Shiphtur helps turn Dignitas around
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"We were on a big losing streak, and the stress was getting to us."
Danny "Shiphtur" Le and the rest of Team Dignitas were struggling coming into Week 3 of the North American LCS. Fresh off of losing their longtime jungler and shot caller Alberto "Crumbzz" Rengifo, things weren't looking great.
"My own confidence was shot," says Shiphtur. "I wasn't sure if I was good enough to be in the LCS even. I got solo killed, I was playing poorly. Even today I didn't play that great."
And then, they took down Team Liquid. With their new shot caller Stephen "CloudNguyen" Nguyen in the mix, Dignitas looked both more decisive and more effective than they have in weeks.
"We have Cloud now, who is a really strong voice," he told Lolesports. "He yells in the game. He's a really dominant voice. It's a good thing that he has a dominant voice because we do need that assertive shotcaller."
That confidence doesn't just come from a new voice, though. When Dignitas goes home, their practice schedule isn't just solo queue play and scrims.
"After the day of the LCS, on Saturday and Sunday, we get home from the shuttle and watch our game right away," he said. "We have postgame analysis for each day. Every scrim day, we have analysis for those games right after. The most important thing of being a pro is probably doing a research and watching your own tape. If you don't watch yourself play from a different perspective, you'll never learn that your perspective is wrong or right."
As Dignitas works to improve their 2-4 season, that work and research will be incredibly important. According to Shiphtur, though, he prefers not to watch for mistakes that he or his teammates make, but rather what they can improve on as a team. "For our own replays, the best thing to focus on is not individual mistakes. That's a sure way to shoot down your confidence. It's all about getting down the macro. Honestly in League of Legends right now, you can win a game purely on macro, rotations and such. Individual play really doesn't mean anything right now."
With just two games with CloudNguyen under their belt -- and very little practice time -- this week's win will only give Shiphtur the motivation to improve even further.
"I think this will really drive us to keep getting better and hold onto this confidence as much as we can."
Will Dignitas manage to turn it around and begin to climb the NA LCS ladder? Keep your eyes on Lolesports for more action. To catch up on the action so far, check out the spoiler-free VODs page.
