Team Dignitas

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Dignitas at DreamHack Winter 2012 with Sneyking in the foreground

Achievement

The Players

Fogged

waytosexy

Aui_2000

Sneyking

Universe

Ok.Nirvana.Int

It's GoSu

Evil Geniuses

Strategy

Predictions for the International

An image of Dignitas bootcamp facilities.

Photo courtesy of Team Dignitas.

Na`Vi

Previous Team Presentations

How far do you think Team Dignitas will reach at this years International?

Before they were known as Team Dignitas, we knew them as the second new team to rise up from the North American Dota 2 scene, PotM Bottom. The initial core was made up ofIoannis '' Loucas,Peter '' Nguyen andJingJun '' Wu, who tried out various North American players includingHarrison '' Chang before settling onKurtis '' Ling andDrew '' Biessener.They first made themselves known by taking out some small cups such as joinDOTA Open #3 and The Arena #3 in July of 2012, as soon made big headlines by winning $10,000 in the ProDota2 World League in early August.By September of 2012 Dignitas were prepared to pick up another Dota 2 roster having let go of their Romanian squad in May of the same year. The team however had a rough time of the tail end of the year, as they had issues practicing during European hours due to Sneyking's obligations regarding school, which caused him to leave the team on the 29th of December.Saahil '' Arora a week later, which kept the team going for a few more months, although by late March they had hit another rough patch. At this point TidesOfTime chose to retire, citing motivational issues involving his support role and allowing for Sneyking to return to the team, this time as their solo mid as Universe had taken up his formed spot, prompting Fogged to move down to support.The team regained their form for a while with this setup, carrying them through the spring and early summer and earning them their first ever invite to the International as a team. Their results have been somewhat stable up until their 3rd-4th placement at, which was followed a few weeks later by their bootcamp.1st Place -- 500€ (as PotM Bottom)1st Place -- $1,000 (as PotM Bottom)1st Place -- $10,000 (as PotM Bottom)2nd Place -@Paris, France - $8,0003rd Place -- $3,0003rd Place -- $1,0003rd Place -- $3,5001st Place -- $4,0002nd Place -- $3,0002nd Place -- $1,5002nd Place -- $3,0003rd-4th Place -- 25,000 SEK (~$3,850)(Captain)Signature heroes: :d2_thd: Fogged is the unassuming Captain of Team Dignitas, who focuses mostly on being a leadership figure outside of the game, leaving waytosexy to sit in the drafter's seat and handle the in-game shot-calling as well as much of the development of new strategies.While he came to Dota 2 through HoN, he has a past with Wc3 DotA before that, playing in minor teams which would participate in theorganized by. His time in Hon was much the same, not quite breaking through or joining a big name team, which means that his entire competitive career has been spent playing together with this same group of guys in Dota 2.Some may not remember this, but Fogged was one of the big reasons the team originally got noticed, playing an exceptional solo mid Invoker back in the day. However, when Sneyking returned to the team in April, Fogged moved over to the hard support role, where he's made his home since. He has played a lot of Jakiro, Shadow Shaman and Rubick, heroes which fit well into Dignitas fairly greedy style and which have a good combination of teamfight ability and pushing power. However, more recently he's begun playing a lot of Nyx Assassin, as the team looks to be a bit more aggressive.Signature heroes: :d2_visage: waytosexy's journey has been much the same as Fogged's, playing in minor teams in Wc3 DotA before moving on to HoN and then returning along with PotM Bottom to Dota 2. He creates a lot of the teams strategies, calls the shots in game from his perch as the 4 position as many in-game captains are and holds the drafter seat, although Dignitas tends to draft as a team above all else.He has a self-discribed aggressive bent, which is surprising for a team which has built much of their reputation around fairly lategame orientated lineups. He is also the teams default jungler and handles most of the more micro-intensive heroes such as Visage and Chen. He also plays a lot of pushing heroes, having quite a few Shadow Shaman and Leshrac games to his name.Signature heroes: :d2_morph: Aui played StarCraft 2 before moving over to Dota (his name is an alteration of Aiur, the Protoss homeworld), bringing with him a very mathematical view of the game. He quickly gained recognition in Dota 2 for his outspoken views and detailed explanations for why he preferred certain item and skill builds on certain heroes. He has contributed a lot to the downfall of Vanguard on ranged heroes in favour of Mekansm, helped create the Mjollnir and later the Armlet builds on Lone Druid and is a great proponent of the casual Yasha on most farming carries.Aui's playstyle is rather farm heavy, as he mostly plays carries with a later game orientation. He is a big fan of Morphling and has been one of the more active people to try and play that hero after it got nerfed following the second International. He also plays a lot of Gyrocopter and is a bit of a rarity in trying to find niches for the hard carry Tiny, among others utilizing it in the lategame against Phantom Lancer, another hero he plays quite often. He also plays a solid split-pushing Naga Siren, a hero which has been fairly popular in various positions especially among the American teams for a few months now.Signature heroes: :d2_lanaya: Sneyking is the youngest player on the team, having only recently turned 18. He had some experience playing Wc3 DotA before starting up with HoN, but most of his time playing DotA-style games prior to Dota 2 was in HoN, where he met up with Fogged and waytosexy. Coming over to Dota 2, Sneyking initially played the offlane for the team, but after departing due to his school obligations interfering with his ability to practice with the team back just before the New Year, when he came back three months later he instead switched to a solo mid role.As a solo mid, Sneyking has quickly gained a reputation for his high aggressions style, in particular making the Templar Assassin one of his trademark heroes. He also plays a considerable amount of Queen of Pain and Puck, strong ganking heroes with great teamfight utility, although the Puck seems to favour him more in terms of securing him victories. He is a strong laner and one of the playmakers for his team.Signature heroes: :d2_ds: Universe hails back to Wc3 DotA, although his first appearance on a major team was with, with whom he attended the first International, even though he did not get a chance to play for the team. After the International, Univerce joined up with, with whom he stayed until he got a chance to join, with whom he attended the second International, where he placed 9th-12th.After the second International there were some major shake-up's in the EG roster which left Universe without a team, even though he had been one of the strongest links of the teams. He did not commit to another team until January of 2013, when Sneyking's departure allowed him to return to the offlane, after having played support in EG. Upon joining Dignitas he said it was a natural choice, as he was friends with Fogged and had spent time playing together with him casually.For Dignitas Universe has been that rock solid offlaner every team hopes to have, playing a great Dark Seer which works wonderfuly together with their greedy Clockwerk support. He also played a strong Lifestealer and a very good Weaver, allowing for either being the carry on offensive trilanes or the safelane solo as is needed.Dignitas does have penchant for playing greedy Dota, which they make work by being one of the best reactrive teams, always quick on the teleports in order to re-inforce towers against pushes or to help turn fights around. By being active in terms of moving their forces around the map they open it up for their style of play and allow them to force the game later, where their lineup will be stronger.They do however also have the back-up of aggression, spearheaded by Sneyking when he gets a initiation hero. If this is not the case the team's response to aggression has tended to be split-pushing with Aui_2000 leading the way. In either case the team tends to prefer multiple cores over a single focal point for their farm, as it makes them harder to shut down.Dignitas enjoys playing heroes with strong teamfight presence and heroes which come alive in the mid game as this allows them to control the flow of the game as long as they can make it out of the early game fairly intact. They've also played around with lineups which capitalize on the infamy of their carry played in order to bait attention his way, which frees up players such as Universe and Sneyking, who are far more active on the map to do their thing while Aui makes his comeback in the mid game.Let's face it, since the start of their bootcamp, just shy of three weeks ago, Dignitas has been in a slump. This complicates things a fair bit in terms of figuring out where they'll end up; and it all depends on why they're slumping.There are a few different reasons why a team might hit a slump, and they have different implications. A team might get worse due to a lack of practice, in which case they are in a rough spot. This is unlikely to be the reason for Dignitas, as this would have shown itself before the bootcamp started. They might be trying out new things, sacrificing current performance in order to achieve better results later. This already sounds more plausible, and there are certain shifts such as Aui playing more Lifestealer which used to be a Universe hero while Sneyking has played less frontline gankers, which are normally his strong suit, but likely not quite enough to explain it all.It's likely that it's a mix of Dignitas trying to stretch their wings a bit at the same time as the other teams who've played against them extensively are figuring out how to deal with their greedy reactive style of play. This is also fairly good news for Dignitas fans, as their older style may still work against teams which are not familiar playing against it, i.e. half of the teams at TI3, while if they get some new stuff going as well before the competition, they may have a well rounded ability to face off with most of the teams present.It's not an easy road to travel, and it's going to take hard work and things falling into place, but if you have to go through a slump before TI3, you'd want it to be at least a month before, so that you have the time needed to work things out in time. After all, at their best they are a team that has beatenon LAN, just a month past at DreamHack Summer