100 Thieves vs Dignitas – 2021 Mid-Season Showdown

Despite being viewed as one of the weakest teams in the league, Dignitas exceeded everyone’s expectations (including OURS) with a phenomenal run through the regular season, which they finished in fifth place. Some may argue Dignitas have overachieved and that they won’t make it far in the playoffs, but they’ve proven everyone wrong before, so who are we to say they can’t do it again?

100 Thieves vs Dignitas

Sunday, March 28 – 13:00 PST

100T lost their identity

Without trying to sound biased, 100 Thieves are weird esports organization, and not only in League of Legends. While 100T and their decisions as an esports org is a topic that deserves its own article, it’s the choices they’ve made in the LCS that make me wonder what is their long-term goal.

Back at the start of March, 100T decided to replace Tanner “Damonte” Damonte with Tommy “ry0ma” Le in the mid lane, which is something I still can’t quite agree with. Even though Damonte’s numbers were not exactly spectacular, you have to consider his playstyle was not necessarily based on winning lanes, but more about being a roaming mid laner, who helps his sidelanes get ahead -similarly to what FunPlus Phoenix were doing with Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang when they won LoL World Championship in 2019.

By replacing Damonte, 100T lost that identity and are now your basic, average LCS team that lacks quality or any special trait that would help them win the championship. That move makes me believe 100T are quite content with being a mediocre team rather than sticking to their unique style and take a shot at the title.

100T are now a team that is extremely easy to figure out. Their gameplan is essentially putting Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho on the weak side with a tank, get ry0ma a mage, and draft standard, which will never make them as good as TSM, Team Liquid, and especially Cloud9 – as we have seen last week.

100T did not look all that bad against Cloud9

While it may be true that 100T looked (relatively) good against Cloud9 in their opening bout of the LCS Mid-Season Showdown, it was not so much their quality that made them look fairly good, but rather the nature of the team compositions.

100T were still the weaker team in that match, but I must give them some props for their drafts, which should, in theory, give them an advantage, but they still fell apart solely because they got individually outmatched. I would even go so far as to say that if 100T fielded the same quality players than C9 they would have won 3-0.

Then there’s also the poor decision-making on the side of 100T, which was fairly obvious in their bout with C9. The way 100T lost game one is hard to comprehend, but it was well deserved, seeing how 100T are taking unnecessary fights – and not only that, in this clip, you can see how poor 100T’s map awareness is.

Dignitas’s miracle run

It’s hard not to be impressed with how far Dignitas have come this season, but it’s up to debate whether they truly deserved the fifth seed or have they been just lucky. Those who believe in Dignitas will quickly point out how successful they’ve been against TSM, but I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on those wins.

That is because Dignitas won those games largely due to TSM’s mistakes and not so much Dignitas playing like the better team. That’s not to say Dignitas haven’t looked somewhat competitive against all teams they faced, but it’s also fair to say they “stole” a couple of wins along the way.

It’s quite interesting to see that most of Dignitas wins came via their opponents slipping up. Extremely rare have we seen Dignitas actually doing something to put themselves in a winning position – but then again you don’t really have to do that if your opponents gift you advantages.

Dignitas’ lack of experience

Doing well in the regular season has its own rewards with the changed LCS format that counts the teams’ performances from both splits, however, teams who do well in best-of-ones (Bo1) don’t necessarily do as well in Bo5. That is largely because winning in playoffs requires both adaptability and the ability to play under stress. Dignitas might have the former, but they MIGHT lack the latter trait.

Looking at Dignitas‘ roster, they have a couple of experienced players in Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett and Zaqueri “aphromoo” Black, who have appeared in numerous high-pressure games, however, Dignitas also field three rookies some of whom not only lack playoffs experience, but are also playing their first-ever full season in the LCS. How big of a factor that will play is anyone’s guess, but it’s definitely worth keeping it in mind.

Betting Tips for 100 Thieves vs Dignitas

Looking at how these sides match up, there is not a lot to separate them. Dignitas have managed a few cleaner wins than 100T, whereas 100T looked better in their losses, but weren’t as good in their wins. Both teams are fairly solid in accumulating gold, and are fairly equally in economy rating, although 100T hold a slight edge.

Dignitas’ only weakness is their pre-10 minute performances, which is also the only thing holding them back from us viewing them as a stronger side here. That said, they tend to come back from those large deficits with strong mid-late game.

It’s also worth mentioning that Dignitas will have the advantage of having two weeks to prepare themselves for this bout, which has seemingly played quite a factor for EG in their game with TSM yesterday. That could be a huge factor here since 100 Thieves might have better players, but they are way too predictable, and I would value predictability higher than individual talent – especially in Bo5 series, where being able to adapt is extremely important if you fall behind.

At the end of the day, there is not a lot to set these two sides apart. The only difference is that one has better players, while the other is ready to play a bit more aggressively and is more flexible. Despite what the betting odds suggest, I would say this match is much closer to 50/50, granted I would side with 100T in a world where both sides play to the best of their ability.

At 2.62 (Bet365) I’m siding with Dignitas any day of the week. Given how tilt-prone 100T seem to be, I can also imagine a world where Dignitas take this series 3-1, although I do believe that if there won’t be any surprises a 3-2 victory is more likely.

Prediction: Dignitas to win – 2.62 Bet365

Prediction: Dignitas -1.5 maps – 4.00 Bet365

Previous preview: MAD Lions vs Rogue. MAD Lions won 3-1, winning us two bets priced at 4.18 and 7.62.

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