I’m going to be introducing a segment inspired by many other sports journalism pieces called The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, which will be covering what great and poor performances there were and what major mishaps occurred in a short and lightly analytic manner. This is sort of a play-by-play, an analysis and a commentary rolled into one accompanied by gif images.

The Good:

Theoddone shows us why he’s called the General

Theoddone on Evelynn played very intelligently this whole game, opting for objective control and defense rather than focusing on early ganks. The start of the game showed Dignitas successfully stealing Blue with three members; Imaqtpie on Quinn, Kiwikid on Annie and Crumbz on Kayle, then rotated top to zone out Dyrus playing Renekton and attempt to rush down the lane taking however many towers they could. By the time they were spotted stealing TSM’s first Blue, Xpecial on Leona and Wildturtle on Sivir had already shoved out bottom lane and began accumulating damage on the bottom turret ahead of when Dignitas were able to arrive at the top turret. Once Theoddone cleared his Red and Wraith camp, he moved to Dig’s Blue, taking it before making quick work of Dig’s inner bottom turret accompanied by Xpecial and Wildturtle. With the higher attack speed champions and having no mitigated damage on the bottom outer turret, Team Solomid were able to capitalize on a strategic mistake made by Dignitas; but it was only made sweeter by Theoddone’s immediate decision making, as he was able to go back and make it to his team’s inner top turret to defend it from being taken, making it two to one in Turrets for TSM at the 4 minute mark.

Theoddone makes it to top just in time to edge out a 2-1 tower advantage at 4:30 in the game.

Imaqtpie shows Quinn’s split-pushing prowess

TSM brought three stones to kill one bird when Imaqtpie shoved the bottom lane past the river with little vision and no towers to guide him back to base. Xpecial, Wildturtle and Dyrus running down the lane to engage were not enough to stop Quinn, as a single Vault dodged all attempts at catching Imaqtpie out. He would later have to flash from an extended chase with the three members of Solomid on his tail, but he would come out proving Quinn’s strength in split-pushing and taking up ample amounts of enemy resources without dying. From this play, one could imagine that had Dignitas centered more of their game around split-pushing with the utility that Quinn brought, it might have been different than the unpleasant handling that would ensue.

Imaqtpie shows Quinn’s split-pushing prowess.

Xpecial is a Sun God

Xpecial played out of his mind this game, landing multiple dead center ultimates and even catching out Team Dignitas in a four-man Solar Flare at the 12 minute Dragon. That would then allow the Sivir ultimate and Evelynn ultimate follow up, Renekton’s entrance and disruption and the crushing ace in the favor of TSM, trading absolutely nothing in return to Dignitas. This play let Team Solomid solidify their lead by taking Dragon and vision control and show that their team fighting synergy is something to be feared.

Xpecial lands a beautiful 4-man Solar Flare across Team Dignitas.

The Bad:

Desperation picks lands Team Dignitas in even more desperate waters

At the 17 minute mark, Dignitas was in bad shape and looked to make something happen. They have very little vision control at this point and are being forced to group in the middle lane to protect an inner turret from minions. Dignitas spots Bjergsen on Lulu on the back of the minion wave and decide to make their move, desperate to catch out anyone to turn the game into a momentary five on four. Scarra catches Bjergsen with a Command: Shockwave only to be met with a TSM onslaught as the rest of Bjergsen’s crew walks out of the Wraith camp corner, concealed by the fog of war. With this lack of vision, Team Solomid was able to rope in Dignitas into making a mistake and take the team fight two kills, one inner turret for nothing.

With little vision, Dignitas is caught by surprised when trying to pick off Bjergsen.

Team Dignitas scratches an itch they can’t reach

Around 20 minutes, it was the same story told differently. Dignitas finds Xpecial confidently warding a river brush and capitalize on the isolated target. Wildturtle sees Xpecial in trouble, though, and is able to walk him back using On the Hunt. Dignitas is steadfast, though, and once again with little vision to cover their elongated pick attempt, they are hunted down by a re-engage coming across from Xpecial and eventually Theoddone and Bjergsen. Bjergsen rushes in alone and seems to cast Terrify on a few members of Team Dignitas, but I don’t recall when Riot gave Lulu that spell. At this point, Bjergsen is able to clean up impressively on his own ending the team fight x for one in the favor of Team Solomid. They would then take down Baron and close out the game 3 minutes later.

Xpecial gets caught out warding but Wildturtle helps him escape and re-engage.

Bjergsen casts Terrify on Team Dignitas.

The Ugly:

Kayle was a fly on Team Solomid’s wall

It’s hard to see why Dignitas last picked Kayle into Team Solomid’s AOE heavy team. Whatever their idea was, they were not able to execute their strategy and the Kayle pick left many wondering. In this game, Kayle had very little team fight impact, as Xpecial pointed out himself after the game: with so much area of effect crowd-control and damage, it is hard for Kayle to prioritize a target for her ultimate. This predicament led Dignitas to have no answer when engaged on. Additionally, since this was not a lane Kayle, Crumbz did not have the amount of damage necessary for a Kayle to put out the damage necessary to win team fights, which leads one to believe that the Kayle pick was based on the use of Intervention and the speed boost from Divine Blessing. But with such a trample-orientated composition coming from Team Solomid, jungle Kayle’s utility was squashed.