For all the depth League of Legends has to offer, few have accused of it of being a mechanically difficult game. Many skilled amateurs are capable of competing with all but the best pros in most aspects of individual play, so it is in the team parts of the game, such as lane rotations, tower pushing, and baron/dragon control, that the truly capable squads differentiate themselves. The more experience and practice a team has playing together against high caliber competition, they better they will be at playing as a unit. Or so the theory goes. One of the oldest pro teams in League of Legends, Dignitas has made a career of defying expectations with alternating bursts of inspired play and head-scratching throws often featuring the esteemed Baron Nashor. After an unimpressive pair of losses to open the season, Dignitas notched a shocking 5-win streak that included a dominant victory over Cloud 9, inspiring hope that the d had found its mojo. They quickly laid such foolish thought to rest with a shaky 1-2 display in Week 4, reminding the League community that consistency has had little relation to the Dignitas name since the former Rock Solid was acquired in the nascent days of competitive LoL. Every one of their week 3 games featured questionable play around Dragon or Baron, making it clear that Team Dignitas is determined to let no team outplay them harder than they can outplay themselves.

In their first game against Team Coast, which currently trails the LCS standings with a 20% win rate, Dignitas was able to maintain a gold lead for much of the game, took the only Baron of the game uncontested, and ended shortly afterwards. Of the two near momentum swings in the game, one was a simple overextension by qtpie and Kiwikid, and the other was an ill advised fight for the second Dragon that resulted in Dignitas losing their top laner as well as the objective.



An attempt to engage on Coast in the river led to Mundo 1v5ing while a Ziggs ult zoned out the rest of Dignitas - something that Dignitas must have been well aware would happen. They were surely banking on responding with their own withering AoE in Karthus, Jinx, Annie, and Wukong, but it appears that their courage failed them at the last second, leaving Cruzer dead and a second Dragon taken by Coast. That fight brought a 1.7k gold lead down to under 500 when a more coordinated approach of either committing to the fight or leaving Mundo to splitpush would have further grown Dignitas’ lead rather than nearly losing it. It can be easy to overlook critical teamplay errors that still result in wins, but similar mistakes cost Dignitas dearly in their remaining Week 4 matches.

Dignitas’ objective control was inexcusable in their game against Curse; Scarra was taking Dragon while Curse melted down Baron with Yasuo and Draven. Not to be outdone, Cruzer teleported into the pit while Scarra was still on the bottom half of the map, leaving a hapless Dignitas with no choice but to attempt a halfhearted teamfight when the jungler should have gone for a solo steal at most.



That comedy of errors cost Dignitas four deaths, Baron, mid inhibitor, a roughly 3.5k additional gold deficit, and the game, all directly as a result of having no idea what to do about something that’s been in the game since Alpha Stage testing.

A less egregious but similarly devastating Baron throw defined their final Week 4 game, where Dignitas managed to conjure 3 deaths and a 1.3k gold deficit from a nearly 2k lead in not much more time than it takes Scarra to say ‘oh my god’. An ambitious Baron attempt with the low damage core of Gragas, Lee Sin, and Lucian gave Zuna and Mancloud plenty of time to stroll up from base and bot lane while Mundo and Sivir poked, kill three of Dignitas upon grouping, and take a free Baron. Dignitas again had several chances to cut their losses here, and again they elected instead to lose the objective just about as hard as possible. They continued to fight Baron well after it was clear that they lacked the damage to kill it sufficiently quickly, then inexplicably engaged a 4v5 (KiWiKiD had courteously zoned himself out of the fight) with their primary tank at 20% health.



While this desperation play would have been more understandable were they otherwise trapped in the Baron pit in a do-or-die battle, literally every single Dignitas champion in the Baron pit had a wall dash. This mobile quartet explains why Dignitas was willing to gamble so much time on their Baron gambit, but the logical next move would have been to disengage over the wall, not give away three kills and the game’s most important neutral.

For all their failings, Team Dignitas is still currently the 3rd best team in North America and one of only three NA LCS teams with a winning record. That said, the inconsistency in their play stemming from horrific Baron and Dragon calls makes their games against even the lowest ranked teams (XDG would have been tied for last had they lost to Dignitas) more of a coin flip than money in the bank, and that trait will not serve them well in the eight remaining weeks of the Spring Split. If they are to assert their top 3 status and possibly even mount a challenge to TSM and C9, who are clearly superior to the rest of the region as they are now, Dignitas first needs to look to make more intelligent plays around the big neutrals and have the discipline to execute like the pro team they should be.

In Season 3, the team then known as Vulcun Command was lacking in consistency, but did one thing particularly well: laning. While this was due, in part, to the stalwart top-laner called Sycho Sid (now known as Benny), the majority of this reputation was due to the strength of their mid laner, mandatorycloud. mancloud was a force to be reckoned with, consistently dominating his opponents or staying even in farm regardless of the situation elsewhere on the map. With a massive Champion pool and a comprehensive understanding of his role on the team, mandatorycloud was Vulcun's most consistent carry. In the Spring, mancloud held an 100% win rate on Nidalee, a champion with which he excelled. His spears appeared heat-seeking when he was allowed to pick up the Bestial Huntress and allowed Vulcun to take wins even from behind. During Vulcun's impressive Summer Split, in which they placed second only to the invincible Cloud9, mancloud held the highest average GPM of any mid laner in the NA LCS, as well as average total gold and KDA scores that matched C9's own Hai. All of his most played champions in the summer had greater than 66% win rates, including his favored Zed and even the more rare mid Ezreal. In spite of Vulcun's mediocre showing at Worlds and the Battle of the Atlantic (now as XDG), nothing suggested that mancloud would relinquish that role.

However, mandatorycloud's dominance appears to have vanished along with XDG's original name. Where he once boasted one of the strongest mid lanes in the North American scene, mancloud is now a detriment to his team due to his frequent in-game troubles. Currently, mancloud possesses the lowest KDA on his whole team, including support player BloodWater. In Week 4, for example, mancloud managed to prevent Hai's Kha'zix from snowballing out of control in lane, but despite his Kayle pick (an extremely advantageous matchup), mancloud ended up on the losing end of the lane. Against Dignitas, mancloud's Riven fed egregiously to scarra's powerful Gragas, ending up down three kills before 19:00. Though man cloud fed no more deaths after that point, he still looked unpracticed on his Riven pick, missing Ki Burst stuns through the entire game and frequently moving to awkward positions with Broken Wings. Only powerful stall tactics, a painful Dignitas Baron fight, and Xmithie's mighty shoulders on Sivir gave XDG the victory in the end, a far cry from the tactics that won Vulcun games in the 2013 Season.



Despite mandatorycloud’s large Champion pool and strategic experience, the changes in Season 4 are hurting his LCS performance. The NA LCS is far more focused on the mid lane than ever before this season, and, to match, NA’s mid laners have improved dramatically, from the import of aces like TSM’s Bjergsen to the ever-improving powerhouses such as Cloud9’s Hai. With stiffer competition and with more jungler attention in the mid lane than ever, mistakes like those mancloud has made in the early weeks of the Spring Split are punished heavily. Furthermore, it appears that mancloud’s favored mid lane Champions are out of favor, relegating him to “stronger" Champions with which he is not as proficient. Proof of this is in his two most played Champions in 2014: Kayle and Gragas. mancloud’s Kayle is only 1 for 3 with a laughable 1.8 KDA while his Gragas is 0 in 2 despite the general success seen by the Rabble Rouser. While mancloud has had one incredibly successful game on LeBlanc, he also sports a loss on the currently beloved burst laner. Still more powerful mids, such as Ziggs and Yasuo, have only yielded losses despite his typically versatile nature. The changes in XDG’s roles may have also injured mancloud. With Zuna out of his mediocre ADC spot, XDG’s bot lane is no longer easy money for its opponents, meaning that other lanes (like the essential mid) get more attention in ganks. Also, the Season 4 jungle keeps junglers in the woods for far longer, preventing early pressure (like the kind Xmithie used to provide to keep eyes away from mid lane) from occurring. With all these factors weighing against mancloud, as well as any potential distractions and difficulties off the Rift, it’s no wonder that he’s faltering in tournament play. However, if XDG is going to try and climb the NA standings, mandatorycloud will need to at least approach the strength of his Season 3 self.

In Week 5 both Dignitas and CLG face the exact same opponents. This normally wouldn't be a deal, except for the fact the two teams they will both be facing are TSM and C9. With TSM and C9 being the heavy favorites, Dignitas and CLG with have to pull out all the stops so that at least one of them can pull off an upset. The rest of the games all feature teams with losing records so these will be crucial in whether or not some teams are able to catch up in the standings or if their place at the bottom will be cemented for the rest of the split.