The Golden Guardians (GGS), an esports affiliate of the Golden State Warriors, have finalized their coaching staff and Academy roster for the 2020 Spring Split of the League of Legends Championship Series.
Coaching additions include Aaron ‘ChuChuZ’ Bland as LCS assistant coach, Samuel ‘Spookz’ Broadley as two-way player-coach, Barento ‘Raz” Mohammed as Academy head coach and Jimmy Harrison as player performance coach for the 2020 Spring Split.
https://twitter.com/GoldenGuardians/status/1202309233749790720
The five-player Golden Guardians Academy roster is listed below:
Top: Darshan ‘Darshan’ Upadhyaya
Jungle: Anthony ‘Hard’ Barkhovtsev
Mid: Nicholas ‘Ablazeolive’ Antonio Abbott
AD Carry: Alex ‘Gorica’ Gorica
Support: Jae-Hyun ‘Huhi’ Choi
Upadhyaya will begin his first full season with the Golden Guardians after joining in for the 2019 Summer Split, leading the Academy team to a franchise-best second-place finish in the 2019 NA Academy Summer Split Playoffs.
Barkhovtsev will return to GGSA for his second full season with the team.
Abbott joins the Golden Guardians after a two-year stint with Team SoloMid (TSM) Academy, where he led the team to an NA Academy 2019 Spring Split Championship.
Gorica, an attendee of the 2019 Honda Scouting Grounds hosted by the LCS, will make his professional debut this spring after competing collegiately with the University of Western Ontario in Canada.
Choi enters his first full year with the Golden Guardians after competing with the LCS team beginning in the 2019 Summer Split.
Both the Academy and Main LCS squad look quite strong on paper, not teams who can contest the Championship, but teams who can earn a stable 3rd-4th spot in their corresponding leagues. While Academy’s primary role was to foster upcoming rookies, more veteran LCS players who are being kicked out of their primary teams find out themselves in an Academy roster. This situation is due to imports overtaking the region if Riot will not step in and solve it anyhow, then one day, we will wake up with no remaining in the LCS at all.
The Golden Guardians LCS roster, which was announced earlier this month, includes Kevin ‘Hauntzer’ Yarnell, Can ‘Closer’ Çelik, Greyson ‘Goldenglue’ Gilmer, Victor ‘FBI’ Huang and Yuri ‘Keith’ Jew. Nick ‘Inero’ Smith will coach the team.
While the previous season was unfortunate for both the main and Academy squad, the currently upgraded line ups look promising. While Goldenglue will be the primary carry in the main team, Ablazeolive looks to be the primary carry in the academy team, after playing previously for TSM Academy and stomping most academy mid laners.