The 2018 NA LCS is right around the corner, and the Golden Guardians, one of four new teams to join the newly franchised league, have selected their full starting roster, according to the team’s announcement earlier today.
Among the new team’s players are former Cloud9 and FlyQuest captain Hai Lam, Cloud9’s former jungler Juan “Contractz” Garcia, and Team Liquid’s 2017 top laner Samson “Lourlo” Jackson. All three of these players are solid performers in the NA LCS. Hai is one of the region’s best shotcallers and team leaders, Contractz consistently improved on C9 last year and played phenomenally at Worlds, and Lourlo is a young, reliable top laner with tons of room for improvement and growth.
Matthew “Matt” Elento, who has been brought on as the team’s support, also played for Team Liquid. In fact, he only played for Team Liquid throughout his almost three-year career, aside from a brief stint on Gravity.
The last member, Matthew “Deftly” Chen, has been playing in the Challenger Series for quite a while, most recently for eUnited, one of the best teams in the NA CS league. Choi “Locodoco” Yoon-seop, the team’s new coach, was also a contender in the NA CS on Gold Coin United, one of eUnited’s closest competition at the top of the ladder. He was also TSM’s coach from 2014 to 2015, and helped them win two split titles and IEM San Jose.
Overall, this team is extremely young and has little experience, aside from Hai, which may be exactly what it needs. Hai, being one of the league’s better leaders and veterans, could work with and improve this young team over the course of a couple splits.
If it works, they could become a well-respected, strong team with a sturdy fanbase, as long as these players stick around for the long haul.
