Team SoloMid vs Team Dignitas

What a fascinating match-up. A clash between Team SoloMid and Team Dignitas is, by all means, an absolute spectacle and a must watch. If Team SoloMid don't play at their best, if they don't impose their own playstyle and draft to the best of their ability, they're bound to be overwhelmed and annihilated by an aggressive Dignitas in rather one-sided fashion.

The margin for error is, in a way, incredibly small, and they have to execute to a tee. After an abysmal first week, Team SoloMid looked fairly good last week. They were a lot more proactive, aggressive, and commanding, although still rough around the edges. They were far from perfect, but they sure did improve in a very short amount of time. We've seen glimpses of greatness, and that's important. This is a roster brimming with talent and if they build on their foundation they're bound to challenge Liquid for the LCS throne sooner or later.

Dignitas, on the other hand, had a pretty hot and cold week. Their first win came against Team Liquid, and it sure was a fantastic one. They went blow for blow with the defending champions and they played some of their best League of Legends yet. It didn't come easy, though, but the fact that they maintained their lead and fought back against Liquid's immaculate macro is a positive sign for the things to come.

Their game against FlyQuest, however, was quite worrying, and it boggled the minds of many. To say that they were outclassed and overwhelmed would be an understatement. Perhaps most importantly, we saw Dignitas who played from behind, and they did an abysmal job. It was the Dignitas everyone expected. They fought like they were ahead, like they had a gold lead and were getting annihilated team fight after team fight. They're not the kind of team that's going to slow down and patiently crawl their way back into the game. They're a binary kind of team -- feast or famine. And we finally saw how well they play when they don't have a huge. Frankly, no one was impressed.

All the things people feared immediately took center stage -- Huni overstepping and going in willy-nilly, Froggen not being able to snowball his lead, Aprhomoo being a non-factor, Grig failing to make an impact, and so on. It wasn't a good look, and it has to make one wonder: did FlyQuest just give LCS teams a blueprint on how to take Dignitas down?

Even if the answer is "no" there's still a lot that can be learned from Dignitas' first loss. Team SoloMid, to their credit, have a fairly stacked coaching staff (not to mention a ton of experience). If there's a team in the LCS that should be able to capitalize, it has to be them. They might not be as cohesive and dominant as most people expected coming into the season, but they definitely know what they're doing and if they play to their strengths they actually stand a solid chance of taking Dignitas down.

A marquee match-up in every way, shape, and form. Both teams want to win, and they want it badly. Dignitas want to bounce back in style and make yet another statement, whereas Team SoloMid know that getting this one win would not only give them much-needed momentum, but also improve their chances of finishing higher up the standings once the regular portion of the split concludes.

So finally, to summarize, this is as far from a safe bet as possible. Team Dignitas are heavily favored, and with good reason. But -- and this is an important caveat -- Team SoloMid have all the right tools at their disposal to get the win, and that's what we're banking on. We've seen great improvement from them and if they play their cards right, they should definitely be able to emerge victorious against a frightening Dignitas line-up.

That's a very big "if" and hoping for Team SoloMid to improve and do the right thing rarely panned out, historically speaking. Regardless, they can match Dignitas lane for lane, and if they draft to their strengths and start off strong they definitely stand a chance.