Golden Guardians will face FlyQuest next week to qualify for the Finals.
The surprise team of the 2023 LCS Spring Golden Guardians found themselves against the preseason favorites in Evil Geniuses during their run toward the first Finals appearance in the organization’s history. Pre-game predictions from the broadcast crew and fans heavily favored Evil Geniuses, even with Golden Guardians coming off a big win against 100 Thieves.
Evil Geniuses vs Golden Guardians Game 1
Interesting first game draft from Evil Geniuses with triple ADCs and two tanks. Golden Guardians on the other side decided to challenge for the bot lane push with a Caitlyn/Heimer lane, and they kept putting Licorice on carries.
Both teams started the series very reserved. Not many early gank attempts, so we had a low kill count. Evil Geniuses played around maximizing their turret pushing as the triple AD comp excelled at sieging. So they moved their Tristana around the map, trying to take down towers with the help of the Herald. But Golden Guardians took the first to drakes which meant they felt like they had to contest the Soul point. With their backline so vulnerable, Evil Geniuses took a bad loss when River found a great engage and they gave up a very early Baron to Golden Guardians.
Gold swung heavily with that play but it still was pretty even, but Evil Geniuses still choose not to contest the next drake and give up the Cloud Soul. It seemed like the EG plan was to wait and fight for the Elder, but they did not get a chance to do that as Golden Guardians jumped on them in the mid lane before the objective spawned. EG couldn’t peel for their carries, with FBI dying first the fight was over before it started and GG ended the game with a clean ace.
- Teams: EG 0 – 1 GG
- Time: 32:27
- Kills: 4 – 12
- Turrets: 5 – 9
- Gold: 55k – 62k
- Dragons: 0 – 4
- Barons: 0 – 2
Evil Geniuses vs Golden Guardians Game 2
EG stayed blue side for Game 2 but came in with a drastically different draft as they went back to their Vi/Ahri mid-jungle. GG took away the Tristana and flexed it to bot lane.
Despite the early game power on Evil Geniuses’ team comp, it was River who found the early ganks. Evil Geniuses also forced a bad 4v4 in the bot river and fell behind in gold significantly once Golden Guardians turned the play around. Golden Guardians were late to start stacking drakes, they took their first one at 16 minutes, but they did a great job of extending their lead by sieging. They took all tier-two turrets and an inhibitor turret before the Baron even spawned. Securing the Baron was also easy for GG as they kept finding unanswered kills with their superior vision control. At this point, EG had no chance to fight back as GG dove them at their bot lane inhib turrets and closed out one of the most dominant games during the Spring Playoffs.
- Teams: EG 0 – 2 GG
- Time: 24:10
- Kills: 3 – 17
- Turrets: 1 – 9
- Gold: 37.2k – 49.7k
- Dragons: 1 – 1
- Barons: 0 – 1
Evil Geniuses vs Golden Guardians Game 3
Golden Guardians continued their Maokai/Tristana prio for Game 3 but threw a curveball with a Rumble counter-pick for Licorice. Evil Geniuses though offered a different look by putting Inspired on a carry champion, Viego, this time.
Evil Geniuses had a better start to this game compared to the previous one after a 3v2 near the enemy red buff. But just after that rest of the map semi-collapsed for them with a top side dive from River and a solo kill from Gori. With Golden Guardians also securing most of the objectives, they once again found themselves at a gold advantage. Evil Geniuses were pretty passive all mid game just sitting back and farming. They could afford to wait for more items on their Zeri thanks to the one drake they took to delay the Soul.
Golden Guardians didn’t give them the chance though as they forced a Baron during an EG teleport play in the bot lane. Another clean Baron siege from Golden Guardians as they slowly choked out EG and they gave no opportunities for a comeback. EG’s last chance was a fight at the Elder but Golden Guardians did not give them that either. They found one last great engage in the mid lane and with another clean ace and two inhibitors down they closed out the series 3-0 in a dominating fashion.
- Teams: GG 3 – 0 EG
- Time: 33:20
- Kills: 10 – 4
- Turrets: 10 – 2
- Gold: 61.9k – 53.1k
- Dragons: 4 – 1
- Barons: 1 – 0
For more of our LCS and LoL Esports coverage, follow us on ESTNN.
