Golden Guardians vs Movistar R7 Preview and Predictions: Mid-Season Invitational 2023 Play-In Stage

The LLA Champions have exceeded all expectations, beating the representatives of the VCS – but can they get through the 2^nd seed of the LCS.

The first segment of the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational is almost over! Two teams, G2 Esports and Bilibili Gaming have already qualified for the Bracket Stage, but the last spot is still up for the taking! Golden Guardians are still in the run for it – and to everyone’s surprise, so are Movistar R7.

Golden Guardians vs Movistar R7 Preview

Golden Guardians

The 2^nd seed of the North American League of Legends tournament is continuing it’s streak of miracles: after finishing 6^th in the LCS Spring Split, they managed to make it to the finals, beating FlyQuest and Evil Geniuses along the way.

At the MSI, the defeated GAM Esports 2-0 in two sub-30 minute matches, thanks to Kim “Gori” Tae-woo and Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes, each of whom carried one of the matches against the Vietnamese squad. Golden Guardians have made it to the Group A Finals, where they had to face Bilibili Gaming. While they couldn’t beat the Chinese squad, they were able to put a dent in them, beating Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin and his teammates in the second match of the series thanks to Eric “Licorice” Ritchie – and that is an accomplishment on its own.

Movistar R7

But the winners of the 2023 LLA Opening Split are on the path to greatness as well. Movistar R7 had a rocky start as they had to face Bilibili Gaming in their opening match, who outclassed them in almost every aspect of the game. The biggest difference was in the botlane, as Lorenzo “Ceo” Tévez and Pedro “Lyonz” Luis Peralta could barely fight against the Chinese duo. Due to this fact, everyone thought that Movistar R7 will be the first team to get knocked out of the tournament.

However, the LLA squad proved everyone wrong after beating GAM Esports on Friday. They came out swinging with Cho “Bong” Bo-woong carrying the team through the early game of the first match, while Ceo finished the ordeal. However, GAM was not going down without a fight, so Movistar lost the second match. In the third game, all of the members were in the zone, running circles around their opponents – which meant that they beat GAM Esports in under 28 minutes, proceeding to the Lower Bracket Final of Group A.

Golden Guardians vs Movistar R7 Predictions

Movistar R7 had a commendable performance so far: virtually all of the analysts as well as the community has put them at 13^th place of the event, but they proved they are at least better than GAM Esports and DetonatioN FocusMe. However, Golden Guardians were able to take a game off of Bilibili Gaming, which was not possible for the LLA squad. I believe this indicates that GG should be winning this battle – but the clash will be legendary, especially in the midlane between Gori and Jeong “Mireu” Jo-bin.