If Season 1 was the birth of competitive League of Legends then Season 2 was its coming of age ceremony. In Season 2 there was an unbreakable triangle of power in North America between Team SoloMid, CLG and Team Dignitas. While TSM stood at the front, Team Dignitas and CLG were both domestically respected teams with a reputation for innovative strategies and thinking outside the box (back then TSM's strategies were just 'Whatever Moscow 5 is doing'). North American fans were either fans of TSM, CLG or Dig (with the ever so occasional Curse fan, mostly anti CLG fans).

Fast forward to the present and Dignitas have fared far worse than their former rivals on TSM and CLG, and it doesn't look set to improve this year either. Many analysts, experts and voices in the community are predicting a 6th to 8th finish for the team and I'm inclined to agree. When you compare the rosters of Dignitas, CLG and TSM it's hard to argue that Dignitas stack up well. But it wasn't always this way, so what changed?

Comparing TSM, CLG and Dignitas LCS results to date, bold indicates playoffs

TSM

Season 3: 1st, 1st, 3rd, 2nd

Season 4: 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st

Season 5: 1st, 1st, 5th, 2nd

Dig

Season 3: 3rd, 5th, 5th, 4th

Season 4: 4th, 5th, 6th, 5th

Season 5: 9th, NA, 6th, 5th

CLG

Season 3: 4th, 6th, 6th, 5th

Season 4: 3rd, 3rd, 5th, 6th

Season 5: 3rd, 5th, 2nd, 1st

TSM's average LCS placing is 2nd

Dignitas' average LCS placing is 5th

CLG's average LCS placing is 4th

What is the point in these numbers? I want to showcase how, while CLG might've caused more drama, Dig have actually performed worse over the history of the LCS. Also CLG mostly pulled it together for Season 5 and made a second World Championships, something Dignitas haven't managed. TSM's domestic record is, as expected, impressive (only really surpassed by Fnatic's record in Europe).

The examination of CLG's 'under-performance' is something that has been done to death since the LCS began. I still maintain that L1nk's inability to perform in playoffs but, as I am an outsider, I can not be sure. I can say that once he was swapped out CLG went on to have by far their greatest split, but correlation does not equal causation.

With regards to Team Dignitas, I don't believe there has been any failings from the top level. I know that Dignitas pays excellent salaries, that it's always tried to provide the best possible infrastructure and environment to it's players, and I don't know of any player who's had a bad word to say about the organisation. I think the reason for Dignitas's shortcomings is down to middle management.

At the end of Season 3 Dignitas's roster looked like this:

Cruzer - Crumbzz - Scarra - Imaqtpie - KiWiKiD

Season 4 is famous for being the year that we saw imports really take off in North America. Teams were slow to acquire them at first, preferring to use them to fill the gaps that their NA resident players couldn't. Before the split began TSM recruited Bjergsen to replace Reginald, and CLG recruited Dexter to fill their longstanding and problematic jungle spot. I'm not going to say that all Dignitas should've done was recruit a crazy amount of imports because we have to be reasonable in our analysis, but I would've liked to see Dignitas recruit a toplaner and possibly a support player from Europe. Dignitas themselves admitted they weren't completely confident in Cruzer's play and that 'he was just the best performer in our tryouts'.

I will admit that, at the time, none of the toplaners in Europe that were feasibly available were particularly inspiring. Zorozero was contracted to Ninjas in Pyjamas. The move to NA would've no real sense from sOAZ or Wickd (the 2 best toplaners in the LCS at that time), and there was an issue with Jwaow's contract with TCM (that's what caused him to get passed up by Alliance). I do know that this is the time that Odoamne became active in the competitive season, but recruiting a complete rookie European player is far too large of a risk. Kev1n would've been a good and viable pickup for Dignitas at the time, as he was highly respected and had left SK Gaming for NiP, which he left when Bjergsen departed to join TSM (he later joined ALTERNATE/Millenium). Kerp was another option, though I don't believe Kerp was the kind of player who would've wanted to play in Europe.

The Spring Split of Season 4 was pretty much a disaster from Dignitas (excluding one win over Cloud 9), especially when you consider that this split was incredibly top heavy. TSM and Cloud 9 were uncontested at the top, CLG was a firm 3rd place and everyone else pretty much fought for scraps. At one point Dignitas tried to sub out Scarra for Goldenglue (seen as an NA talent) but switched back for the playoffs. Dignitas narrowly avoided having to play in relegation for a second time, but with a 4th place regular season finish and a 5th place playoff finish, it's clear that something had to change. Individually, Dignitas did not stack up well compared to TSM or CLG.

The big problems on Dignitas were Cruzer, Scarra and KiWiKiD. Cruzer was an uninspiring tank player who had no clue how to use teleport and Scarra had completely fallen off as a midlaner by this point in time. While Scarra's laning was still good his teamfighting, champion pool and playmaking left a lot to be desired. If you compared these players to Quas, Dyrus, Balls, Bjergsen or Pobelter then neither Cruzer or Scarra came out looking good.

Dignitas themselves realized this when they decided to recruit Darshan (then called Zion) and Shiphtur from Coast. Both were fan favorites and highly praised NA prospects seen as great players on a poor team. It's easy to say this in hindsight, but I felt like the only person who didn't rate either of them. I thought Darshan's 1v1 laning to be acceptable but his teamfighting and ability to deal with jungle pressure to be pretty poor. As a matter of fact, he only really went part of the way to fixing his 1v1 laning this split. Shiphtur was an extremely passive midlaner who relied on wave clear champions, I find it extremely frustrating to watch Shiphtur because he takes virtually no risks (therefore making no real plays), itemizes poorly at times, misses skillshots constantly and lanes poorly. Regardless, Dignitas paid the (extremely high) buyouts on Darshan and Shiphtur's contracts and kept the rest of the roster the same.

I consider this one of the worst roster changes in the history of the NA LCS, especially when you look at the amount that was spent. I believe that Dignitas should've looked to recruit Europeans in that moment instead. For toplane, Dignitas could've snapped up Odoamne, who'd just come off a failed LCS bid with C9 Tempest, and Nukeduck for midlane (who I know expressed an interest in playing in the NA LCS). Even if Dignitas decided to not go with one of these specific players, I do believe that Bjergsen's domination of the NA LCS should've been enough indication that an imported midlaner was a good idea. Alex Ich was a free agent in this time period, he was also still very much in his prime as a world class midlaner and team captain. Recruiting Nukeduck would've also been good for the narrative; it would've been easy to market him as Bjergsen's rival and, given some mentoring, might not have gotten banned for 8 months.

But regardless, Dignitas's roster going into the Season 4 Summer Split looked like this:

Darshan - Crumbzz - Shiphtur - Imaqtpie - KiWiKiD

The Summer Split started out well for Dignitas. Many people were citing them as the best team in NA and excitingly speculating how they would do vs. elite Korean teams. After week 3 Dignitas started going 1 - 1 and then very quickly found themselves losing more games than they won. They finished the regular season in 6th place, barely managing to make the playoffs. After being thrown aside by TSM (3 - 1), they managed to avoid relegation thanks to CLG's choking and finished the playoffs in 5th place.

During the off season, Darshan and their sort-of-coach Scarra were poached by CLG and Imaqtpie retired. Dignitas reached out to Joyluck (the Korean analyst and agent who recommended Huni and Reignover for Fnatic amoung other things) and recruited the Korean players Gamsu and CoreJJ for toplane and ADC respectively.

Gamsu - Crumbzz - Shiphtur - CoreJJ - KiWiKiD

There are many ways to build an LCS team, but if I was to build an NA LCS team the first thing I would do is look at my residents and which residents are available. Teams that imported in Season 5, providing their import was good, had a massive advantage over teams that didn't. Bjergsen wand XiaoWeiXiao were the uncontested best midlaners in NA and both counted as residents. This meant that both TiP and TSM had the option to recruit 2 additional imports. Had Dignitas gone with my earlier suggestion then they too would find themselves in this enviable situation (assuming the European imports had decided to stay).

When I look at Dignitas's residents, I realize where the issue is. Compared to other regions, there aren't many elite level NA resident players, but there are good players in NA. KiWiKiD isn't as bad as some people make out, but when you consider that Adrian, Remelia and BunnyFuFu both came up in the last 2 years, you have to ask what's going on with Dignitas's NA talent scouting? With Crumbzz' mid split departure from Dignitas, their roster's domestic talent suffered even more as they became forced to use Inori, Azingy and Helios (all junglers who left a lot to be desired).

It's an indisputable fact that NA is lacking midlane talent. In Season 6 there are just 2 domestic NA midlaners; 1 of them is Shiphtur. Pobelter is a serviceable midlaner, but he struggled against KurO when CLG played the Tigers, and Tiger's signing a second midlaner says a lot about their confidence in KurO. Shiphtur is a bottom 3 midlaner in NA LCS and I don't believe he's going to drastically improve any time soon (which is what he needs to do).

I think Dignitas's decision to reach out to Joyluck, the same Korean analyst and agent that Fnatic used to recruit Huni and Reignover, was a very good decision. The problem is the foundation for any NA LCS team is it's residents players, and it wouldn't really matter who Dignitas imported because its foundation was so weak. Gamsu and CoreJJ are both good players, but they struggled on Team Dignitas. CoreJJ had, for whatever reason, the lowest gold share of any LCS ADC, but ranked mid table in terms of average damage dealt. Gamsu, conversely, had the highest gold share of any LCS toplaner, but relatively low damage dealt; however, looking at Gamsu's play on Fnatic at IEM Cologne, I have to question if this was a playstyle shift due to a lack of trust in his team mates.

In terms of performance, this Dignitas lineup was the worst it's ever had. Narrowly avoiding relegation vs. Fusion, they scraped into playoffs before losing 0 - 3 to TiP (a team that went on to lose 0 - 3 to CLG).

So after another disappointing year, Dignitas's roster currently looks like this:

SmittyJ - Kirei - Shiphtur - Apollo - KiWiKiD

When I first saw this roster I didn't think it was too bad (aside from the decision to keep using Shiphtur and KiWiKiD), but after thinking about it I have one big problem: Who is the star player on this lineup? Who is the primary carry? When Apollo is at his best is when he's a supportive ADC -- a facilitator for other team mates. His most iconic champion for me is Sivir -- not exactly a hyper carry. The responsibility has to fall on SmittyJ -- a rookie. What happens when the meta shifts to a tank meta? A team needs multiple threats to be successful in the long term. There's no room to maneuver on this Dignitas lineup. Kirei is a strong pickup, but I don't think it's enough.

If I was Dignitas I probably would've recruited Lourlo or Zig for toplane before TL got to them. Dexter is a free agent, NA resident and actually had a pretty good split on Elements all things considered. For a midlaner I would've looked to recruit Froggen or Kori, both of whom are capable of being a star player in the NA LCS and both were a free agent in the off season. Keeping Apollo, I would've looked abroad for a support player. Perhaps Hybrid or Hiiva.

In summary, it's both Dignitas's refusal to use imports and their seemingly non existent NA talent scouting which hurt them as a team. In Season 5, the team paid the price for this mistake by not having the resident talent to give their imports the chance to shine, and this doesn't look like it's going to change in Season 6. I hope Team Dignitas perform well, but all it is, is hope.

The author typically covers Korean League of Legends but dabbles elsewhere. If you enjoyed this article, follow him at @Gosickboy_.