Continuing its early undefeated streak, Team Dignitas took down fan favorites Team SoloMid 2-1 on Saturday during Week 2, Day 2 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split in Los Angeles.
The first game of the series hinged around Dignitas'jungler Lee "Shrimp" Byeong-hoon's Lee Sin and support Terry "Big" Chuong's Bard. Shrimp not only found kills in the early game, but also took Rift Herald and stole multiple dragons to put Dignitas (3-0, 6-2 match record) ahead. Mid laner Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg's Taliyah kept TSM in the game with picks, but every time he tried to use Weaver's Wall to secure an objective, he was shut down by Big's Tempered Fate. This allowed Dignitas to build a massive objective advantage, putting the game out of reach for TSM as Dignitas only had to take one teamfight at 36 minutes to end the game.
Team SoloMid (1-2, 3-4 match record) drafted the coveted Xayah/Rakan duo in Game 2 for the bottom lane, which carried TSM to great effect. Virtually every engagement for TSM hinged on support Vincent "Biofrost" Wang's ability to land his combos with Rakan; TSM crushed fights where he pulled it off, and floundered when he (rarely) failed. All the while, AD carry Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng's Xayah found kill after kill, ending with a flawless 10/0/5 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) and even Flame Horizoning his opponent by going up by over 100 CS. Fittingly, the game ended off of a flashy play from Biofrost, leading to an ace for TSM and a 45-minute victory.
Game 3 saw TSM draft a siege composition into a dedicated pick comp from Dignitas, and the match played out as one would expect from there. DIG went up in kills very early on, largely thanks to the outplays by star top laner Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho on Fiora, but TSM maintained a gold lead by taking all three outer turrets before Dignitas had taken one. The lead wouldn't last long, however, as TSM jungler Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen's Elise gave up Baron after dying for the fifth time at 21 minutes, surrendering control back to Dignitas. Ultimately, the game ended much like the first, with an Elder Drake secure and teamfight victory for Dignitas leading to a 35-minute win.