Golden Guardians vs Team Liquid

For our first match of the day we have a rather fascinating match-up between Team Liquid -- the defending, reigning champions, and Golden Guardians. Now, coming into 2020, this was supposed to be as one-sided a clash as humanly possible. There was no chance in hell that a team of Liquid's caliber (further strengthened with Fnatic's Broxah) could lose to the Golden Guardians and their underwhelming starting line-up. Such an outcome seemed nigh impossible, and with good reason.

Liquid is, without a doubt, the best and dominant LCS champion in history, and their four consecutive titles tell the same tale. With multiple World Champions within their roster and some of the best and most talented players that have ever taken flesh, they had all the right tools to once again dominate on home soil. But such a thing never happened, for a multitude of reasons. Liquid's 2020 has been more akin to a nightmare, and watching their fall from grace was rather painful. And it's not because of any allegiance, but rather because the LCS lost one of its most respected contenders seemingly over night.

They are now tied for seventh place and are sitting on a fairly underwhelming 6W-9L tally. One mistake, and they're out. In fact, you could argue that they're already "out" as they have both FlyQuest and Cloud9 lined up for next week, and they need to win both games to equalize their win-loss record for a chance to compete for a spot in the playoffs.

The odds are grim, and are definitely stacked against them. Had they looked even remotely good yesterday we would've been more inclined to believe their struggle and to trust this venerable line-up, at least ever so slightly. But the fashion in which they were demolished by Evil Geniuses pretty much sealed their fate.

Now, the Golden Guardians are by no means a world class team. In fact, they're pretty mediocre, which, to be fair, is far better than anyone expected coming into 2020. Still, they're currently tied with Liquid for seventh place and have shown more potential and a stronger drive to win. They're not passive, and even when they lose they don't go down without a fight. That's what you want to see, a team that tries their hardest regardless of the odds. And, to be fair, the Guardians have definitely defied the odds on more than one occasion. With Impact and Broxah underperforming, GGS' strong side of the map could potentially shine bright, should they capitalize in the pick and ban phase, that is.

This is not a safe bet. In fact, let's go one step further and say that it could backfire spectacularly. Still, there's a very solid chance of the upset happening, and if it does, the gains would be immense. So in a way, it's well worth the risk. Seeing how this is do or die for both rosters, expect an insanely close game with neither team pulling punches.