Despite Golden Guardians being favored by most fans and analysts going into the Worlds Qualifying Series, Team BDS completely shut them out with a 3-0 win and sent NA’s fourth seed home before Worlds 2023 officially kicked off.
Regardless of how this series went, one of these two teams would set a record neither region would want to be known for; the fastest time a team has been sent home from a world championship in League of Legends.
While the WQS isn’t technically a part of Worlds 2023 and is instead a series that determines the final seeding, it is, for all intents and purposes, a part of the world championship. Considering it takes place the day before Play-Ins kicks off, it’s hard to separate the two.
Golden Guardians truly lived up to the NA (near airport) legacy by not only losing to Team BDS, but by doing it as fast as possible in 3-0 fashion.
Team BDS dominate Golden Guardians in one-sided stomp
Team BDS is a relatively young organization within the LEC. The team has only been around since the start of 2022, and 2023 has been by far their most successful year despite it being far from flawless.
With how heavily Europe is weighted toward G2 and how far that team stands out from the competition, it was anyone’s guess how a team like BDS would match up against Golden Guardian’s, NA’s fourth seed.
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That said, pretty much everyone guessed that Golden Guardians would come out on top based on their experience at MSI and their stellar regular season showing. Team BDS didn’t just defy these expectations, they crushed them.
CLEAN SWEEP:@TeamBDS take down @GoldenGuardians and win the #WQS2023! pic.twitter.com/dcwUqCzQpx
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 9, 2023
While Game 2 saw Golden Guardians trying to claw things back, games 1 and 3 weren’t close. Adam got the better of Licorice in the highly anticipated top lane matchup, Gori got outpaced by nuc in most scenarios, and River didn’t manage to find the sort of leads he’s known for forcing. Topside was where BDS’ matches were won.
Dexerto spoke to huhi ahead of the series, and he was confident that the series wouldn’t be close. As it turns out, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
NA have truly lived up to the near airport memes in this case with an airport speedrun to kick off North America’s Worlds 2023 record, and it’s a sour end for an organization that saw a massive resurgence in 2023. It remains to be seen if Golden Guardians decide to stick with their roster in 2024 or decide to make some changes and reach for greater heights.