This past weekend marked the start of the Mid-Season Brawl, a 2-week long tournament that showcases the best of each region competing in HGC Leagues. The first part of this event was the Group Stage, a round-robin between 6 teams that decided the seeding for the Playoffs Bracket. During the Group Stage, Team Dignitas faced many tough opponents, ranging from all over the world.

One of the most exciting, nail-biting, and seemingly impossible to win games was when Team Dignitas first took on the mighty L5. Part of the top in their region, and winner of last year’s BlizzCon, L5 were one of two Korean teams who were expected to win the whole Mid-Season Brawl. Going into the match, Team Dignitas had previously lost their first series against the Chinese team, eStar, causing doubts as to whether Team Dignitas could do well in the tournament. But, Team Dignitas thwarted any plans L5 had for an easy win with the most amazing comeback in a 26 minute game on Battlefield of Eternity. We’re going to look at how the team was able to pull off such an amazing feat and why it was so important for them going into the rest of the Mid-Season Brawl.

A key part of the success in Game 1 was the fact that Team Dignitas were given what they wanted in the drafting phase. They were able to pick up many of their favourite heroes, such as Anub’arak for Jérôme "JayPL" Trinh and Arthas for Kenn "Zaelia" Rasmussen. These two heroes always offer a lot of crowd-control, providing set-ups for team fights as well as offering aid if the team needs to escape a tough situation. Joshua "Snitch" Bennett was able to play his trusty Greymane, an excellent hero for bursting down the Immortal during objective phase and for providing a great follow-up to a crowd-control chain. Thomas "Mene" Cailleux was given Li-Ming, a mage that is perfect for burst follow-ups, and James "Bakery" Baker was able to play his specialty, Kharazim. Bakery alone on Kharazim can make outstanding plays, as being on an aggressive support allows him to surprise enemies with a flurry of fists if they attempt to escape the team fight.

For most of the game, Team Dignitas were behind. L5 made use of their two global heroes, Falstad and Dehaka, while being able to poke down their Immortals. Even with the superb Immortal burst potential from Greymane and Kharazim, L5 won most of the objects in the game and destroyed all of Team Dignitas’ structures, except for the core. This lead in experience allowed L5 to keep the advantage, and Team Dignitas was struggling at a 20-17 level disadvantage. With this advantage, L5 used the harassment and poke from Genji to secure kills and put Team Dignitas in a very tough situation.

The turning point seemed to be when Team Dignitas were able to defend the constant pressure on their core by sending their quickest lane clear hero, Greymane, back to defend. The rest of the team postured around the objective area, waiting for Genji’s rotations and picking him off when they could. While defending the core, Snitch was even able to pick off the enemy Falstad who stayed too long trying to create pressure. This was one a many fatal mistake L5 made in underestimating Team Dignitas and the comeback mechanics available in Heroes of the Storm. Team Dignitas slowly pushed their way to 20, capitalizing on L5’s missteps and making sure to keep soaking and defending their core from catapults. The team was able to start being more aggressive, and with L5’s confidence wavering, the stun and burst composition from Team Dignitas finally started to come online.

The final team fights of the game highlighted the impressive ability of Team Dignitas to execute perfect shot-calling and perfect responses to L5’s misplays. Hanging around the objective, Mene was constantly poking to get damage onto L5’s Immortal. L5 attempted to go for the core with Falstad and Genji, but Snitch was there with Bakery and JayPL. Two separate team fights go down, one where Mene and Zaelia are able to take down Dehaka at the objective, and the other where JayPL takes down Falstad and Cocoons Genji, who eventually escapes. The remaining members of both teams meet in the bottom lane at L5’s Fort and Team Dignitas are able to stun lock Muradin and take him down. Instead of pushing, Team Dignitas go to finish off L5’s Immortal. They then group up in the bottom lane to wait for their Immortal, but when Genji steps out too far from his fort, Team Dignitas takes him out quickly, along with the fort. Meanwhile, Dehaka pushed minions in the top lane towards Team Dignitas’ Core, but Snitch was there to defend against the catapults. Amazingly, as the Immortal pushed on L5’s keep, Bakery and Mene took down Falstad with the help of JayPL's Anub'arak stuns. Their Immortal has nearly full health as it finishes the keep. Before Greymane can even show up at the core, Team Dignitas stuns out Malfurion, killing him and then picking off a defenseless Dehaka. These last two kills allow Team Dignitas to push right onto the core, bursting it down quickly with the help of the Immortal. They take the first game against L5 and set the pace for the rest of their games in the Group Stage of the Mid-Season Brawl.

This win reassured everyone that Team Dignitas were true contenders at the Mid-Season Brawl. They win their series against L5, 2-0, and also win a later tiebreaker against them to secure 2nd place in the Group Stage. To be able to come back from such an impossible situation and make all the right calls to take down a giant such as L5 is truly impressive. The confidence this provided the team allowed them to reach their highest potential to date, and hopefully, it can only go up from here. But the real lesson of this game is to not give Team Dignitas what they want in the draft because they always have the potential to upset in the late game. Never underestimate Team Dignitas!