It wasn’t easy by a long-shot, but Team Dignitas fought hard and valiantly to become three-time IEM Katowice Champions. After their surprisingly positive showing at GCWC at the end of 2017, the team seemed destined for great international success. They ended HGC Phase 1 Part 1 with an expectedly good 6-1 W-L record, only having lost to Zealots in a very close series. The pressure was on heading into the Western Clash, but Team Dignitas showcased their prowess and proved why many believed they would return to be the champions once again. Let’s dive into each series and see how Team Dignitas implemented their strategies for success.

TEAM DIGNITAS VS HEROESHEARTH

The first series of the Western Clash was against HeroesHearth, the 4th seed from North America. Team Dignitas took the first game with a comfortable composition featuring Malfurion, Tracer, Dehaka, Johanna, and Junkrat. The team are fond of running Tracer with the Malfurion support in this current meta and they also believe that Junkrat is a secret strong pick in many situations.

In Game 2, HeroesHearth brought out the heat by picking up Blaze and Tyrael, two popular Warrior choices for Team Dignitas. Along with some fantastic Thrall play from Taylor “Arthelon” Eder and forcing Team Dignitas into a difficult draft, HeroesHearth caught Team Dignitas off-guard. After a bad core call by Team Dignitas, HeroesHearth raced across the battleground to attempt to take down the Team Dignitas core. Even with the superb defence from Team Dignitas, HeroesHearth were able to get the last 6% of core health with a final Tyrael trait explosion.

In Game 3 Team Dignitas prioritized their go-to combo of Malfurion and Tracer. With Vilhelm “POILK” Flennmark on his trusted Li-Ming and Joshua “Snitch” Bennett on Tracer, Team Dignitas fought back with vengeance and dominated HeroesHearth. Team Dignitas won the game with a 3 Level lead and outnumbered HeroesHearth takedowns 11-2. Team Dignitas moved on in the Upper Bracket to face Team Twelve in a best-of-five.

TEAM DIGNITAS VS TEAM TWELVE

In the first game, Team Dignitas was able to get a very comfortable draft. Even with Team Twelve banning out the favourite Malfurion, Team Dignitas picked up Tracer with both Tyrael and Uther to provide support. Team Twelve had strong picks with Blaze, Greymane and Rehgar, but Team Dignitas had a much stronger battleground macro on Dragon Shire and took the first game.

Learning from their mistakes, Team Twelve banned out Tracer in the second game. They pick up Maiev and Junkrat, who together brought way too much damage and chaos for Team Dignitas to deal with. Game 2 went to Team Twelve although it was close. Game 3 was the first Maiev pick for Team Dignitas with Snitch unleashing the fury of the Warden. It was a relatively low kill game and Team Dignitas had once again a better macro strategy and kept dominance on the battleground to get the win.

Team Twelve went back to their roots in Game 4 with their Diablo, Greymane, Stukov, Medivh, and Ragnaros composition. Diablo player Justin “Justing” Gapp is hailed as the best Diablo in NA, but even their most comfortable composition did not help them against the strength of Team Dignitas. Kenn “Zaelia” Rasmussen’s Malfurion play was spot on in this game, as he was involved with every kill and had on-point Entangling Roots. Again, macro control on the battleground was heavily commanded by Team Dignitas with great timings on their camp rotations and getting in extra soak during the objectives even while zoning Team Twelve off of the objective areas. Team Dignitas won Game 4 with a 3 level lead and moved on to face North America’s last hope, Tempo Storm.

TEAM DIGNITAS VS TEMPO STORM

In Game 1, Tempo Storm drafted an aggressive Kerrigan composition which Team Dignitas were very careful to respect. Team Dignitas drafted a comfort composition that also had many heroes that countered the CC heavy Tempo Storm draft. Tracer had great damage and escape abilities, Rehgar and Tyrael provided Cleanse and Sanctification, Junkrat for the constant poke and disruption of Kerrigan combos, and Blaze for the solo-lane and Bunker to escape from Tempo Storm engages. Team Dignitas played the macro very carefully to avoid letting Kerrigan get value from early game kills. It seemed that no matter how well Tempo Storm used their ultimates, they could not defend against the Team Dignitas push with the objective.

Tempo Storm banned Tracer and Genji in Game 2 in hopes to deny some play-making picks for POILK and Snitch, but they learned that it’s very difficult to deny any member of Team Dignitas a Hero they won’t be comfortable on. POILK picked up Li-Ming and had an insane game. Twice he was able to pull off the incredibly difficult Li-Ming combo of using Force of Will to push an enemy team member into his Magic Missiles and Arcane Orb. You can read more about that specific combo from a previous article here. Team Dignitas had the momentum nearly the whole game and finished it with the help of a well-timed POILK combo.

In Game 3 Team Dignitas pulled out the Abathur for the large battleground and even managed to stay even in experience with Tempo Storm in the early game. With heavy-handed macro control of the battleground, Team Dignitas took every inch of experience they could to slowly pull ahead in experience. The final teamfight looked promising for Tempo Storm, grabbing Jonathan “Wubby” Gunnarsson on Blaze with a Dehaka tongue, but Wubby was able to turn it around into a stun that secured Team Dignitas the fight and the game.

TEAM DIGNITAS VS ZEALOTS

This was the most unexpectedly difficult series for Team Dignitas of the whole tournament. EU’s 4th seed, Zealots, lost in the very first round of the of matches and were sent to the Lower Bracket. From there, they fought fiercely to make it to all the way to Grand Finals. After having played 7 games back-to-back and defeating both Fnatic and Tempo Storm, Zealots took Team Dignitas to a full 6 games before Team Dignitas clutched out the win in a very nail-biter game on Towers of Doom.

The final game was completely down to the wire. Zealots had 4 core health and Team Dignitas had 2. With the last Altar spawning in the bottom lane and both teams having even structures, this channel would win the game if Zealots captured it. The team fight was absolute mayhem. Just as it seemed like Team Dignitas would take it with a kill on Maksym “Mopsio” Szczypa on Tyrael, Mopsio escaped with a sliver of health and popped Sanctification to help Zealots regain their footing. Skirmishes were happening all over the place as both teams tried to interrupt each other from channeling.

Meanwhile, in the top lane, Team Dignitas’ creep wave captured a 4th Bell Tower, meaning they could win the game if they channeled the Altar. After Jérôme “JayPL” Trinh on Diablo secured two kills against Zealots, the important one being the Support player, Daniel “Shad” González, it was only a matter of time until Team Dignitas was able to finish off the rest of the members of Zealots and channel the Altar to take the series. If there is any game worth watching the VOD of from the Western Clash, it is Game 6 between Zealots and Team Dignitas.

It feels amazing to once again be the IEM Katowice Western Clash Champions! From everyone here at Team Dignitas, we must give a huge thank you to our amazing fans. They really showed up at the event, and online! The team could not have done it without the continuous support from the roaring crowd, the tweets online, and all the love from the #DIGscord.

Phase 1 Part 2 starts Friday, March 23rd, with our first match being against Team Liquid. Stay tuned for our weekly preview to find out what to expect from that series and be sure to follow us on Twitter and join the #DIGscord!

And yes, Zaelia played in his magical socks.