Golden Guardians Day 1 Week 4 Recap

Golden Guardians took on the reigning LCS champions on the first day of Week 4. The Guardians picked four new champions this game but kept with their familiar strategy of safe siege with a split pusher threat for Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell. The game was action-packed and instead of the stereotypical ARAM mid that happens in some LCS games, this game became a constant Baron contest with fights only happening around the object or because of it.

Draft

The Guardians had a clever draft, staying true to their style with new champions and even baiting Team Liquid into stealing Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung‘s comfort Tahm Kench pick. Matthew “Deftly” Chen played his third game in a row on Draven and Henrik “Froggen” Hansen played Vel’koz for the first time this split.

Team Liquid matched the Guardians picks in the solo lanes by giving Jeong “Impact” Eon-Young Aatrox, to match the split push by Hauntzer, and Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen Azir, to match the wave clear.

Early Game

The first 10 minutes of the game were very slow and boring. There were no kills and no objectives taken or even attempted from both teams. The games first kills started rolling in at around 15 minutes, and then the game exploded with action across the map. There were teleports and skirmishes from both teams, with the score line at 3-3 in kills, 2-2 in towers, 1-1 in drakes and the gold just about even at 20 minutes.

Late Game

After the 20-minute mark the game turned into a Baron dance, with most of the fighting and kills revolving around the giant worm. TL were the first team to take the Baron, with GGS coming in one after another to contest and die, this then turned into TL staying a bit too long and losing a fight after securing the objective.

At this point GGS didn’t seem to know how to play the game out. Instead of 4-1 pushing they went to the Baron, started it up and then turned to fight Liquid, twice. They lost both times with the final fight resulting in the power play that ended the game at 37 minutes.

Conclusion

The Guardians had a solid plan and a solid early game, these are what lead to all of their wins so far this split. But, with a team as experienced and as good as Team Liquid they couldn’t push that early lead into something more in the late game. They stagnated and settled for a Baron fiesta instead of playing the map with the composition they drafted.

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