Golden Guardians adds Damonte to mid lane, promotes huhi

Golden Guardians has announced its roster for the 2020 LCS Summer Split and it includes a surprising new member.

It’s Tanner time for Golden Guardians, the organization confirmed Tanner “Damonte” Damonte as its starting mid laner in the LCS. Former mid laner Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer has been demoted to the Golden Guardians Academy where he’s expected to share the playing time with Nicholas “Ablazeolive” Abbott.

Golden Guardians’ full LCS roster includes:

• Top lane, Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell
• Jungle, Can “Closer” Çelik
• Mid lane, Tanner “Damonte” Damonte
• ADC, Victor “FBI” Huang
• Support, Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun

Huhi joins from the academy roster and is replacing Yuri “Keith” Jew, who requested to go back to the ADC role after spending one split as a support.

Is Damonte the reinforcement Golden Guardians needs?

Golden Guardians snatched the final spot at playoffs in the spring after winning a tiebreaker over Immortals. Throughout the season, Golden Guardians showed a consistent performance. Not good enough to challenge the top teams in the LCS, but good enough to fight for a place in the playoffs. Most of this consistency came from jungler Closer. In his debut in North America, the LCS voted him as the second-best jungler in the league. According to the offseason rumors, Team SoloMid tried to acquire Closer but was unsuccessful.

Golden Guardians fell after the first round of playoffs. The team could’ve made it further if it wasn’t for some obvious deficiencies in the mid lane and the bottom lane. Golden Guardians changed supports halfway through the season when it became obvious that Keith wasn’t comfortable in the support role. Separately, Goldenglue was an average mid laner relative to the rest of the LCS even on his best day. Goldenglue didn’t stand out and couldn’t deliver the carry performance the team needed. That’s exactly what Damonte brings to the team, a mid laner that can potentially carry.

In 2019, Damonte was fundamental to Clutch Gaming’s success. Not only did he perform at a high level, behind the scenes, Damonte showcased leadership skills. Damonte’s great attitude pushed the team forward and that’s what Golden Guardians needs this season, a leader that can work with Closer.

Not everything is golden in the LCS

While this are great news for Damonte, it also means that Goldenglue is being demoted to the Academy roster. Apparently, Goldenglue wasn’t part of the conversation and wasn’t made ready for the change.

It’s unclear if Goldenglue will attempt to move to a different LCS team. Right now, no other LCS team is in need of a mid laner, so he might have to settle for his new place in Golden Guardians Academy.