Before the start of the League of Legends Championship Series 2022 season, Dignitas QNTMPAY was not a name many thought they would see sitting near the top of most preseason rankings. In fact, with the controversy surrounding Dignitas’ choice to import former SK Gaming mid laner Ersin “Blue” Gören and former PSG Talon jungler Kim “River” Dong-woo over signing residential talents, it was as if the community was hoping for the roster to crash and burn.
Dignitas QNTMPAY defied this sentiment during their impressive run in the LCS 2022 Lock In tournament by knocking out defending LCS champions 100 Thieves in the quarterfinals. After a statement victory over Immortals Progressive in their first match of the regular season, it’s safe to say that DIG are the real deal. But surprisingly, the biggest source of hype around the team is from the person that’s been with the squad for the least amount of time.
“This is my first time being in NA,” said River. “At first, it was kind of hard for me to adapt to the atmosphere, but now I’m slowly getting used to the atmosphere in NA.”
Digntas’ new era with River
According to River, the two players calling most of the shots on Dignitas are support Vincent “Biofrost” Wang and River himself, a role he also played while he was with PSG Talon.
“In our early game I usually do a lot of shotcalling,” River said. “But if the game goes to mid game and late game, I think Biofrost is stepping up and doing most of the shotcalling.”
“We don’t wanna be a team that kind of just chills and AFK’s,” Biofrost said. “We definitely wanna make plays and be proactive, kind of die trying. If we mess up, so be it, but at least we tried.”
Dignitas QNTMPAY’s game against Immortals Progressive Saturday was a perfect example of the style of play fans can come to expect from this DIG lineup. DIG stayed in the driver’s seat from start to finish and forced Immortals to react to their movements. According to River, that’s just how he likes to play the game.
“I don’t care about how many deaths that I have,” River said. “I’m just going in to see if this thing works or not. That’s how I kind of play.”
As a former Mid-Season Invitational semifinalist and a player with world championship experience, it’s no shock that people would have high expectations of him coming into the season. So far, he’s performed well beyond those expectations, but there are still plenty of games left in the season.
In Saturday’s postgame interview, Biofrost proclaimed that his goal on Dignitas isn’t just to make playoffs. This is a team hungry to contend for an LCS title and eventually qualify for the 2022 World Championship.
“We’re just taking it one game at a time,” said Biofrost. “I think every team goes through a honeymoon phase, so we’re careful to stay on track for some decent improvement throughout the year and not have a huge spike and just come crashing down.”
