Golden Guardians academy support Chime weighs in on academy performances, teleport changes and his mindset heading into the 2022 season.
Golden Guardians had a positive end to the 2021 LCS summer split. The squad managed to put together a miracle run and qualify for the LCS championship. This was an incredible feat considering they were in last place throughout 2021 and as late as week eight in the summer split regular season. The introduction of Eric "Licorice" Ritchie and improved performances saw GGS secure the eighth and final seed in the playoffs.
Now with a stronger LCS and Academy lineup, the sky is the limit for Golden Guardians and they should be competing for a top-six seed in the playoffs. GGS Academy support Jonathan "Chime" Pomponio spoke to the press on Friday and here is what he discussed.
Academy players are breaking the glass ceiling in Lock in
It is fair to say the 2022 LCS Lock-in has been an extremely entertaining tournament thus far. Many feared given the number of visa issues the tournament would not have the same spark as last year. This, however, could be further from the truth. On day one, for example, TSM, who is fielding their entire Academy roster was about to see out a victory over FlyQuest, a team that is fielding their entire roster.
Moving onto day two, we saw Team Liquid field two academy players in both of their matches, performing well against top LCS talent. GGS Chime believes if possible, having a future Lock-in tournament that includes both LCS and Academy teams on purpose would be beneficial.
"I think if teams can open the split with ten academy teams and ten LCS teams put into Lock In I think that would be really healthy to give all the teams a starting point on where they are at. Obviously, this is not happening this year but going forward I think that could be good. I think it is a good starting point for teams to see where they are at and what they need to work on."
The teleport changes are potentially having a positive impact on bot lane
While a contentious move from the development team, the teleport changes have slightly gone under the radar in professional play due to the Chemtech Blight and Chemtech Dragon soul. The new standard teleport and unleashed teleport after fourteen minutes have impacted how the lanes interact with each other.
"Lane dominant bot lanes can actually pressure pre 14 minutes without being worried about five people showing up in my lane."
In competitive play across multiple regions, teams are opting for either roaming laners, or abandoning cross-map plays altogether. Whichever strategy a team adopts, it certainly has made a huge impact in professional League of Legends. Chime believes while top laners may hate the changes it has had a positive impact on the bottom lane.
"So I think it's good for bot lane bad for top laners, I know top laners are sad about it but I think it allows more variations of bot lanes and I think it also requires that jungle and bot lane synergize more and it's less about top and mid laners involving themselves. I think it's good for the game and I enjoy it because Cait/Lux/Thresh/karma lanes are all really strong right now and that's thanks to TP *laughs*."
GGS Chime discusses his new mentality going into 2022
Chime is stepping back into familiar territory for the 2022 League of Legends season. The Canadian support will be back playing on the Golden Guardians Academy roster. This can often be tough for professionals, essentially being demoted from an LCS spot in favor of another player. Chime is a player who believes in his abilities and is also locked in on his goals for the upcoming year.
Chime had a great response to a question about his mentality going into this season after coming from the main roster back onto the Academy lineup.
"I want to be a bigger voice on the team, I think I was a big voice and that is why I was brought into the team halfway through the year, I think it's kinda ironic but what I've spoken to my coach about is having stronger language and less "we should do this" and learn from our mistakes.
So that is what I am trying to get into is no soft language just like "we should play for this, we try it if it works it works". Just trial by fire I think last year I had a collaborative where I would suggest ideas or make calls. Now I am just trying to do one or the other. That is my mentality going into this split if I can be a firm shotcaller for the team it would be a really good experience rather than giving myself the backup of "I think we should do this" so if we don't do it we don't learn if that was the right or wrong call."
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