Golden Guardians have went 2-0 in Week 3, a feat that the org hasn’t accomplished since 2018 Summer Split Week 4. The team has crucially found the ability to extend the game late and rely on their champion’s late game spikes in order to secure victories. GGS are looking more solid as the weeks continue, but are a far cry from the powerhouses at the top of the standings. Esports Heaven spoke with Contractz about their game against OpTic Gaming, XP changes to the jungle, his former team in Cloud9 and the current trajectory of GGS.  

How do you think the match against OPT went?

From my perspective, I played pretty poorly early game. My pathing was pretty bad. I got outfarmed and outpathed, which lead me to being outleveled. There were times in the game where I tried to pressure when I should have been farming because I’m Nocturne, my goal is to hit level 6. I don’t know if it was nerves but I definitely misplayed early game quite a bit, so my team absolutely helped me through the early game.  

What’s your take on the XP changes for the jungle?

I’m kind of indifferent about it because I don’t feel it too much but there’s definitely probably a significant change in how much you level, so you’re probably going to be around the level of your ADC. As a jungler that’s what’s to be expected unless you counter-jungle with lane priority. It has its value in punishing junglers early and having strong lanes to help you invade because that will put the enemy jungler pretty far behind.  

I’ve been hearing from some fans and analysts that your time on Cloud9 was your peak as far as your career. People say you can’t reach that high again because that roster was so damn good. What do you think about this narrative, that you can’t reach that same peak?

I don’t blame them honestly for how last year went. I agree wholeheartedly that the team was really good, as us five players had really insane teamwork and we were all solid players, that’s why we got to quarterfinals at Worlds. I’m never going to say that I’m never going to make it back there again because I want to get back there, that’s my plan. I’m not playing league just to be at the bottom of the ladder. I’m always trying to work hard with my teammates and I think with this roster that we have can go really far. The first couple of weeks haven’t been too great for us; we lack teamwork and that’s definitely shown in the games but that’s something we’re working on.  

How do you think the team has progressed in your overall play? With this victory it seems like it’s a sign that you’re on the upward trend. What’s your take on where the team is headed? Do you think you’re improving at a good rate?

After the first two weeks, we really had to sit down and figure out what was wrong with the team because I don’t like judging off of scrim results but we were doing well against other teams, we just couldn’t translate that onto the stage. We didn’t know what to do at the time. We’re definitely on an upward trend and the past week of practice has been really good. We have figured out that we are just lacking team play and vision control. Our macro, we just have split calls and we don’t commit on one thing as a unit; we have multiple people just doing other stuff. Coming into the next weeks of practice, we’re going to keep trying to improve our teamwork and being one unit instead of being five solo queue players playing the game. ___ Izento has been a writer for the LoL scene since Season 7, and has been playing the game since Season 1. Follow him on Twitter at @ggIzento for more League content. Image courtesy of LoL Esports Flickr