Team SoloMid vs Team Dignitas

The 2020 LCS Summer Split playoffs have only just begun and yet we've already seen a monumental twist for the ages. The LCS is still reeling from Team SoloMid's one-sided loss to the Golden Guardians, and the sheer fact that they've lost in such embarrassing fashion has filled the air with a ton of uncertainty -- and no one's quite sure what to expect going forward.

As far as seasons go, this one has been particularly volatile, with almost every single team dropping games left, right, and center. No one was particularly consistent, and with everyone still figuring out the most potent picks in the current meta, it's fair to say that we won't be seeing a more stable status quo any time soon. Even teams like Liquid struggled to maintain a certain level of play and have shown many distinct weaknesses throughout the regular season. This means there's no one unassailable competitive giant that's entering the playoffs as the clear-cut favorite, unlike back in Spring when Cloud9 looked unbeatable in every sense of the word.

But this, while important, is still a tangent, and right now, we have a baffling match-up to go over -- a clash no one expected to see, and with good reason. Team SoloMid, while obviously not as strong or potent as in the past, is still a top-tier organization that's fielding a beastly line-up brimming with talent and potential. Heck, Bjergsen and Doublelift alone are more than enough to warrant a spot in the Top 5 regardless of the meta. They might not be that young by competitive League standards, but they're still every bit as dangerous, in no small part because of their immense experience of playing at the highest of levels. With a solid support, a promising rookie jungler and a talented top laner from the TCL, they were poised to leave a mark in the playoffs and were generally deemed as one of the best teams in North America (at least on a good day).

All of that, however, was in vain against the Golden Guardians. In short, TSM was outclassed and bested in every way, shape, and form. They simply didn't have anything to offer and were demolished in just three swift games. To make matters even more baffling, GGS never found much success (historically speaking) against TSM, and while their current line-up is obviously much more dangerous, no one thought they'd be able to trade such heavy blows and come out ahead against a team of TSM's caliber. In true GGS fashion, they didn't care much for the odds and wasted no time in setting the stage for a seismic upset. Seeing TSM so vulnerable and out of sync was not something anyone expected, especially not after a fairly impressive regular season run.

Now, however, they're fighting to stay afloat against one of the worst teams in the region: Dignitas. Just writing such a sentence makes one feel strange -- as if we've shifted to an alternate reality. TSM hasn't been particularly successful over the last two and a half years but still, no one thought we'd see them in the lower half of the bracket this early on into the playoffs. To make matters even worse, no one's quite sure whether they'll be able to pick up the pace and get on the same page in time for this Best of 5. They weren't *just* out of sync against the Golden Guardians -- they were abysmal across the board. They were making egregious mistakes from start to finish, their drafts were horrendous, and their bottom lane was a complete non-factor in every sense of the word. In short, it was a debacle that became weirder and weirder as it unraveled. The fact that Doublelift forgot to buy a BF Sword after backing in the third and deciding game tells you all you need to know about TSM's mental fortitude and overall psyche. They crumbled when it mattered the most, and the fact that they failed to mount any kind of offensive is a worrying sign.

These aren't things you can fix and address in a day or two's time. You can certainly improve a ton with the right guidance, but TSM never had that in the first place, and now, with their backs against the wall, it's highly questionable whether they'll make the necessary changes and actually find redemption after fumbling so hard against GGS. Many improvements need to be made, and the odds are certainly stacked against them.

Dignitas, on the other hand, is an absolute enigma. They're far from a good team, but when they start off on the right foot they can certainly punch above their weight class. The fact that they even secured a spot in the playoffs is a tremendous surprise, but it starts to make a bit more sense when you realize just how good of a bottom lane duo they currently have. Johnsun and Aphromoo have been playing out of their minds throughout the whole split and are the sole reason why this team has been even remotely competitive. But talented though they are, they can only do so much when the rest of the team severely underperforms. Still, as a five-man unit, they do sometimes have moments of brilliance, and TSM fans can now only hope that those moments don't happen tonight, at least not more than twice.

In the end, we'll side with Team SoloMid on this one, but the vast majority of our belief and trust hinges around Bjergsen's potential to hard-carry and Doublelift's ability to make a quick turnaround after letting everyone down. Will they be up to the task? It's impossible to know for certain, but their pedigrees (and stacked trophy cases) tell us they've got what it takes. Right now, they have to make their fans proud and play as well as we know they can. There's a lot at stake and they know it. That said, Dignitas will not go down without a fight and will surely give TSM a run for their money.