Goldenglue Receives a Golden Invitation
Riot·4/1/2014, 10:21:32 PM·0 votes·1,348 views
Last week, Dignitas broke hearts and dropped jaws when they announced that Scarra would no longer compete as the team's mid laner. His replacement? A relatively unknown Challenger Series competitor by the name of Goldenglue. Within the next week, Goldenglue could become a household name, but right now he's just the "new guy." The new guy who's been asked to fill some of the biggest shoes in North American eSports.
But just who is Goldenglue?
Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer attends high school in Texas, making him one of the youngest players on the circuit, and before this weekend he lived a relatively low-key life. His Twitter and Twitch accounts each have fewer than 4,000 followers, so when Dignitas announced his acquisition from compLexity, most people were hearing his name for the first time. The exceptions consisted of those who followed the NA Challenger Series, where Goldenglue competed as compLexity.Red's mid laner and helped them achieve two Top 8 finishes (3rd and 7th-8th).
His sudden promotion from the Challenger Series to the LCS played out lightning-quick in the public's eye, but, behind the scenes, this move was a long time coming. Goldenglue stated that in Season 1, he sat at a mere 800 ELO. That placed him in the lowest competitive tiers there were. Over the coming seasons, he studied, learned, and evolved.
Successful teams often possess a unifying personality. TSM sports a group of veterans and crowd-pleasers while CLG boasts Doublelift and Doublelift's Entourage. Dignitas has five chill guys who like to smile. A lot. That may hardly seem like a distinction to most, but Dignitas' longevity and success actually owes a lot to this cornerstone.
Time and again, all across eSports, teams with tight, powerful chemistry have overcome heavily favored rosters chocked full of superstars. Just look at SK Gaming - not a single member of the team can be found within the Top 10 of the All-Star voting leaderboards.
In Goldenglue, Dignitas found a kindred spirit who appears to have already meshed with his new teammates. In an interview on team-dignitas.org, Goldenglue gave us a little insight when he said, "[On compLexity], I learned how important it is to listen to other people, even if you think you're right. Just to let other people talk . . . even if you think they're completely wrong." On a team that rarely shows agitation or arrogance, Goldenglue's humble persona should gel quite well.
Over the next week, Dignitas will need a lot of that humility. The team has run aground in the middle of the NA LCS ranks. They managed to climb up one spot in the rankings this week despite losing a match to Cloud 9, but they have not yet solidified a spot in the Summer Split. Sitting at 4th place, Dignitas needs to bring their A-game next week if they want to fend off the likes of Curse and, more threateningly, Coast, who won both of their matches this week.
Roster changes tend to bring in a breath of fresh air and excitement, but are more often than not are followed by a slump of inconsistency and confusion. Dignitas covered that spectrum in just two games this weekend.
Champion pools have made and broken entire careers. When a player specializes in assassins and the current meta favors those champions, a superstar is born; when the meta shifts in favor of sustained DPS, he struggles, or retires.
That may be a slight simplification, but it's doubtful this ebb and flow of the meta will become a major issue for Goldenglue regardless. His champion pool has shown an impressive amount of versatility during his brief time in the Challenger Series and, more recently, on the LCS stage. In nine broadcasted matches, Goldenglue selected eight different champions. More importantly, the champions he chose covered a wide spectrum of mid lane play styles. He's played assassins and carries, AD and AP, melee champions and poke champions.
Opposing teams won't have the option of simply banning out Goldenglue in champion select and taking him out of the game. This will prove invaluable to Dignitas, especially in the immediate future, as teams tend to single out whom they perceive as weak links, i.e. "the new guy."
Dignitas had a vision when they picked up Goldenglue. The organization saw a versatile player with a compatible mindset and a drive to win. But he is but one talented mid laner in a pool that includes the likes of Bjergsen, Link, Shiphtur, and more. If Goldenglue and Dignitas want to find success, they'll have to strengthen their new camaraderie into a tight and disciplined force.
Gilean splits his time between feeding bot, writing about esports, and feeding mid. If you’d like to receive tips on how to feed harder, you can follow him @HHGilean
From Humble Beginnings...
Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer attends high school in Texas, making him one of the youngest players on the circuit, and before this weekend he lived a relatively low-key life. His Twitter and Twitch accounts each have fewer than 4,000 followers, so when Dignitas announced his acquisition from compLexity, most people were hearing his name for the first time. The exceptions consisted of those who followed the NA Challenger Series, where Goldenglue competed as compLexity.Red's mid laner and helped them achieve two Top 8 finishes (3rd and 7th-8th).
His sudden promotion from the Challenger Series to the LCS played out lightning-quick in the public's eye, but, behind the scenes, this move was a long time coming. Goldenglue stated that in Season 1, he sat at a mere 800 ELO. That placed him in the lowest competitive tiers there were. Over the coming seasons, he studied, learned, and evolved.
Team Chemistry
Successful teams often possess a unifying personality. TSM sports a group of veterans and crowd-pleasers while CLG boasts Doublelift and Doublelift's Entourage. Dignitas has five chill guys who like to smile. A lot. That may hardly seem like a distinction to most, but Dignitas' longevity and success actually owes a lot to this cornerstone.
Time and again, all across eSports, teams with tight, powerful chemistry have overcome heavily favored rosters chocked full of superstars. Just look at SK Gaming - not a single member of the team can be found within the Top 10 of the All-Star voting leaderboards.
In Goldenglue, Dignitas found a kindred spirit who appears to have already meshed with his new teammates. In an interview on team-dignitas.org, Goldenglue gave us a little insight when he said, "[On compLexity], I learned how important it is to listen to other people, even if you think you're right. Just to let other people talk . . . even if you think they're completely wrong." On a team that rarely shows agitation or arrogance, Goldenglue's humble persona should gel quite well.
Over the next week, Dignitas will need a lot of that humility. The team has run aground in the middle of the NA LCS ranks. They managed to climb up one spot in the rankings this week despite losing a match to Cloud 9, but they have not yet solidified a spot in the Summer Split. Sitting at 4th place, Dignitas needs to bring their A-game next week if they want to fend off the likes of Curse and, more threateningly, Coast, who won both of their matches this week.
Roster changes tend to bring in a breath of fresh air and excitement, but are more often than not are followed by a slump of inconsistency and confusion. Dignitas covered that spectrum in just two games this weekend.
A Tough Ban
Champion pools have made and broken entire careers. When a player specializes in assassins and the current meta favors those champions, a superstar is born; when the meta shifts in favor of sustained DPS, he struggles, or retires.
That may be a slight simplification, but it's doubtful this ebb and flow of the meta will become a major issue for Goldenglue regardless. His champion pool has shown an impressive amount of versatility during his brief time in the Challenger Series and, more recently, on the LCS stage. In nine broadcasted matches, Goldenglue selected eight different champions. More importantly, the champions he chose covered a wide spectrum of mid lane play styles. He's played assassins and carries, AD and AP, melee champions and poke champions.
Opposing teams won't have the option of simply banning out Goldenglue in champion select and taking him out of the game. This will prove invaluable to Dignitas, especially in the immediate future, as teams tend to single out whom they perceive as weak links, i.e. "the new guy."
Dignitas had a vision when they picked up Goldenglue. The organization saw a versatile player with a compatible mindset and a drive to win. But he is but one talented mid laner in a pool that includes the likes of Bjergsen, Link, Shiphtur, and more. If Goldenglue and Dignitas want to find success, they'll have to strengthen their new camaraderie into a tight and disciplined force.
Gilean splits his time between feeding bot, writing about esports, and feeding mid. If you’d like to receive tips on how to feed harder, you can follow him @HHGilean
IM A BEATS SWAGER :D
say?