The Golden Guardians got a reality check in Week Four of the LCS. They lost to two perennial top three teams in Team Liquid and TSM, going from being tied with five other teams for first to seventh place in the span of one weekend. They had their chance to prove to the league that they belonged in the conversation of the upper echelon of North America, but threw it away just like their early game leads.
In their first game of the weekend, GGS went up against TL. They drafted their standard composition, safe siege with Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell on a split pushing champion. GGS came out of the early game with a slight gold lead, but TL out rotated them in the mid game, which led to picks. Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong killed Hauntzer a few times as they matched each other’s split push. Once TL is given a little control, they strangle you out of the game, this is what happened to GGS in this game.
In their second game of the weekend, GGS went up against TSM. In the longest game of the split so far, GGS came out of the early game with yet another lead. Instead of TSM out maneuvering GGS to gain an advantage, GGS decided to stay in TSM’s base for about three minutes too long and got aced after taking an inhibitor. The game stalled multiple times as GGS had enough wave clear, with Henrik “Froggen” Hansen on Anivia and Matthew “Deftly” Chen on Sivir, to keep their towers alive longer than they should have. TSM eventually won out as GGS composition could not out fight TSM the later the game went on.
Day One: Optic Gaming
Another team looking to break into the top three of the LCS, OPT are sitting with the rest of the big kids at tied for second. They are coming off a 1-1 week, beating TSM and losing to Echo Fox. The wrinkle for OPT was that they had to sub in their academy mid laner, as their starter was ill. He performed well, but it remains to be seen who will get the starting spot for Week 5.
With mid up in the air, the matchup that looks most interesting for this game is the top lane. Both laners are generally put on an island by their teams; Hauntzer should come out ahead because of his general mechanics and track record all being better than Niship “Dhokla” Doshi. But, Hauntzer has yet to impose his will on his opposite laner, opting to play safe and split away from his team and fight when his team needs him. This would be the game for Hauntzer to show himself as a top tier laner and squash lower competition.
We saw flashes of Hauntzers ability in the TSM game, but that’s the only glimpse viewers have seen of what he historically has been able to do.
Day Two: Echo Fox
Starting the round robin again GGS will play a struggling Echo Fox. This team managed its second win of the split in Week 4, against OPT, and has recently signed North American resident jungler Mike “MikeYeung” Yeung from TL. This signing could lead to some interesting lineups now that the team has freed up import slots. We could finally see Kim “Fenix” Jae-hun and Lawrence “Lost” Hui play on stage together.
With that recent pickup, the jungle matchup should be the key matchup to watch. Juan “Contractz” Garcia versus MikeYeung, or maybe James “Panda” Ding depending on who they decide to start, in the early game should decide the game. Both teams are not great at mid-late game decision making so whoever has the lead early should take the game, and that all depends on how the teams’ junglers perform.
Predictions
GGS should go 1-1 this week. While OPT don’t look like the most dominant team, they’ve looked better in the later stages of the game than GGS and have shown more flashes of greatness against the top three teams than GSS has. Expect GGS to lose against OPT.
GGS should be able to easily take a win over Echo Fox; they are the second worst team in the league and with, potentially, a new jungler starting this team shouldn’t be ready to invade a blue buff let alone win a game.
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Featured photo from GGS Twitter
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