Cloud9 vs Golden Guardians

A most dangerous match-up. That's perhaps the best adjective one can use to describe it. Neither of these two teams have been particularly consistent lately and yet we know what they're truly capable of. At their best, they're quite formidable, if not even great and amazing, but they're not always able to reach that level and perform at their best, for varying different reasons.

The Golden Guardians are still trying to figure out how exactly they want to play as a five-man unit. They're incredible at what they do but they're not well-rounded or well equipped to tango with the who's who of the LCS (not yet, at least). Cloud9, on the other hand, have fallen off a proverbial cliff. They've regressed beyond all measure and comprehension, which makes our job in this particular case a nightmarish one. Will they bounce back? Is their confidence in shambles? Is this just the beginning of the end?

There's really no way for us to know and it's annoying to say the least. How does one go about betting, then? Does one side with the (heavy) favorites and hope that, someway and somehow, they've managed to shore up their glaring flaws and weaknesses? Or, perhaps, go all in on the underdog and hope that they'll find a way to capitalize and exploit their struggling adversaries? If you do the former and Cloud9 happens to lose, you'll feel foolish for ever thinking they could pull it together in such a short period of time. If you go with the Golden Guardians and they end up botching it (which they almost certainly will) you'll once again question your sanity for thinking they could pull off the seemingly impossible.

Cloud9 are favored here for a very good reason, but the fashion in which they were outclassed by 100 Thieves still lingers in everyone's minds. It was not a competitive affair, but they *did*, in all fairness, lose to one of the very best teams in North America — hardly a shocker. The Golden Guardians, on the other hand, barely got into the playoffs, and that's quite telling, too. They're great overall but they're still not good enough to compete on even footing with the many giants of the LCS. Not yet, at least. They've shown great potential but that means very little in face of such a tremendous challenge — they're scheduled to face a team that is far more versatile and capable than they are (at least on a good day).

That's sort of what we're banking on here — our hope is that this discrepancy between them (in terms of talent, experience, and ability to prepare) will end up being the difference-maker. And, well, we have every right to believe in such a scenario. Whether things will actually resolve that way still remains to be seen, but Cloud9 are better, and everyone knows it, too. They also have a perfect 2-0 record against the Golden Guardians so they should be well aware of the kind of challenge they'll pose. That doesn't, of course, mean they're guaranteed to win but they're favored for a very good reason and should be able to find a way to win come hell or high water.