Phoenix1 had a rough Sunday as it lost a 2-1 series by Team Dignitas during Week 6, Day 3 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split in Los Angeles.
Team Dignitas drafted well in Game 1, picking a strong teamfighting composition centered around Kalista and Kled for unstoppable engages. Phoenix1 jungler Mike "MikeYeung" Yeung's Nidalee got off to a good start with a successful gank that yielded first blood but, once it was time to teamfight, Team Dignitas' composition shined, winning skirmishes and taking objectives. A Baron power play 21-minutes in was all DIG to take control, pushing down the mid lane to take a lightning-fast Game 1 win. Phoenix1 couldn't deal with all of DIG's engage and pick potential, often getting caught by support Adrian "Adrian" Ma's Blitzcrank Rocket Grabs and then destroyed in the ensuing teamfight.
In Game 2, Phoenix1 took DIG's strong teamfighting core of Kalista and Kled from Game 1 and put its own spin on that draft, which led to P1 dominating skirmishes early. Dignitas kept the gold close for a while, thanks to getting more objectives in lane swaps, but couldn't get away from or counter P1's teamfight strong engage potential. Again, it was a Baron kill at the 21-minute mark that was game deciding, but this time it was Phoenix1 who rode the power play to victory, evening up the series with another sub 25-minute victory. Phoenix1's AD carry Noh "Arrow" Dong-hyeon earned Player of the Game honors as Kalista, using Fate's Call to help P1 engage brutal teamfights while pumping out 694 damage per minute and finishing with a 6/0/9 KDA (kills/deaths/assists).
The bans in Game 3 took away the series dominating champions of Kalista and Kled that decided the earlier games in the series as both teams opted into slow scaling teams. In the mid game, Dignitas started to slowly pull ahead in gold as its rotations found picks that opened up opportunities to knock down objectives, while Phoenix1 seemed unable to trade anything back. There was another 20-minute Baron kill in Game 3 which devastated P1, leaving its base in shambles. Phoenix1 tried to contest the second Baron but Dignitas scored an ace in the ensuing teamfight, taking the buff before taking down P1's Nexus to finish the series.