In the North American League Championship Series' first three-game set of the 2017 season, Team Dignitas prevailed 2-1 over Phoenix1.
Game 1 certainly started off bleak for Dignitas as just over four minutes into the match, Yoo "Ryu" Sang-ook's Ryze solo killed Jang "Keane" Lae-young's Cassiopeia for first blood. Over the next few minutes, Phoenix1's jungler Rami "Inori" Charagh would grab four additional early kills, putting P1 in a great position. Unfortunately, two kills were given over to Kim "Ssumday" Chang-ho in the process, and he was able to scale up on Maokai, turning into an unstoppable force in mid-game teamfights. That helped Dignitas overcome the early deficit, take Baron and subsequently end the game.
Dignitas certainly seemed to have the sweep in hand judging by the first few minutes of Game 2, as Keane's Azir got revenge on Ryu's Corki, getting first blood with marginal help from his team. For the rest of the mid game, Keane would dominate teamfights and skirmishes, managing a score of 9/0/2 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) at one point. However, Keane hit his item ceiling very early on, and once he stopped growing, P1 were able to pull the game back in their favor after winning a teamfight outside their base. A terrific team-oriented group effort late helped P1 rally to win the game just minutes later.
Game 3 was the only game of the series that was fairly straightforward, as DIG got ahead by putting some early pressure on top lane, maintaining that lead throughout the rest of the game. Keane put together yet another fantastic game on Ryze, earning a 9/1/7 KDA, and ADC Benjamin "LOD" deMunck had by far his best performance of the series on Ashe. P1 made a desperate Baron attempt at nearly 30 minutes, but were easily cleaned up by DIG, who would take the game minutes later.
