In this article, we will be taking a closer look at how Dignitas took down FlyQuest, the runner ups for the LCS 2020 Spring Split. We will be looking at the Draft Phase and distinctive game turning points that pushed the game into Dignitas' favor.

Full Game

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Draft Analysis

Bans Phase 1:

During the Drafting Phase of Dignitas vs. FlyQuest, Dignitas was on the Blue side of the map which gave them first ban and first pick of Picks and Bans Phase 1. However, FlyQuest will get first ban, first pick, and a counterpick for Picks and Bans Phase 2 since they are on Red side. The picks and bans are color coordinated and in numerical order so that you may see the strategy that goes into the Drafting Phase. Dignitas is blue and FlyQuest is red.

Dignitas first bans out the Trundle to target Santorin's jungle pool. This Jungle meta is about powerfarming because of the short camp respawn times and Trundle can farm with ease. Plus, Santorin has been exceptional on this champion.

In response, FlyQuest bans out the traditional Mid Lane champion Twisted Fate because he can really turn the tide by roaming to side lane fights or jungle skirmishes with his ultimate R: 'Destiny'. Again, this meta is very jungle-heavy and being able to provide support to your Jungler in an instant is a must. Even turning a Bot Lane 2v2 fight into a 3v2 can impact the game in a big way.

The next ban from Dignitas is Orianna. This is a target ban at PowerOfEvil, as he is good on control mages and can change a teamfight with his perfectly timed Orianna R: 'Shockwave'.

Johnson "Johnsun" Nguyen and Zaqueri "aphromoo" Black have been the most consistent players since the beginning of the split and other teams have taken notice of this. FlyQuest bans the Aphelios away from Johnsun because it is a major power pick and it is arguably his best champion. It has great teamfight carry potential due to Riot possessing “200+ collective years of professional game design experience". Ezreal and Aphelios are both very strong ADCs currently and usually teams leave Ezreal and Aphelios up for picks during the first round. One team picks Ezreal or Aphelios and the other will pick up whoever is left.

Instead of leaving the Ezreal power pick up for FlyQuest, Dignitas responds to the Aphelios ban by banning the Ezreal power pick so that no one can abuse both of those champions.

Wukong is a solid attack damge teamfighting, weakside playing monster. He can do well in his laning phase against popular Top Lane picks, such as Aatrox, and then pop off during teamfights. His mobility and allowance to activate his ultimate R: 'Cyclone' that knocks up twice is crucial for getting onto and crowd controling main targets in the back line. FlyQuest decided this as their last ban for the first round.

Picks Phase 1:

Dignitas gets the first pick and they decided to go with Varus. Before he received nerfs to his Q: 'Piercing Arrow', he was a highly desired champion to have in your team composition. Lethality Varus has fallen off and people do not fear the pick as much because of those nerfs and he is an immobile carry and that is easy to punish. Thomas 'Thinkcard' Slotkin had other ideas in mind. On-hit Varus is still viable.

For the second and third picks, FlyQuest pick up the highly sought Volibear and Kalista. Volibear is a tanky bruiser that can be flexed to Jungle or Top Lane. Volibear can easily get into the back line with his unstoppable ultimate R: 'Stormbringer' to punish that immobile Varus or set up dives by disabling the turret with his ultimate. Kalista is a very mobile ADC that is a good answer into the immobile Varus. Kalista can easily "all-in" the Varus and execute him with her E: 'Rend'.

For the fourth and fifth picks, Dignitas draft the tanky and scaling Ornn and the high DPS scaling Azir. Ornn's R: 'Call of the Forge God' is a great engage tool that can start fights off with a bang. Not only that, Ornn provides Masterwork items or "Ornnaments" that increase the stats of items his teammates or himself have bought. They provide great scaling for his team. We know that Samson "Lourlo" Jackson will perform on this champion. Azir is a good blind pick for Mid Lane and he scales very well. He can carry teamfights if put in the right hands. Those right hands belong to Jae-hun "Fenix"' Kim. He popped off during the game versus Immortals which allowed Dignitas to claim their first win of the LCS 2020 Summer Split.

For the sixth and last pick of the first round, FlyQuest picked the Sett. This champion is a great bruiser who can also get into the back line with his RKO-like ultimate R: 'The Show Stopper'. The thing that makes Sett so great is that he can also be flexed to Support, Jungle, or Top Lane. This is in hopes of baiting Dignitas into drafting an answer for the Sett in one of those positions, then moving the Sett to another position, and putting Dignitas into an unfavorable match up.

Ban Phase 2:

As I referrenced, FlyQuest gets the first ban in this round. For the first ban of the second round, FlyQuest bans Olaf away from Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett because Dardoch is known for his aggressive Jungle playstyle and this champion fits the bill.

Dignitas bans the Gangplank from Solo so that the Ornn can have a bit of an easier laning phase. The Gangplank would be able to poke the Ornn down with his Q: 'Parrrley' and effect skirmishes anywhere on the map with his R: 'Cannon Barrage'.

The next FlyQuest ban is another target ban towards Dardoch. They banned Graves from him which is another aggressive fast-clearing jungler that Dardoch popped off on during the game versus Immortals. It played a key role in that victory.

The final ban that Dignitas came up with was the Rakan ban. This is a target ban at IgNar who is known for his play making on engage supports. Rakan is arguably his best engage Support champ and Dignitas did not want him on it.

Pick Phase 2:

FlyQuest also gets the first and last pick in the second round. FlyQuest gets the counter pick of Kassadin. Kassadin can survive early levels into Azir and all in him at level 6 because of his R: 'Riftwalk'. Kassadin can close the gap and get on top of Azir and even hop over Azir's R: 'Emperor's Divide'.

In response, Dignitas picked up Lee Sin for Dardoch which is an aggressive Jungler that fits his playstyle.

Dignitas was able to pick up aphromoo's signature playmaking Thresh that will give the Varus a little bit more safety in the lane and match whatever all-in potential FlyQuest has in the Bot Lane.

For FlyQuest's last pick, they drafted the tanky engage Support Nautilus that pairs well with Kalista and fits IgNar's playstyle. Kalista can bind to her Support with her passive and use her ultimate R: 'Fate's Call' to save Nautilus or throw him into a fight. Once thrown into the fight, Nautilus can root enemies with his passive and easily target immobile back line champions like Varus with his R: 'Depth Charge'.

At the end of the draft, Sett ended up going Top Lane and Volibear was put in the Jungle.

Key Plays

(7:30-8:30)

As I stated before, FlyQuest's Kalista and Nautilus picks are supposed to run down the immobile Varus and lock him down so he is easy to kill. However, the Thresh pick from Dignitas provides Varus with great peel and safety. FlyQuest takes note of this and wants to set up a gank on the Bot Lane with the help of Solo and Santorin. Since they are both level 6 and have access to their ultimates, they possess enough crowd control to get the kill on these two laners and snowball MasH. aphromoo and Johnsun were pushed up so far in the lane that they missed the Control Ward that was in the alcove which gave Solo the perfect teleporting flank and gave Santorin the perfect opportunity to jump in the fight as well. Dardoch read this situation and pathed towards his Bot Laners to provide additional support where he ran into Santorin and the fight breaks out.

Solo ults Johnsun back into the team, but Johnsun Flashes away from the team and Solo burns his Flash to pull Johnsun back in with Sett's E: 'Facebreaker'. Dardoch manages to kick Solo away with Lee Sin's ultimate R: 'Dragon's Rage' which stalls enough time for Lourlo to finish his Teleport channel. Lourlo uses Ornn's ultimate to stall out the fight so that Fenix can join. Solo mispositions near a wall which allows Ornn to charge and knock him up. Johnsun locks down Solo with his ultimate R: 'Chains of Corruption' leading to the first kill of this extended fight.

Afterwards, Fenix ultimates to provide space between his team and FlyQuest basically secluding PowerOfEvil and allowing Dardoch to kill him as well. In this instant, MasH flashes forward and kills Johnsun and hits level 6. MasH pulls in Nautilus which leaves Santorin all alone to be solo killed by Fenix. After being overly aggressive, Mash tries to run down Fenix in the alcove, but has taken so much damage from Lourlo that Fenix finished him off. This granted him three kills and started his snowball.

(13:00 - 14:00)

At this time Johnsun, aphromoo, and Dardoch roam up the river to head towards Mid Lane. Fenix has the push all the lane because of Azir's great wave clear. Dardoch has possession of the Rift Herald. They want to drop Rift Herald in the Mid Lane to give plate gold to Fenix or maybe even get plate and first turret gold to continue Fenix's snowball. FlyQuest has vision in the river and spots them roaming. FlyQuest moves to sandwhich them in the river with PowerOfEvil, Santorin, MasH, and IgNar. However, aphromoo sees them pathing up the river and immediately turns onto them. aphromoo hooks IgNar forcing MasH to pull him out of there with his ult. aphromoo continues to chase down MasH by Flashing and Flaying him backwards. Dardoch knocks up MasH leaving him open to be burst down by Fenix and Johnsun leading to a kill for Johnsun and then turret plate and first turret gold for Dignitas.

(22:20 - 23:00)

After some small picks and turrets being taken, it came down to a fight at the Cloud Drake which could result in Dignitas' third drake or FlyQuest's second. FlyQuest had vision over Dignitas in their own jungle. It was the perfect flank setup for PowerOfEvil as that is what Kassadin wants to do. To kick off the fight IgNar flashes in and hooks Dardoch. Dardoch is instantly saved by aphromoo's lantern, but Dardoch could Safeguard to save himself. This would mean there is no lantern to save any of the carries if they were to get dogpiled onto. One thing that FlyQuest did not take into account is the amount of peel Dignitas has. aphromoo uses Thresh's ultimate R: 'The Box', which takes up almost the entire river chokepoint, to buy time for his carries to kite backwards. Meanwhile, Lourlo uses his Ornn ultimate to continue to stall for his carries by slowing FlyQuest as they come down the river chokepoint. Solo uses his ultimate on Dardoch to get closer to Fenix and Johnsun. This is where Dignitas' big brains show. Fenix immediately uses his ultimate to block off a majority of the river which makes FlyQuest have to funnel and travel a farther distance to assist PowerOfEvil and Solo who are in the back line. PowerOfEvil did not last that long, because Johnsun used his ultimate to hold him in place so that he may be damaged. Lourlo notices this and further crowd controls PowerOfEVil with his knock up. This leads to him being killed without contributing to the fight at all. Solo is quickly burst down by Dardoch and Fenix. Eventually, FlyQuest retreat up river by sacrificing the Cloud Drake and IgNar.

(26:50 - 27:50)

After Dardoch was caught invading FlyQuest's Blue Buff, he was killed by PowerOfEvil resulting in FlyQuest making the call to take Baron while Dignitas' Jungler was down. Dignitas would have to contest the Baron or risk the game dragging on and letting PowerOfEvil scale on the Kassadin. With only four, Dignitas go to the Baron pit to contest. PowerOfEvil has the perfect flank to give get onto the back line and IgNar engages onto Lourlo to buy time for MasH, Santorin, and Solo to burn down the Baron. As you see the fight break out, there seems to be a sense of miscommunication. MasH and Santorin are burning down the Baron and Solo is called to help stall the fight.

It would be a better decision for all of FlyQuest to pull the trigger and turn on Dignitas. However, Lourlo lines up his ultimate onto Solo and IgNar. Dignitas is able to kill IgNar to even the odds a bit. Solo attempts to RKO Lourlo back into the team to get closer to Fenix, but a perfectly timed W: 'Bellows Breath' makes him unstoppable. Solo is still able to get to Fenix and PowerOfEvil completes his flank and gets onto Fenix as well. Fenix, very low on health, uses his ultimate to shove back Solo and then dashes to him to finish him off with E: 'Shifting Sands'. PowerOfEvil is unable to keep up with this mobility and is burst down by Johnsun. All the while, MasH and Santorin are still trying to burn the Baron.

At the last second, FlyQuest is able to secure the Baron with MasH falling and Santorin being the only surviving member. With the majority of FlyQuest dead, Dignitas marches it down Mid Lane and destroys the Nexus to win the second game of their Summer Split lasting only 28 minutes.

Conclusion

From the beginning, Dignitas knew exactly what they wanted to do. They played towards their win conditions perfectly. They wanted to snowball the Fenix's Azir and keep the Kassadin shutdown so that they may end the game early instead of letting him scale. If they were unable to, they had the insurance of Azir's own scaling, the Ornnaments, and Varus scaling. They wanted the aphromoo's Thresh to keep the Johnsun's Varus safe so that the enemy Bot Lane could not kill Varus and snowball due to their better crowd control and mobility. Lourlo set up perfect engages and stalled out fights when needed with his Ornn ultimate. All around Dignitas had better communication, better understanding of their win conditions, and had superior teamfighting.