It should come as no surprise that it didn’t take long for Genesis 7 champion Zain to get picked up by a top tier esports team.
Zain, who had parted ways with Panda Global, has officially signed with the Golden Guardians, an esports team that is owned by the Golden State Warriors, one of the most popular NBA teams.
This is a strong pickup for the Golden Guardians, as Zain is currently ranked 6th in the world for Super Smash Bros. Melee and with his strong victory at Genesis 7, he’s looking to move up the rankings in 2020. Zain is also gaining a solid following on Twitch, with clips from his stream regularly reaching the top of the Smash Bros subreddit.
Golden Guardians was formed near the end of 2017, exclusively focused on League of Legends. Near the end of 2019, the team announced they would be expanding into other games as well, such as Apex Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and World of Warcraft.
While relatively new in the esports world, Golden Guardians has the backing of the powerful Warriors franchise, which also includes a connection to NBA superstar Steph Curry, who himself is quite invested in the esports world. We can only hope the team continues to grow and doesn’t go down the path of Echo Fox.
We’ll also see what other teams dive into the Melee market; with Mew2King no longer a part of Echo Fox, it’s almost certain a top tier team will pick up the fighting game legend. Mew2King’s skill in many Smash games as well as his large audience on Twitch and YouTube can only mean that an aggressive bidding war will be taking place for him.
