In the opening match of the split for both teams, Team Dignitas edged out Team EnVyUs 2-1 on Saturday during the second day of Week 1 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split in Los Angeles.
Game 1 was fairly slow, with only four kills before the 17-minute mark. This was a dream for Team Dignitas, whose team composition scaled heavily into the late game. In particular, Jang "Keane" Lae-young's Orianna grabbed assists on both of his team's early kills and went up in CS against the usually lane-dominant Syndra from Choi "Pirean" Jun-sik. This lent Dignitas a gradual lead, which it pushed with a pair of brilliant Baron sneaks. Finally, a teamfight in the jungle of Team EnVyUs gave Dignitas an ace and the game.
Dignitas went for a nearly identical scaling composition in Game 2, but NV wasn't about to let DIG get away with it twice. NV used Pirean's Taliyah in conjunction with Nam "LirA" Tae-yoo's Lee Sin to dominate the early game, finding multiple kills across the map. This granted Team EnVyUs absolute objective control, as it took every single dragon, kept DIG from getting a single turret, and took Baron at 29 minutes. From there, NV kept finding picks and towers, eventually ending the game at 41 minutes after taking a second Baron.
The deciding game was a grueling affair, with no action taking place until a teamfight at dragon gave Dignitas a 4-for-0 at 11 minutes. DIG only found more kills over 20 minutes later, when a pair of picks in the top lane granted it Baron at 35 minutes. NV's scaling, however, allowed it to hold on despite a nearly 10,000-gold deficit, and take its own fight and Baron at 46 minutes. In the end, Dignitas' secure of Elder Drake at 51 minutes helped it take the final teamfight, ending the game through mid lane.
Team EnVyUs will hope to bounce back against Phoenix1 on Sunday June 4th at 3 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, Team Dignitas will look for a cleaner victory against FlyQuest Sunday at 5 p.m ET.
