Golden Guardians’ spring has been the best story of the 2023 LCS season thus far. After an up-and-down Spring Split, Golden Guardians have guaranteed themselves a top-three finish in the LCS Spring Playoffs and are one series away from qualifying for the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational as one of North America’s two representatives.
Golden Guardians’ triumph is a textbook group effort: The org’s staff has managed to build and maintain a roster that exceeded expectations and has continued to grow throughout the season. At some point in 2023, every Golden Guardians player has been in the spotlight. Jungler Kim “River” Dong-woo and mid laner Kim “Gori” Tae-woo formed a fearsome one-two punch for the squad, with Gori receiving first team All-Pro honors for his performance in his first LCS split. AD carry Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes is playing better than he has in six years. And Eric “Licorice” Ritchie has resurfaced as a carry top lane threat in the postseason.
But no player is more key to Golden Guardians’ success than Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun. The support has been praised for his individual play this spring, but what he brings to the squad outside of piloting his champion on Summoner’s Rift cannot be understated.
Communicator in chief
Golden Guardians won games in the Spring Split by playing through their strong mid-jungle combination. Licorice would sit isolated in the top lane while River and Gori got an advantage, and huhi would coordinate with the duo to utilize Stixxay as the team’s late-game damage threat.
River and Gori have both had excellent seasons thus far, but River is only in his second year in North America, and Gori didn’t even get to the U.S. until after the first week of the 2023 LCS Spring Split. This requires huhi to function as the team’s main shotcaller by speaking both Korean and English to make sure the entire team is on the same page.
It’s obvious just how vital huhi is to Golden Guardians’ communication structure, but his value to the team in that area comes with a drawback that the veteran support is looking to fix going forward. “I think the only thing I have to find the balance [with] is that usually when I try to think about those gameplans and what my teammate has to do, I don’t play my champion that well,” huhi told Dot Esports after Golden Guardians’ win over 100 Thieves in the LCS Spring Playoffs. “I will get caught a lot … I think I just have to fix that myself, and we’ll be a pretty strong team.”
Longtime League fans have seen non-traditional shotcallers who were vital to their teams put their individual performance second before. For the first three years of Cloud9’s tenure in the NA LCS from 2013-2016, Hai Lam was famous for managing all of his C9 teammates like marionettes and prioritizing that above his own play, which led to some of the best international performances in LCS history. For huhi, it’s a dynamic built on trust between him and his teammates.
“I just feel like I’m putting people in a comfortable situation where they can view the game clearly,” huhi said. “And then I just let them take it over from there because I have trust that they’re going to play their carry role. And they trusted me to put them in a good situation so that they can shine.”
Stixxay’s resurgence
Golden Guardians’ mid-jungle combo is a defining factor of their team. River is one of the most cerebral junglers in the league, and Gori can play any carry threat while also flexing K’Sante mid if the team wants to play around Licorice.
But during the seven-game win streak that defined Golden Guardians’ Spring Split, the bot lane was just winning two-vs-two lanes without any jungle intervention due to huhi’s synergy with Stixxay, who started to play at a level not seen from him since his incredible rookie season back in 2016. A reunion with huhi—who was Stixxay’s mid laner on CLG in 2016—has undeniably had something to do with the AD carry’s strong play this season.
Early on in the Spring Split, huhi was the vocal member of the duo, constantly providing feedback to Stixxay. “I really didn’t like how we were playing mechanically from my point of view, so we had a lot of back-and-forth talks about that. During this time, I would tell him things like ‘you’re playing way too scared’ or ‘you’re not trying anything to punish mistakes’ because I think those things were built into him from his past experiences,” huhi recalled. “He wasn’t on an amazing team for such a long time, so he was just trying to go 50/50 on all sorts of matchups. I didn’t really like that mindset, so I was being more critical, but nowadays, I think he sees those things naturally.”
The duo’s dynamic has evolved throughout the spring into something more symbiotic. As such an important communicator in the team, huhi expressed gratitude for having someone to provide feedback on his own play when he can’t focus on it as much himself.
“I think, in the beginning, it was more of me trying to bring up points,” huhi said. “Nowadays, I think it’s more like back and forth. I’m really grateful for that because he can help me out, and I can help him out. And that’s the relationship I want.”
Driving the ship
It’s evident that huhi brings a lot to Golden Guardians as a communicator and an individual talent, but his value extends beyond even what happens on Summoner’s Rift. “What I bring to a team is that no matter which team I go to, I am pretty confident that I can put my team in top five in the standings with any of the players I’ve played with,” he said.
It’s this confidence that makes huhi a great teammate and leader, whether that be through in-game communication, peer-to-peer feedback with teammates, or simply being a good “clubhouse” presence during tense moments, like between games in Golden Guardians’ grueling five-game series win over 100 Thieves last month. “I usually try to read the room a bit and see how everyone feels,” huhi said. “And if they need more energy, or more confidence, I will try to bring them that.”
Golden Guardians deserves credit for recognizing the value huhi can bring to the team beyond his individual play, and the organization has made sure to prop him up as its leading man in the LCS. “The team kind of gave me the role of leading the team,” huhi said. “They kept telling me that I should drive the ship, and that they are confident that I will drive it well… Even after the first two games today, our coaches were telling the players, ‘Just try to listen to Jae because he’s making pretty good plans.’”
True to huhi’s character, he doesn’t contextualize his value as a reason to gloat or reign superior over the teammates he’s empowering. While Golden Guardians trusts huhi to lead, he’s grateful for that trust and is aware that it’s what’s allowed the Golden State Warriors’ affiliate to achieve their best season in LCS history.
“That’s why I really appreciate my team,” huhi said. “Even though I’m playing worse mechanically, they really trust my calls. Having that trust is a pretty good feeling for me.”
With a spot in the finals of the LCS Spring Playoffs versus C9 and MSI qualification both on the line, Golden Guardians’ trust in each other will be put to the test more than ever before in their best-of-five series against FlyQuest on Saturday, April 8.
