Golden Guardians, the official esports team of the Golden State Warriors, is breaking into Super Smash Bros. for the first time and expanding its Teamfight Tactics roster with the recent signings of both Zain Naghmi and David “DogDog” Caero respectively.
Zain is the sixth-ranked Smash Melee player in the world and recently won the game’s biggest tournament of the year, Genesis 7, over the top-ranked Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma. DogDog is a former Hearthstone pro who now regularly pulls in more than 7,000 viewers on Twitch when he streams.
Zain was released from Panda Global in August, becoming a free agent for the first time since 2018 when he started moving up the ranks in the Melee world. He went sponsorless for the remainder of 2019 before being picked up by popular streamer and Melee commentator Ludwig Ahgren and playing under the tag Mogul Moves, but only for Genesis 7.
Zain’s win over Hbox gave the Marth player the first Super Major victory of the year and showed that he’s continued to improve in his poor matchups over the last several months. Golden Guardians picking him up now means that the team is looking to help him attend even more events and climb higher up the rankings in 2020.
DogDog also left his last sponsor, parting ways with Team Liquid after streaming and competing for the team from 2015 to 2019. But now, he’ll continue under the Golden Guardians banner. He joins other TFT and card game content creators and competitors like Andrew “TidesofTime” Biessener, Rebecca “Becca” Cho, and Jeffrey “DeliciousMilkGG” Pan on the team’s roster.
It’s unclear if he plans to focus more on competing in tournaments throughout 2020 now that he’s with an organization again or if he’ll just continue to stream while traveling to events and playing in the occasional tournament.
Golden Guardians has continued to expand into new games and broaden its roster in familiar titles, now fielding teams and players in Apex Legends, League of Legends, Smash Melee, TFT, and World of Warcraft.
