Golden Guardians is electing to go with a hard reset for its League of Legends team by fielding a new five-man roster for next year, the organization announced today.
The lineup features some new faces to the LCS, including former Maryville University members in 21-year-old top laner Niles and 22-year-old jungler Iconic. These two rookies have won multiple esports tournaments with Maryville, including the HUE 2020 Invitational, the UCLA Esports Summer Invitational, and the RCL season nine championship.
Former Golden Guardians Academy mid laner Ablazeolive will man the mid lane for the org’s LCS team in 2021. He’s been in the North American League scene for quite some time but has never gotten a shot on a starting lineup for an LCS team. He previously spent two years with TSM’s Academy team and was on GG.A in 2020.
Former CLG AD carry Stixxay is the veteran who will try to help guide these new players. The 23-year-old spent five years of his career with CLG and found some impressive high points, including a Spring Split championship in 2016 and becoming a 2016 MSI finalist.
He’ll be joined in the bot lane by former LLA player, Newbie. The 23-year-old support has been on several top LATAM teams, like Isurus Gaming and All Knights, and has won multiple championships as well.
This combination of players should be interesting to watch as the Golden Guardians’ management tries to shape them into LCS-caliber talent. Many fans and analysts have called out NA teams in the past for their lack of support for younger, newer players in the region—and manager Danan Flanders hopes to set a standard for what a true developmental team looks like.
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