Golden Guardians Announce Roster Changes Ahead of 2022 Season

League of Legends team, Golden Guardians, announced roster changes ahead of the 2022 LoL season. As revealed, Golden Guardians are parting ways with three of its academy players.

While many other League of Legends esports teams are already deep into the offseason, making changes left and right, it wasn’t until Thursday, November 11, that GG’s offseason began. The team announced they’re restructuring its academy roster, replacing three players.

Golden Guardians Academy is parting ways with jungler Tae-ho “Timothy” “RoseThorn” Kim, mid laner Jong-yun “Jay” “Yunbee” Choi, and support Leandro “Newbie” Marcos.

“Today, with heavy hearts, we bid farewell to RoseThorn, Yunbee, and Newbie. It’s been a joy to work alongside them and watch them grow, and we’ll be happily supporting them in whatever lies ahead next,” read the announcement on Twitter.

The news comes as a shock to many, considering Golden Guardians Academy’s success in the 2021 season. Although the team got off to a rough start and finished in eighth-place in the LCS Academy Summer Split, GG’s Academy roster finished third in the Summer Proving Grounds.

However, it seems like Golden Guardians are taking a development approach to its roster for the 2022 season. That said, it remains to be seen who will fill in the vacant spots.

Jungler RoseThorn has been with Golden Guardians Academy for just over a year, having joined the team in November 2020. The Korean LoL esports pro was previously a member of Zenith Esports, having started his esports career with TFT Green in April 2020.

Since joining the North American esports organization, RoseThorn won Giant Slayer Gauntlet 2021 Spring and Group B of the Challengers Uprising Season 3. However, his most notable achievement happened in September, when GG Academy finished third in the Proving Grounds.

The Canadian mid laner, Yunbee, joined Golden Guardians Academy in November 2020. He got picked up by Golden Guardians in the LCS Scouting Grounds 2020 Draft as the no.6 overall pick.

Yunbee has previously played for some lesser teams, including XT Esports, Polar Ace, Hyper Nova, and Lotus Esports.

Out of the three, Newbie is one of the most recognizable names to part ways with Golden Guardians. The Argentinian support player got acquired by GG to play in its LCS roster, unlike his teammates.

Unfortunately, Newbie’s stay in the LCS was relatively short-lived, as he got demoted to the academy roster after only five months. In GG’s attempt to bounce back following a poor start to the season, they replaced Newbie with Jonathan “Chime” Pomponio, who has since secured a spot in the LCS starting lineup.

Before joining Golden Guardians, Newbie played for Isurus and All Knights in the CLS and LLA. With All Knights, Newbie finished runner-up in the LLS 2019 Closing Playoffs and won the LLA 2020 Opening Playoffs.

Beyond that, Newbie helped All Knights win the LLA 2020 Closing regular season, yet lost in the LLA 2020 Closing Playoffs finals, thus missing out on qualifying for the 2020 LoL World Championship.

With the departure of Newbie, RoseThorn, and Yunbee, Golden Guardians Academy is left with only two active players in the team. That includes ADC Jacob “Prismal” Feinstein and top laner Aiden “Niles” Tidwell.

The North American LoL esports team has yet to reveal who will fill in the mid lane, jungle, and support roles. However, there are still three months left before the 2022 season begins, so GG have plenty of time to find replacements.

As for GG’s LCS roster, the organization has yet to announce any changes. However, it’s clear that the team is taking a development-heavy approach.

Chime and Prismal are both signed until November 2022, while the rest of the players – across the LCS and Academy leagues – are contracted until November 2023.

The League of Legends offseason officially begins on Monday, November 15. So, we might get an answer of who will replace GG Academy departees at the earliest, sometime next week.