After a bug resulted in a disadvantage to one of the players in Worlds 2023 qualifying match between Team Liquid and Golden Guardians, LCS was compelled to remake the match
Team Liquid and Golden Guardians faced off in the LCS’s Lower Bracket semifinal match on August 13. Which team would receive a straight ticket to Worlds 2023 and which would have to compete in another qualification in order to attend it will depend on the outcome of this match.
The first two games of the series were won by Team Liquid, and it appeared TL would quickly win the series. But Golden Guardians made a comeback attempt by winning games three and four.
“GG Huhi took Unsealed Spellbook and switched to Teleport. The Teleport summoner spell switched to Unleashed Teleport which caused Huhi to permanently have Teleport instead of his original summoner spells.”
The fifth game was intended to decide which team would go to Worlds, but it was interrupted by a Golden Guardians player who was impacted by a bug. In addition, LCS provides an additional justification for the remake:
“Due to the significant disadvantage caused by this bug that cannot be resolved by chronobreak, League Officials will remake Game 5 of Golden Guardians vs Team Liquid.”
Due to the bug, a pause was declared 12 minutes into the 5th game. The game was stopped for 40 minutes of the broadcast until LCS decided to remake it.
After the break, the game was resumed with no alterations other than the fact that Huhi now has Unsealed Spellbook instead of Teleport as was initially intended.
Golden Guardians’ reverse sweep did not go as planned, as Team Liquid won the match 3-2 and qualified for Worlds 2023. Commentators have questioned if Golden Guardians could have won if their streak hadn’t been stopped by the bug.
They will now drop in position and compete in the Worlds Qualifying Series against a team from the LEC to determine which team would represent the West in the final Worlds in 2023.