The Golden Guardians rolled over Echo Fox in 28 minutes in their first game of the Summer Split. With a textbook Skarner game from Juan “Contractz” Garcia and some clean Tahm Kench ultimates from Kim “Olleh” Jo-sung, this game was over the second the Guardians secured their fourth Drake of the game.
This game started with a Yuumi and Taric ban right out of the gate from the Guardians, not wanting to deal with any gimmicks or brand new champions. Both teams went for flex picks in the fist draft phase, Echo Fox picking the Akali and Ryze flex and Golden Guardians picking Irelia and Sylas. Echo Fox opted to take their bottom lane with their last two picks while Golden Guardians saved their last pick for the surprise Skarner pick for Contractz.
The Guardians started off hot in this game, getting a pre-level six Gank off from Skarner in the bot lane.
The game then turned into the Contractz show with an Ocean Drake secured at eight minutes after a skirmish that led to a one-for-one trade for both teams. Three minutes later, Contractz soloed the Rift Herald, and with Henrik “Froggen” Hansen rotating up to the top lane, they joined with Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell and took down the first top turret. The next minute Contractz and the bottom lane secured the recently respawned Infernal Drake.
Efficiency was key from the Guardians in the early game, every move they made was proactive and had a solid setup and execution. To end the first 15 minutes of the game, Olleh swallowed up his partner, and joined the rest of his team for a bottom lane tower dive that resulted in more kills, a tower, and more vision control for when the Drake would respawn.
The transition to mid game was seamless for the Guardians. They pressed their advantages, secured more gold, and took two more Drakes. By 22 minutes into the game Echo Fox was down 4K in gold and down at least two levels to their respective opponents.
The Guardians ended things with a quick fight in the top lane that resulted in one kill, which turned into Baron, and a victory screen barely five minutes later.
This was a textbook example of how to play the current meta at a professional level. Flex champions with early aggression into proactive moves. Echo Fox did start two academy players in David “Yusui” Bloomquist and Lawrence “Lost” Hui, but that doesn’t diminish the outstanding early game from Contractz and great rotations by Froggen and Olleh.
Look forward to tomorrow’s game against FlyQuest to see whether this was just a stomp of team not ready for the stage or an example of what’s to come for this season.
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