Over the course of this tournament, the battle between Dignitas and Ballistix has been extremely close. Dignitas convincingly took their battle in the group stage, but their rematch in the upper bracket came down to a late core attempt in the final game. This time, Dignitas stands as the lone Western hope against the first of two potential Korean foes. Once again, both teams would be tested to their very limits.Before getting into the recap, two quick notes. First, the Grand Finals will be a separate article coming later today once I have a chance to watch those games. Yes it was a quick series but there are still some things to discuss and take away leading into the 2018 season. Second, if you haven't, please go check out my new YouTube show, Entry Level Esports . We really want as much feedback on it as possible. Everyone good? Cool. Recap time!Game 1 sent the teams to Infernal Shrines where Ballistix pulled out a very surprising solo healer Malfurion. Malf had been all but forgotten for most of the tournament, but Ballistix had a game plan. Throughout most of the game, that plan worked pretty well. They controlled the pace through the first several shrines, utilizing Leoric to get huge advantages, and even found a few pickoffs in the side lanes. With solid lockdown and great follow-up from Gul'dan, they jumped out to an almost 2-level lead. However, Dignitas came into this series ready to fight, and seized the opportunity near the end of the game. The most impressive part of this fight was POILK's spacing during the cleanup. He was on a pixel of health and managed to stay just out of range of every living Ballistix member, while still close enough to provide damage and keep the enemy interested in trying to take him down.Sadly for EU fans, Dignitas would face an all-too familiar scenario. With a punisher pushing and a few kills in their pocket, they went for the core to close out the game. As if scripted by some outside force, probably Kaelaris, Dig were wiped with 10% remaining on the core. With death timers so long, three members of Ballistix were enough to march all the way across the map and erase Dignitas' core. Truly, Heroes of the Storm is a cruel mistress. Last thing that needs to be said here is the superb heads up play by Ballistix to keep the Punisher focused on attacking the mid keep instead of punching the core. Without that small optimization, Dig wins this game for free.The next game went to Dragon Shire, where we saw an interesting counter strategy from Dignitas. They allowed Ballistix to take a late Tassadar/Tracer and tried to counter it with Abathur/Genji/Stitches, hoping that the double Genji would be enough to explode an isolated target, and give them a strong late game advantage. Unfortunately, Zaelia chose this game to remind the world that he's only been playing support for three weeks. His Uther was consistently caught out of position, providing multiple early kills and a structure lead to Ballistix. With such a level deficit, Dignitas could never bring their Abathur composition online. In the end they forced a desperation fight with a composition that needed advantage to win fights, lost everyone, and Ballistix took the core going up 2-0 in the series.With their back against the wall, Dignitas faced elimination on Sky Temple and decided to rest all their hopes on their rising star, POILK. Drafting a Tassadar/Tracer composition, Dignitas set themselves up to get kills early and often. However, the early and mid-game were extremely passive with multiple temple phases passing without a kill on either side. Dignitas were content to content to use POILK's Tracer to create pressure so that they could safely push structures and focus entirely on having lane pressure against Ballistix.This strategy worked perfectly. Eventually, ScSc on Greymane stepped out a bit too far to push a lane and JayPL's Anub'arak pounced. Landing Cocoon just to allow the rest of the team time to collapse, Dig forced a teamfight and won it handily. With that advantage, bottom temple cleaned out the rest of the forts, and the team took the boss for free. Determined not to repeat the mistakes of the first game, they prepped the bottom keep for an easy kill, leaving plenty of health on the boss. With mobile heroes, plenty of defensive tools, and a healthy boss, they jumped fully onto the core and quickly took the game.Now with strong momentum in their favor, Dignitas draft themselves a bloodthirsty composition. With Gul'dan and Greymane in the backline they put Garrosh and Arthas in the front and go hunt for kills. Narrow escapes and solid kills fill the early game as Dignitas jump out to an early lead. Then, disaster strikes when JayPL flips Malfurion into the team. In the half-second before the followup lands, Malf lands a perfect Twilight Dream. Ballistix pile on the damage, and their double reset composition goes off in a heartbeat. From there they take a boss, catch up in experience, and secure a turn in. The game is back to even, but Dignitas are simply playing too well. Surprise flips, picture perfect followup roots, and a few pixel-perfect corruptions from Gul'dan are enough to give Dignitas an easy boss that just walks through the top lane to shred through the core and put us in a Game 5 situation.Finally, the last possible game of the series arrives on Cursed Hollow. In the draft, Dignitas make sure to deny Ballistix their beloved double reset composition. Still, Ballistix have enough faith in their Genji to find an early pick on POILK and collect the first tribute for free, and follow up with a clean fight to get their second tribute. The next move has to be seen to be believed. Dig take a huge risk by sneaking their boss as the third tribute spawns. Muradin is late on the rotation allowing Dig to commit to a fight. A fortunate boss stun and Snitch barely escaping allow Dig to secure the boss and clean up three kills, but in the enusing bloodbath Genji resets on four members of Dignitas. The European squad get the boss, but Ballistix have the curse.The story of the midgame hinges on some terrible Tyrael play by Jeongha. At the next tribute fight his Sanctification gets zero value, allowing Dig to clean up an easy fight, and then they catch him all alone in the mid game netting a tribute and a boss from that advantage. Advantages continue to trade back and forth, but Dignitas manage to hold a terrifying core push in the bottom lane and end up getting 20 first. In perfect poetry, Tyrael is caught out once again allowing a 20-advantaged Dig to clean up the rest of Ballistix, march to the core, and head to the Grand Finals.The final game is perhaps one of the most frustrating losses Ballistix will ever face. Jeongha is among the best players in the world, a truly elite talent. However, his Tyrael in this game is nothing short of amateurish. That said, the game could have turned on Dignitas' early boss attempt. Without the stun from the boss, Dignitas don't clean up those first kills. Had Snitch died, ScSc's Genji would have gotten a reset and quickly eliminated JayPL. From there Ballistix would have had a boss and a curse in the early game with 3-4 heroes dead on the enemy team. That advantage could have easily snowballed the game and we would have seen a Korea vs Korea grand finals. Instead, the ball bounces in favor of Dignitas, they execute well in the rest of the game, Jeongha throws a bit, and Dig secure the game and the series.