For his New Year’s resolution, Team Dignitas’ beloved AD Carry Michael “Imaqtpie” Santana promised to take his team to the Season 4 World Championships. At the time, very few believed he could deliver. Dignitas made the trip in season 2, but escalating North American competition kept them out of the picture in Season 3. After a disappointing 5th place finish in the Season 4 Spring Split, escaping relegation playoffs by 1 game, the days of Dig as a top NA team looked far behind them.

However, in the offseason things started looking up. Dignitas’ underperforming mid and top, William “Scarra” Li and Cruz “Cruzerthebruiser” Ogden, retired, and were replaced by top tier talent: Danny “Shiphtur” Le and Darshan “ZionSpartan” Upadhyaha, from the dissolved Team Coast. In the beginning of the Summer Split, the results of which determine the three teams that will compete at Worlds, Dignitas looked strong. After convincing victories over weak teams EG and Complexity, Dignitas pulled off a shocking upset over Cloud 9, the Season 3 and Spring Split champions. After two weeks of play, Dignitas were 5-1, good enough for first place in the NALCS. With Cloud 9 suffering from teamwork issues, and traditional second fiddle Team Solo Mid unable to beat top teams, Dignitas capitalized on a chaotic situation in the LCS to come out on top. In a postgame interview early in the season, Dignitas jungler Alberto “Crumbzz” Rengifo said “We’re not looking over our shoulder at anyone in NA. We’re looking at worlds.” At the time, it seemed plausible.

“However, the team hit hardest by the dynamic shifts has arguably been Dignitas.”

But Dignitas’ good fortunes were fleeting. In the following 4 weeks, Dignitas went on a bizarre string of 1-1 performances, winning the first game each week in convincing fashion, then losing focus in their second game and throwing leads or being crushed in lane. In the next superweek, they won their first two games and lost the next two, both on the final day of competition. This left them barely in 3rd, with little to no margin between them, 1st place Counter Logic Gaming, and 5th place Cloud 9.

Just as it looked like the confusion in the LCS would never resolve itself and we would charge into playoffs with no clue as to who would represent North America at worlds, teams seemingly remembered their expectations and began to conform to them. For the former champions Cloud 9, that meant winning 5 of 6 and skyrocketing to 2nd in the standings. Team Solo Mid controversially replaced their inexperienced support Nicholas “Gleeb” Haddad for veteran Jang-Sik “Lustboy” Ham, decisively took a game off the former leaders CLG, breaking their inability to defeat top tier teams, and solidified a place in the playoffs. Trendsetting powerhouse LMQ rose above the competition, setting up a good shot at claiming the first overall seed in the playoffs with just 4 games to play.

However, the team hit hardest by the dynamic shifts has arguably been Dignitas. In their last 8 games, they have won 1, against perpetual bottom feeders EG. The team that once appeared to be a top contender for worlds is now in doubt about whether they will even make the playoffs, as a surging Complexity Gaming and inconsistent but unpredictable Team Curse could knock them into relegations following a poor performance in the final week. In a mirror of the other teams’ returns to form, the collapse appears to be a result of reemerging issues that plagued both the old Dignitas and the now-relegated Team Coast.

“Dignitas’ lategame was not helped by their poor item choices.”

The Dignitas of yore was often jokingly nicknamed “Dignitoss”, “Dignithrow”, or “Dignitrash” for their inability to close games, take Baron Nashor at the right times, and hold on to leads. These decision making issues have yet again manifested themselves in their string of losses, especially in their disheartening Week 10 loss to Cloud 9. By 22 minutes, Dignitas led in kills 5 to 0, and had a gold advantage of nearly 4k. However, Dignitas were unable to effectively press this advantage, giving up key kills and a Baron to Cloud 9, and never successfully breaking the C9 base. Despite being ahead 4 kills, they were behind nearly 3k gold at the 40 minute mark, and could not hold out against a Cloud 9 lineup with a lategame advantage from their champion picks. Cloud 9's An “Balls” Van Le chose Mundo for the top lane, and overcame the champion’s early game deficiencies to become a nigh unkillable tank in the late game, soaking up damage from ZionSpartan’s Gragas and Shiphtur’s Xerath, and making any engagement from Alan “Kiwikid” Nguyen’s Thresh nearly impossible during Cloud 9's relentless assault on Dignitas’ base. Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi’s AD Carry pick of Tristana also worked in Cloud 9's favor, easily outscaling Qtpie’s more midgame-oriented Jinx choice.

Additionally, Dignitas’ lategame was not helped by their poor item choices, another recurring issue that their strong play early in the season may have disguised. Dignitas chose two AP-scaling casters for top and mid lane, Gragas and Xerath, yet neither of them bought a Morellonomicon (an item which reduces the healing opponents can recieve) when faced with Mundo, who relies on his enormous amounts of self healing to absorb damage. Meanwhile, Qtpie’s greedy Jinx build did the team no favors. Rather than build even a single defensive item, as Sneaky did, Qtpie opted for 6 offensive items, leaving him extremely vulnerable to Cloud 9's damage dealers. This is not a one time issue. In Dignitas’ Week 10 loss to Complexity, Qtpie once again opts for 6 offensive items, but has less of an impact on the game than his counterpart Robert “Robertxlee” Lee, who opted for a Guardian Angel, despite outcsing him by 44, a significant margin. His death in the final fight gave Complexity an opening to destroy Dignitas’ nexus. In Dignitas’ Week 7 loss to Complexity, Qtpie again opts for no defensive item, and again dies in the final fight. In that game, Dignitas were once again unable to take objectives despite a massive gold advantage. When they lost at 51 minutes, they had a 9k gold lead.

“Dignitas’ arguable weakest link, though, is their notoriously inconsistent jungler.”

An issue that plagued the old Team Coast was weak performances from jungle and bot lane costing them the game, despite strong showings from top and mid lane. Many said that Zionspartan and Shiphtur leaving Coast and joining Dignitas would alleviate this issue, but Zion and Shiphtur have, in recent weeks, stood far above Qtpie, Kiwikid, and especially Crumbzz in terms of performance. Qtpie’s inability to have an impact in the lategame has cost them sorely, while Kiwikid has sharply declined in performance through the course of the season. In Dignitas’ Week 1 defeat of Cloud 9, Kiwikid’s performance was key in the upset. His perfectly placed Zyra ults prevented Cloud 9 from winning key fights, especially the one at the Baron pit that ultimately decided the game. Now, however, he has often been seemingly invisible. In Dignitas’ Week 8 loss to LMQ, Kiwikid posted an abysmal KDA of 0/7/3 as LMQ cruised to a 25 minute victory. In their other Week 8 game, a loss to Counter Logic Gaming, Kiwi went 1/6/2, responsible for over half his team’s deaths alone. Kiwikid, who had the most deaths in the Season 3 Summer Split of any player, is once again being haunted by issues he faced in the past.

Dignitas’ arguable weakest link, though, is their notoriously inconsistent jungler, Crumbzz. As Dignitas’ team captain, many of their decision making issues may lie primarily with him. However, a string of stellar performances at the beginning of the split began to dispel the community’s doubts. His excellent Lee Sin game against Cloud 9 in Week 1 earned him the community MVP vote, and a 2/0/10 Elise game against LMQ in Week 2 did the same. In the latter half of the split, however, his weak performance has often nearly singlehandedly cost his team games. In Dignitas’ Week 7 loss to Cloud 9, Crumbzz posted a KDA of 1/7/6 on Vi, making countless mistakes and overaggressions. Despite good play by Shiphtur, Qtpie, and especially Kiwikid, Crumbzz’ mistakes ultimately lost them the close game at 40 minutes. Another poor performance was in Dignitas’ Week 9 loss to Curse. Dignitas drafted Elise for Crumbzz, along with Nidalee, Xerath, Kog’Maw, and Morgana. Every champion with the exception of Elise is generally not built very defensively, but despite this Crumbzz picked up a Haunting Guise, Spectral Wraith, Sorcerers Shoes, and a Void Staff — all offensive items. Dignitas’ paper-thin team was torn through by Curse, while Crumbzz had very little impact despite his large amounts of damage.

Crumbzz lowest moment, however, came in Dignitas’ aforementioned defeat at the hands of Cloud 9 in week 10. Dignitas came out to an early advantage, in part thanks to Crumbzz strong ganks as Rengar, but whenever the momentum started to seriously tilt in their favor Crumbzz would be caught out mid lane by several members of Cloud 9, removing Dignitas’ ability to secure any key objectives and allowing Cloud 9 a window back into the game. After two such deaths, Cloud 9 were able to take objectives for themselves, even out their gold disadvantage, and eventually win the game.

“However, all hope is not lost”

The situation right now looks dire. When other teams have been faced with heavily underperforming members, management often looks for a replacement. However, the chances of Dignitas picking up a jungler better than Crumbzz looks unlikely, and before Summer Split Playoffs nigh impossible. The hottest new name in the North American Challenger Series, where most fresh talent cultivates itself, is 27 year old veteran Brandon “Saintvicious” DiMarco, making an improbable career comeback after being benched from Curse in October 2013. His team, Curse Academy, was traditionally the main Curse organization’s farm team, but now looks poised to pick off a flatlining EG or inconsistent Complexity to join the LCS proper. As for any washed-up Korean talent that has been trickling its way into North America, the obvious choice was former CJ Entus jungler Shin “Helios” Dong-Jin, but he signed with EG to try to breathe new life into their struggling roster. As for former LCS junglers that are currently teamless, the only options seem to be Steven “Snoopeh” Ellis, and Joshua “NintendudeX” Atkins, both of which were benched from their respective teams due to suffering the same issues as Crumbzz, only to a greater degree. If Crumbzz can substantially improve his play quickly, replacement may not be necessary.

However, all hope is not lost. Just one win in the next four games guarantees Dignitas a spot in the playoffs, and in the playoffs anything is possible. In Season 2, Dignitas earned a reputation as the kings of cheese, using only-works-once strategies like 4 supports + Kog’Maw to win enough qualifier matches to enter the Season 2 World Championships. The new league-style format brought by the LCS made them normalize their playstyle, but they may still have cards up their sleeve. ZionSpartan’s once-feared Jayce may show itself during the playoffs; as the champion has fallen out of the meta, other LCS top laners will not have practiced against it. Dignitas’ hilariously successful 4 supports + Kog’Maw strategy bears a striking resemblence to today’s hypercarry and utility top oriented metagame, but they may not trust in Qtpie’s ability to win lategame fights. If they fail to qualify, however, the Dignitas we know and love’s time may have run out.