If you’re going to pick Darius in a tier 1 tournament competitive match, you better have a plan on how to play around it. That plan for the newly minted Dignitas Mirage? Hyami. The Dignitas amateur jungler was the silent hero of their game 2 success against Maryville University tonight in the Giant Slayer Proving Grounds tournament. With a combination of intelligent pathing, excellent gank timing, and Maryville refusing to pay their quicksilver sash taxes, Hyami’s Skarner took over the game in deadly fashion.
A big issue with Darius is that if you allow him to play out the early game unpunished, he will absolutely take over the mid game whether he has kills or not. Both Hyami and TheOddOrange know this, and it informs their early decision-making. Not only do Dignitas Mirage set up a top lane cheese play with their Braum at level 1, but they early ward their top jungle, successfully spotting out Maryville’s late invade. Hyami starts on his bottom side looking to path top and is under the assumption that Hecarim has taken Hyami’s raptors given how late the invade came in. Hecarim then proceeds to cross mid lane in vision, heading towards his own raptor camp, providing Hyami with all the information needed to make his next few moves. He clears his red buff and krugs before heading directly for the bottom scuttle crab after seeing Hecarim on a ward in top river.
At this point, Hyami’s top laner is up a kill and has the knowledge to play safely given that the enemy jungler is nearby. Hyami then proceeds to take scuttle and head directly to his own raptors with the mid priority DNA has acquired. Hyami has now not only completed a full clear, but has also maintained complete knowledge on Hecarim’s positioning, effectively nullifying any top control Maryville might have tried to gain. This is crucial because Maryville does not win the 2v2 between top and jungle at this stage in the game and needs to find top control and kills onto Darius when Skarner is not nearby in order for MU Chippys’ to have a chance. Hyami finishes off his clean pathing with a beautifully executed top dive onto Chippys’ teleportless Nocturne, feeding more gold and experience into Darius.
This entire sequence happens within the first 5 minutes of the game. From this point on, Hyami continues to clear his bottom side and then return top to exert control over this area of the map and deny Hecarim any opportunities onto Darius. Due to the lead this has accrued for Dragoon’s signature Darius, he is able to control the lane and the wave states to the point where Chippys is forced to over-extend into susceptible positions in order to gain gold and experience. In doing so, he opens himself up to more ganks from Hyami’s Skarner and by 15 minutes Darius has 3 kills, an assist, and a 20 CS advantage over Maryville’s top laner, effectively putting the game out of reach.
Hyami is a jungler with a ton of experience in the amateur scene and his clinical performance and use of information in order to successfully play to and facilitate the success of his team’s early win condition is pure veteran status on display. Mirage has had their struggles throughout proving grounds, but a dominant 2-0 win over Maryville University, coupled with their access to new resources from the Dignitas organization, has them looking like a potential dark horse to win Giant Slayer and qualify for Proving Grounds.
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