100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians Preview: 2023 LCS Spring Playoffs

100 Thieves are looking for redemption against the Golden Guardians in the lower bracket.

Finally, we are at the stretch in a split where the stakes are their highest. One series loss means the defeated team’s season ends here. 100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians is shaping up to be one of the least predictable series we’ve seen the LCS in recent times. In a year when there were almost no consistent teams, 100T and GG are our two streakiest teams in the league. During the regular season, both teams were on either big win streaks or big loss streaks.

In the end, 100 Thieves' star power managed to carry them to an upper-bracket spot, but where we saw their flaws get exposed by a better team. Golden Guardians might seem like they lack similar big name players at first glance, but there is a reason why their mid laner Gori was selected 1st team All-Pro.

100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians Preview

100 Thieves

In all our power rankings or previous previews, the win condition for 100 Thieves was always the same, Doublelift or bust. They aren’t obvious to this fact either. During their FlyQuest series, it was obvious what their plan was both from the drafting and in-game strategy. It can be argued whether or not picking Jinx/Thresh the third time in a row was a mistake or not, but if it’s not that exact duo it’s almost certain they will play another hyper-carry.

The plan itself is not even that bad. It’s the reason why they made it into the playoffs in the first place. But their execution of this plan was so uncoordinated once they met strong resistance from FlyQuest, and the worry is two days is not enough time to put in more practice. They will have to get better at teamfighting, or communication if it’s their issue, between the limited time they have in two series. Because from what they have shown so far, and especially if Golden Guardians follows FlyQuest’s plan of banning Lee Sin and Viego, it doesn’t seem likely another big carry other than Doublelift will appear out of nowhere.

Golden Guardians

Back in 2020 Summer, Golden Guardians was the team who almost cut the TSM’s championship run short. Admittedly they don’t have any current player who was on that roster as well, funnily the GG jungler back then was Closer, but this 100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians series will be a second chance for the organization itself.

When looking at the individual matchups, Golden Guardians stacks up pretty well against the opposition. Licorice had a bit of a rough split, but it’s not like 100 Thieves play toward top lane either. Sure Doublelift has been amazing, but we’ve seen flashes from the GG bot lane that said they can compete with the best of them. Most importantly though, while 100 Thieves mid jungle struggled to create anything in the early games, Gori and River have been terrorizing the Rift during their wins. This will be their biggest win condition. If River can play around Gori well, get him ahead and maybe start influencing other lanes, Golden Guardians will give themselves a good chance in this series.

100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians Predictions

Before the FlyQuest series, it would’ve been easy to predict a 3-0 victory for 100 Thieves. But we saw 100 Thieves' scaling strategy is very open to punishing, especially since they make a lot of mistakes during late games. Still, they should be a better team than Golden Guardians and they should manage to close out the series at the end. I’m expecting a close five-game series ending with a 100 Thieves victory.

How to watch 100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians

100 Thieves vs Golden Guardians will be played on March 25 for a chance to qualify for the Finals Weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina. You can watch the games on lolesports.com, or the official LCS Youtube and Twitch channels. For Spanish-speaking fans, LCS also started their Spanish broadcast in partnership with LLA, you can find the stream on the LLA Twitch channel.

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