How Dignitas’ LCS team is turning up the heat in 2022

Every year, the League Championship Series (LCS) opens up with big names like Cloud9 and Team Liquid leading the charge as early-season favorites. This year, that trend continues with the “Church of LS” leading Cloud9 and Team Liquid looking promising with their newly constructed superteam. It isn’t just the big names making noise though -- Dignitas finished 2-0 during the first week of LCS action and is surprising fans with yet another high octane roster, ready to challenge the top of the league in 2022.

River king

Dignitas may be surprising fans, but early-season success is hardly an uncommon trend for the team. Year in and year out, Dignitas retools its roster and receives little fanfare as other major organizations break the bank for top-tier international talent. Dignitas acquired one of the most underrated junglers in the world in PSG Talon’s Kim “River” Dong-wook, and he’s been a major part of all their success thus far.

River has been not only one of the most decisive teamfighting players in the league with a kill participation percentage of 84.4%, he’s been on the forefront of Dignitas’ timely aggression around neutral objectives and early-game tower dives since the Lock In tournament kicked off a few weeks ago.

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / ESPAT

There were plenty of concerns around River’s ability to communicate with the current Dignitas roster, but he’s never actually played on a team where the primary language was his native Korean. He has been on teams based on Hong Kong, Taiwan or Japan throughout his career. It’s only natural that he and his teammates have experienced little trouble thus far.

“We realized how we wanted to play the game with River and how we would communicate shortly with him because of the language barrier,” Dignitas mid laner Ersin "Blue" Gören said during a postgame interview.

Blue went on to explain how River is actually one of the team’s most active players in-game alongside support Vincent “Biofrost” Wang. River’s name doesn’t carry the same prestige as other top Korean junglers, but dominating the Pacific Championship Series (PCS) with PSG Talon for the last two years was hardly a fluke. He’s decisive and ready to do whatever it takes to win.

Feeling Blue isn’t so bad

The LCS broadcast was critical of Blue and how he handled certain lane matchups with favorable draft phases, but he’s already showing up big for Dignitas as a consistent mid lane anchor for the team’s potent side lanes. Aaron “FakeGod” Lee is the center of most of Dignitas’s side lane play, but it wouldn’t be possible without Blue carefully controlling waves on his omnipresent Viktor.

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / ESPAT

“I mean, it’s actually really nice to be in Dignitas,” Blue said. “Everyone is always so positive with really nice vibes. We’re having fun … even if you play bad or someone plays bad, we don’t really care because we’re having fun and trying to improve.”

Similar to River, Blue’s name doesn’t carry the same prestige as most European mid laners, but he’s been a perfect fit for the team both stylistically and culturally. Dignitas retained its aggressive identity, but brought in a balancing force that might make for a stable team identity throughout the year. Even so, Blue is clearly having the time of his life and is ready to live it up with a team that had a reputation last year for not engaging in many teamfights.

Staying frosty

River is at the center of most of Dignitas’ teamfights, but the player that’s right there with him is none other than veteran support Biofrost. After missing the 2021 competitive season, fans didn’t know what to expect from Biofrost, but it’s clear that he hasn’t lost his edge since his glory days on TSM. Still, Biofrost appreciates the early underdog status for both him and his team.

“Honestly, I think most people didn’t really have expectations for Dignitas,” Biofrost said during a postgame interview. “That’s kind of good for us because we get to go in with an underdog mentality.”

During both the Lock In tournament and Week 1 of the LCS, it’s safe to say that no one expected Dignitas to come out the gates swinging. FakeGod and AD carry Toàn “Neo” Trần were well-respected carries for Dignitas, but the entire lineup is working together in a way that gives fans good reasons to be excited.

“For sure, we’re just taking it one game at a time,” Biofrost said. “I think every team goes through a honeymoon phase, so we’re careful to hopefully stack on track for some decent improvement throughout the year and not have a huge spike and just kind of come crashing down.”

Dignitas fans have been through this type of rush before and there’s no telling whether Dignitas will react well to having a target on their back going forward. However, this time around, Dignitas appear to have the tools and personalities to contest to be among the top teams in the LCS.

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / ESPAT