This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

　　As the 2014 season approaches its second half many teams have been changing their roster in order to attempt a run at the 2014 World Finals. These changes have been hotly debated in the community on whether it was a good change for the team or worse, and with the summer split 2 weeks in we are finally able to see if these changes were for the best. So, to analyze these roster changes, we are going to start a series of articles where we look at a different roster change each week and analyze the statistics and performance of the team and the changed players. We will break down each of these on the basic statistics like GPM, KDA, and CSPM, as well as some more advanced statistics like Kill Shares, Gold Distribution, and Solo Kills.

　　First up in this series will be Team Dignitas, who changed their Top and Mid laners over the offseason and have had a very strong start to the split so far.

Team Dignitas - Summer vs Spring.

　　For team Dignitas, this has been the first time they are in first place since back in Spring 2013, and so their team stats see a huge improvement over last season. The big pillars of their success is their objective control and their early game domination. Currently, they are the best early game team, getting an average 7.6% gold lead by 10 minutes, which is very important because gold advantage at 10 minutes has a 79% win rate, and they also have the most first bloods and first dragons out of any team. This is impressive because of their early game strategy, they have truly mastered the new early meta of jungle top lane (and sometimes support) roaming, as they consistently get an objective advantage early. In the first 10 minutes, Dignitas averages 0.33 towers, about average (average is 0.31 towers); however, in all 6 of their games they have never given up a tower before 10 minutes. This means they average 0.33 towers over their opponents by 10 minutes, which is the most in the NA LCS. At the same time they have the most first bloods and first dragons in the league, getting 5 out of 6 games. Currently, Dignitas’s success comes from their strong lanes, good early game strategy, and great objective control.

Top lane - Zionspartan vs CruzertheBruzer.

　　Zion has been a huge statistical upgrade in top lane. He has retained his split push solo style from his time on Team Coast, judging by his average solo kills and solo deaths he is still a split-push presence. He has also taken more of a role in the team with a higher % of the team’s kills and higher % of the team’s gold. At the same time though, Zion’s role is less in kills but more in split push and map pressure. His Kill shares per game (Kill shares is an even-split of each kill between participating players, more info can be found here) is 4th on the league, despite most of his other stats being 1st place. This is because he participates in fewer kills than most other top laners, his usefulness is more objective focused rather than kill focused, which is actually shown in the later team stats.

Mid lane - Shiphtur vs Scarra

　　The big breakout star of Dignitas has been Shiphtur, who is statistically possibly the best player in NA LCS. His KDA and Kill Shares / Deaths is off the charts, mainly because of his super low death count this split, only 2 deaths in 6 games. Last split when he had these high KDA numbers despite being on a losing team I thought it had to do with his champion selection of Ziggs and Nidalee, and while he has played 2 and 1 on those champions respectively, he still has a crazy KDA of 31.5.

　　Overall, Dig has improved a ton this split, and while many are speculating that their success will be short lived, they have definitely seen an improvement over last split, and are a top NA team.

　　Data collected with help by the onGamers Stats team: Jesse 'JALbert' Albert, Derek 'Kathix' Adams, Steven 'whedgehead' Falgout, Kent 'Traepoint' Frasure, Jake Morales, and James 'PelkaSupaFresh' Pelkey. Design by Ben 'Sarcasmappreciated' Li.