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Phoenix1 showed why it came into the North American League of Legends Championship Series playoffs as the No. 3 seed with a sweep of sixth-seeded Team Dignitas in the quarterfinals Saturday in Los Angeles.
Game 1 was a chaotic, back-and-forth affair, with Dignitas' early leads in lane giving way to a Phoenix1 bottom-lane dive for first turret. Dignitas retook the lead after taking a Baron kill, and it even managed to take a second the next time it spawned. Phoenix1 clawed back into the game, however, finding a pick on Dignitas mid laner Jang "Keane" Lae-young's Cassiopeia that led to an inhibitor kill. In the end, it all came down to a final teamfight at Baron, in which Phoenix1 took a 5-for-1 ace to secure the Game 1 win, largely on the back of mid laner Yoo "Ryu" Sang-ook's Syndra, who finished with a 6/1/6 KDA (kills, deaths, assists).
The second game was much more one-sided, with Phoenix1 in control from the start. Over the first 25 minutes, P1 slowly built up advantages across the map, with jungler Rami "Inori" Charagh's Graves going 4/0/2 on his team's first seven kills. Ryu was also eager to carry once again, this time on LeBlanc, and he nabbed a pick in a 1-vs-3 onto the enemy AD carry near 29 minutes to grant Phoenix1 an uncontested Baron. Using the buff, as well as its stellar 1-3-1 split-pushing, Phoenix1 was able to take Game 2 shy of 35 minutes without ever having to teamfight.
Phoenix1 continued its dominance in Game 3, though its lead was less drastic than previous games at roughly 2,000 gold at 25 minutes. Despite the weaker start, a sneaky Baron kill just shy of 27 minutes put P1 in position to complete the sweep. Dignitas made a valiant attempt to try to get back in the game through a clever flank but was thwarted by a godlike four-man Command: Shockwave from Ryu's Orianna. A few minutes and an Elder Dragon later, Phoenix1 barged into Dignitas' base and punched its ticket to the semifinals in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Team Dignitas' split is over with this defeat, while Phoenix1 moves on to play Cloud9 in Vancouver on April 15 at 3 p.m. ET. NA LCS playoffs continue Sunday with a 3 p.m. ET game between Counter Logic Gaming and FlyQuest.