Dignitas hope Ssumday and LOD can lead a more consistent Summer Split

Everything about Team Dignitas is good on paper. Keane is a top half mid laner in NA LCS with a massive champion pool, and can hold his own in lane against anyone. Ssumday is North America’s best toplaner, and LOD shocked everyone by proving to be one of the most capable AD Carries in the league during the Spring Split.

Team Dignitas is a familiar name for many longtime NA LCS fans, but not in this form. The first version of Team Dignitas appeared back in 2011 and competed in the NA LCS from the league’s inception in 2013 until they were relegated in 2016.

Dignitas then sold its challenger series spot to Apex Gaming, who qualified for the LCS and competed in one split before being purchased by the Philidelphia 76ers. The 76ers then purchased both Apex Gaming and Team Dignitas, moving most of the Apex roster back under the Team Dignitas branding.

While the Spring Split went fairly well for Dignitas and they did manage to make playoffs, they were quickly eliminated in the first round 3-0 by Phoenix1. The problem for Dignitas was they couldn’t quite take all of this individual talent and turn it into consistent wins.

Team Dignitas

Riot Games

Spring 2017: 9-9, lost in quarterfinals

Additions: Brandon “Saintvicious” DiMarco

Departures: Joe “InnerFlame” Elouassi

Coach: David “Cop” Roberson

Lineup:

• Top: Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho
• Jungle: Lee “Chaser” Sang-hyun
• Mid: Jang “Keane” Lae-young
• Bot: Benjamin “LOD” deMunck
• Support: Terry “Big” Chuong

Subs: Cristian Rosales (top), Lee “Shrimp” Byeong-hoon, Alex “Xpecial” Chu (support)

One of the clearest signs of this can be seen in the team’s stat lines from the Spring Split. Dignitas had some of the worst early games in the league, with the third worst gold differential at 15 minutes of any team. If you’re wondering how a team with such weak early game was able to make playoffs, it’s thanks to the fact that Dignitas also had the longest games of any team in the Spring Split.

What this means is that a majority of Dignitas games went like this: Dignitas ends up with a fairly large deficit before slowly grinding their way back into the game where they could win off of superior individual skill and fewer mistakes.

While this may have been an effective way for Team Dignitas to make it through the Spring Split, it isn’t a way to beat some of the LCS’s best teams and it certainly won’t help them advance through the playoffs.

In order for Team Dignitas to move into the ranks of the consistently good LCS teams, they are going to have to find ways to leverage their best players during the Summer Split. This means drafting better team comps and coming into games with a stronger awareness of that match’s win conditions.

In all likelihood, this means that Dignitas will have to pick and choose its strengths, more effectively choosing team compositions that put Ssumday and LOD in positions to carry.

Thankfully for them, their off-season acquisition of experienced coach Saintviscious, who has previously worked closely with Cop in a coaching role should help improve their pick and ban as well as their focus on certain players.

With a revamped coaching staff and and a more focused effort to bring LOD and Ssumday to the forefront, Team Dignitas could compete with some of the LCS’s top teams and finally have a record that matches their roster’s talent.