stick around, they’ll remain at the top of the sport for a long time.
It’s almost impossible to find a statistical folly from last season. They led EU in everything last year, but still couldn’t find a way past Cloud9. They present a huge match up problem for Dignitas. Everything Dig does this season will be with the focus of beating C9.
They need to play every game like it’s a tune up for the Grand Finals. They need to massage out all the knots, and fully integrate Yukeo into the squad without hitches and be ready to face Cloud9 with confidence. If Yukeo adapts quickly this team could win the World Championships. If not, well…
Dignitas’ Worst Case Scenario
As mentioned previously, Dignitas could qualify for LAN in their sleep with Gibbs as their third. Even the Yankees have disappointing seasons, but they almost never miss the playoffs. Dignitas is in the same boat. It would be the biggest shock in RL history for Dignitas to miss out on LAN (well, other than if C9 missed out).
Dig’s worst case scenario can go one of three ways, but the result is always the same: bowing out early of the World Championships. Anything short of top four would be a disappointment for this team.
Scenario one is that Yukeo isn’t the right fit. He certainly looked fine in Leipzig, but he’ll need to master Dignitas’ style if they are to win it all. Yukeo doesn’t need to be Kaydop for this team to finish high. Expectations, a new situation or chemistry issues could throw off the team’s mojo, however, and that would be fatal.
Scenario two is that they get matched up against Vitality and Cloud9 in the World Championships. Kaydop and Vitality really tested Dig in the final, and Dig’s struggles with C9 have already been covered in this preview. If they can avoid these teams early on in LAN, they’ll be flying high. If not, they could bomb out of the tournament.
Scenario three is that inclement weather prevents them from travelling and competing at the event. Just kidding. If Turbo and Panda can’t find their rhythm or have an off day (like at WSOE), they could be out played by a quality opponent. That doesn’t seem to happen too often though.
TL;DR: It’s hard to think of what could potentially go wrong for Dignitas. If Yukeo transitions smoothly, it’ll be championship or bust for the Yankees of EU.
Featured image courtesy of Dignitas.
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