The Golden Guardians are an American esports organization owned by the Golden State Warriors. The organization was one of four that joined the League of LegendsChampionship Series in 2018 after the league began franchising, the others being 100 Thieves, Clutch Gaming and OpTic Gaming. On December 18, 2019, the Golden Guardians announced their expansion into the professional scenes of Apex Legends, Teamfight Tactics and World of Warcraft. Super Smash Bros. Melee player Zain "Zain" Naghmi and Teamfight Tactics player David "DogDog" Caero were signed by the Golden Guardians on February 6, 2020.
LCS team
History
The Golden Guardians finalized their roster for the 2018 NA LCS Spring Split on December 13, 2017, signing top laner Samson "Lourlo" Jackson, jungler Juan "Contractz" Arturo Garcia, mid laner Hai "Hai" Du Lam, bot laner Matthew "Deftly" Chen and support Matthew "Matt" Elento, with Choi "Locodoco" Yoon-seop as head coach for the team. On February 4, 2018, Locodoco was fired after making inappropriate remarks towards a female member of Riot Games' esports staff. The final decision was made by the Golden State Warriors, the parent company of the Golden Guardians, who cited their strict zero tolerance policy. Assistant coach Tyler Perron was subsequently promoted to interim head coach to fill the vacant position. The team finished the regular season of the 2018 NA LCS Spring Split in tenth place with a 4–14 record. On April 23, 2018, the Golden Guardians acquired mid laner Young-min "Mickey" Son from Team Liquid, in preparation for the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split. Shortly afterwards, Hai announced his retirement from competitive play for the second time and left the team. The Golden Guardians ended the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split in tenth place, with a 5–13 record, becoming the first team in the league's history to finish last two splits in a row. In preparation for the 2019 LCS Spring Split, the Golden Guardians acquired Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell and Kim "Olleh" Joo-sung from Team SoloMid and Team Liquid respectively. Veteran player Henrik "Froggen" Hansen later joined the team to complete the roster. The Golden Guardians also hired Nick "Inero" Smith as the Golden Guardians' new head coach and Danan Flander, former Cloud9 senior general manager, as the team's first general manager. Despite a disappointing start to the 2019 LCS Spring Split, the Golden Guardians managed to end the regular season in fifth place after losing a tiebreaker match to FlyQuest, with a 9–9 record. This secured the team their first appearance in playoffs, where they narrowly lost 2–3 to FlyQuest in the quarterfinals. During the first half of the summer split the Golden Guardians kept the same starting lineup from the spring split, but later opted to promote bot laner Victor "FBI" Huang and support Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun from the academy team. Deftly was later traded to Cloud9 Academy for Yuri "Keith" Jew. The Golden Guardians ended the summer split tied for sixth with 100 Thieves and OpTic Gaming. After losing their tiebreaker match to OpTic Gaming, the Golden Guardians were locked out of playoffs.
