LCS: Why Goldenglue Drove Golden Guardians to the Playoffs

Ahead of the LCS playoffs, we look at the glue of one of the most surprising stories of the season.

Jensen, Bjergsen, PowerofEvil and more, there’s no shortage of mid lane stars in the LCS. Behind all those great names, though, there is one who doesn’t quite get the recognition of them.

Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer was once considered one of the worst mid laners in the LCS. But, after the Drive piece on Goldenglue and Golden Guardians’ shocking surge into the Spring Split playoffs, it’s time to re-evaluate Goldenglue’s legacy in North American League of Legends.

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Goldenglue saw his first LCS action starting for Team Dignitas back in 2014. His time with Dignitas was short and it started what seemed to be the pattern of his career: find a team play well for a while then get benched or replaced.

Six years later, now the starting mid for Golden Guardians, he’s been on 14 different teams in his career, including stints in the Academy League as recently as last season. Goldenglue has had one of the rockiest careers of any player in pro League of Legends, but also one of the longest.

Despite the benchings, he lives on and works that much harder. He famously bootcamped in Korea on his own back in 2017 in an attempt to improve and stand out to pro teams.

His work ethic seems to be the one thing that keeps him going in the LCS. He may not be the most talented player, but he definitely doesn’t have motivation issues. That drive spurred Golden Guardians to give a chance as the full-time starter in the LCS during the 2020 Spring Split.

While he isn’t having the best year statistically and ranks close to the bottom in most categories among mid laners he’s rarely rated at the bottom. During their last weekend of games, when they were backed up in a do-or-die situation and needing wins Goldenglue popped off.

Facing off with FlyQuest on the last day of the season, opposite maybe the best mid laner in the league in PowerofEvil, Goldenglue had a massive 3/0/6 Zoe game that secured them a tiebreaker to make the playoffs. In that tiebreaker, he took down another legendary mid in Froggen on Zoe to propel the team into playoffs.

Goldenglue’s story of overcoming adversity has come through not only in his illustrious career, but also the stories in the DRIVE feature on him. Even when he was a football player in Texas, he had to overcome stronger players blocking his path to a starting job but continued to work harder.

His story of overcoming adversity is the perfect microcosm for his team. Golden Guardians were counted as a bottom-tier team by everyone before the season, but through hard work, they overcame and pushed beyond what they thought was possible. No doubt, the work ethic of their mid laner inspired the rest of his teammates.