LoL Analysis: 2016 NALCS, TL vs DIG (Week 4, Day 1)

I expected this to be a straightforward win for Team Liquid with Piglet starting to hard carry, Dardoch arriving as a star, and the team starting to jell really well. Their two wins (NRG and TIP) in Week 3 indicate to me that they’re ready to win with the big boys at the top of the standings. Dignitas have done good things and I agree with the casters that BillyBoss has been good for them, but they haven‘t been to link all three phases of the game together.

P/B – Kirei is going to have to widen his champ pool if DIG want to win and Dardoch on Nidalee could be a bad matchup. I’m just as surprised as the casters that Graves and Poppy were not picked by DIG with picks 2/3. KiWiKiD’s Alistar has been good but I’m not as sure about the priority on Lulu. DIG are fortunate to pick Graves and Lucian. Kirei’s performance on Graves will be key to this matchup.

Despite ganking mid a couple times, Dardoch’s superior jungle pathing leads to a CS advantage. That in turn enables TL to swap lanes faster and shove all the waves. That leads to a free dragon and a free dive at 31:15 that DIG are able to repel initially before a couple clutch spears from Dardoch kills Apollo and KiWiKiD. TL were smart to go in while they had an xp lead and Alistar did not have unbreakable. I agree with the casters – Apollo and Shiphtur should not have gone back on the fight without BillyBoss.

34:40 – This is TL being much better coordinated than. Lourlo’s aggression is rewarded as Bard saves him with the ult and DIG lose their primary DPS early. From here, TL did a great job switching objectives and never letting DIG back into the game. They don’t overcommit and rotate perfectly. Dardoch was a beast and Kirei’s Graves was lacking. They really need him to widen his champion pool and not succeeding on a power jungle pick does not bode well for the rest of his spring.