Who got the better end of the Dardoch-Xmithie trade?

The first week of NA LCS is over and both Counter Logic Gaming and Immortals won their respective matches and are on top of the points table right now in League of Legends. So which team got the better player with the Dardoch-Xmithie trade?

League of Legends has seen some great and some dud trades over the years. When the two junglers of CLG and Immortals swapped in the offseason it created a big fuss as the trade was not something people were expecting. Dardoch just signed for Immortals in the last split from Team Liquid and Xmithie being part of the longest standing roster in NA LCS history in form of CLG.

On paper, CLG seemed to have upper hand as Xmithie wasn’t performing up to the mark and Dardoch often carried Immortals over the course of the period. In fact, most of the Immortals victory were often due to Dardoch popping off!

This being said, Dardoch just signed for Immortals last split from Team Liquid for three years.
There are two sides to this trade, one is a basic upgrade of the roster and second, the Dardoch factor.

Let’s talk a little about the second point as it seems in whichever team Dardoch goes on, he brings a lot more than just gameplay and talent. We know that Dardoch is a hard working guy and puts all his emotions into League of Legends which often takes a toll on him if the game is going bad for his team. This often leads him to develop a negative environment around his team.

This was the major reason he left Team Liquid though his performance and mechanics were never doubted. I feel like with Immortals, he developed the same mentality as Team Liquid that if Dardoch carries Immortals and swept their opponents, if he didn’t perform well enough then Immortals would look like a mediocre team.

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There were hardly any matches for Immortals where someone else except Dardoch hard carried the team.

So joining CLG could be a game changer for Dardoch as in with them, he is not the one making calls and instead is following the lead of his teammate and veteran support, Aphromoo.

I believe that in CLG, Dardoch doesn’t have to always shine in order for CLG to win their matches as their solo laners are very well established and are proven players.

This could be very well seen in the first week of NA LCS as CLG won both of their series and in neither games Dardoch hard carried his team. As a matter of fact, he took a more supportive role and allowed his laners to thrive which was rarely ever seen in his past matches. Not only this but Dardoch restricted his aggression and was never a focus point in team fights as he usually is.

With Aphromoo, Dardoch has someone who he can play under and rely on his decision making rather than taking matters into his own hands like most of the times. All of which are a great burden removed from Dardoch’s shoulders and gives him more opportunity to thrive.

On a different note when Immortals signed Xmithie from CLG, everyone thought it was a down step from their previous jungler. Fans got even more concerned as Dardoch was the X factor of the team and was often the reason they won their matches.

With the departure of Dardoch, the feeling was the overall team seemed pretty weak on paper. But people often forget that Immortals has one of the best individual talents in their team, both Flame and Pobelter are insanely mechanical players and even their bot lane started to put up some good shows towards the end of the spring split.

While with Dardoch, Immortals were often a one-man show which often overshadowed the performance and playmaking ability of the rest of the team. But with the inclusion of Xmithie, a proven veteran jungler, they have someone to make clutch calls and make decisive plays for the team.

Xmithie might not be the best mechanically gifted jungler around but he certainly adds more compactness and fluidity in the team. His playstyle enables solo laners to gain advantage and this could be very well seen during the first week of NA LCS when Immortals dominated Phoenix 1 and TSM in a convincing fashion.

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So who won the trade?

While the Summer split has just begun and there so much left to be witnessed as of now, both CLG and Immortals have benefited from the trade pretty well. Both players fit a need on each side and well, that’s all that matters when it comes to team composition. Depending on how the rest of the tournament goes, it all falls onto which team ultimate advances and the other is sent home packing. As of now, both teams are handling their new additions well.