Team Liquid vs Team Dignitas

Next up, we have Team Liquid vs. Dignitas QNTMPAY. Now, this is by no means the most mind-blowing of match-ups, but it's still a wholly interesting one and it may, in fact, be a lot more important than one could ever assume.

Needless to say, Team Liquid have lost quite a bit of steam lately. They look (and play) like a shadow of their former selves, and the fact that they had benched their spectacular top laner isn't helping them out either. Why they've opted to do so, however, is still unclear, but it seems that Jenkins will, in fact, remain as their starter for the time being.

Naturally, a Team Liquid with Alphari -- one of the best Western top laners of all time -- is endlessly more dangerous than a Team Liquid wihout him. That goes without saying. The former four-time LCS champs have therefore lost one of their most potent win conditions, and a player who is a catalyst through and through.

Fortunately, they won't need all of their weapons to handle a team like Dignitas. It's not that they're bad or anything (on the contrary), but their flaws *are*, in fact, easy to exploit and punish. Team Liquid know darn well what they need to do to get their hands raised, and it'd truly be a surprise if they were to fail against a team of Dignitas' caliber. Then again, they're tied in the standings in fourth place with 13 wins apiece, so perhaps the gap between them isn't as big as it might seem at first glance.

Still, it's not like Dignitas don't have issues of their own. They're going to start with Yusui instead of Soligo which, in all fairness, is quite the downgrade. It's not like Soligo is a world-class talent, but he has synergy with the rest of the team (unlike Yusui) and has shown some fairly impressive teamfighting prowess. His laning does, however, leave a lot to be desired, so we'll reserve judgement until we see his replacement in action.

In any case, they're very solid and have been playing some respectable League of Legends, but they're still nowhere near as good to compete on even footing with a squad like Team Liquid. There are levels to this whole thing, and TL -- even in their gimped state -- should be more than capable of getting the win and separating themselves from Dignitas in the standings.