Just one defeat away from losing their chances at qualifying for the Mid-Season Showdown, Dignitas took down reigning LCS champions 100 Thieves today and opened the door for some important tiebreakers in the final day of the 2022 LCS Spring Split regular season.
Though Dignitas could still earn a spot at the playoffs, their path to the postseason is flimsy and depends on the outcomes from games later today. A win from Evil Geniuses, Golden Guardians, or FlyQuest will kick Dignitas out of the top six.
From the beginning of the game, Dignitas made it clear they knew how fragile their spot in the playoffs was. If they lost this game, they would have to watch the top six teams of the LCS compete in the postseason while they waited for another attempt during summer. With so much on the line, FakeGod and River took over the early game on the top side of the map, culminating in a snowball that 100T could not keep up with.
Fortunately for 100T, Closer’s Volibear became a major contribution in not only initiating teamfights, but also in catching out-of-line Dignitas members off-guard. This gave Ssumday room to slowly come back into the game after being sabotaged by River, even taking a small lead over him. Yet because of Dignitas’ early lead, they kept the gold between each team even, not giving 100T too much space to find a way ahead.
The fight for 100T’s dragon soul became the turning point Dignitas needed to truly establish themselves as the leaders in this game. Continuous unorganized engages from the side of 100T took them down more quickly than they could defeat their opponents, leading to Dignitas becoming 4-0 over 100T since the Lock In and maintaining slim chances of qualifying for playoffs.
Blue earned himself player of the game as Viktor, constantly forcing multiple members of 100T to waste summoner spells just to take him down, which often led to their own demise. Blue’s ability to place his stuns and lasers in River’s Jarvan IV ultimate was crucial in multiple teamfight victories for Dignitas. He finished this game with a 7/2/9 KDA.
Since Dignitas hold a 0-2 record with Evil Geniuses, FlyQuest, and Golden Guardians, who are also still competing for their chances at the top six spots to qualify for playoffs, their only chance of making it through to the postseason is all of these teams losing. This would force two tiebreaker matches to be played after today’s scheduled matches conclude. But if Evil Geniuses take down CLG’s debuting Academy roster, or if FlyQuest or Golden Guardians end their finale week with a victory, Dignitas will be eliminated and the field for the Mid-Season Showdown will be set.
100 Thieves end their regular season at 12 wins and six losses, which places them third behind Cloud9 and Team Liquid. They are guaranteed a spot in the upper bracket of the Mid-Season Showdown. The bracket for the competition should be set at the end of today’s games.
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