"First time?" - Team Vitality, probably
Another Disappointing Super Team? Why FlyQuest Might Not Even Make Playoffs
The hype was real around FlyQuest after they revealed their star-studded roster for the 2023 season, featuring the Korean imports Lee "VicLa" Dae-kwang and Lee "Prince" Chae-hwan.
Despite a third place finish in spring that did not quite meet the expectations, the team was expected to have another shot at the title in the summer split. However, after their most recent loss to 100 Thieves, it seems like they will have to fight to make the playoffs in the first place.
T1 Superstar Faker Takes Indefinite BreakFlyQuest Struggle In LCS Summer Split 2023
Initially, the match against 100 Thieves did not look all too bad for FlyQuest. They managed to keep the game even throughout the laning phase and built an advantage for their own bot lane as they killed 100 Thieves' bot laner Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng twice under his own turret.
However, after the laning phase, everything seemed to fall out of FlyQuest's hands once more as their opponents picked up the pace in the mid-game and converted their advantage into a victory just before hitting the 30-minute mark. FlyQuest now find themselves in 9th place with a 3-7 score line, searching for a ray of light in this dire situation.
Is A Roster Change Inevitable For FlyQuest?
One thing that is out of question is the quality of this FlyQuest roster. Top laner and 2013 world champion Jeong "Impact" Eon-Yeong has won his fifth LCS title with Evil Geniuses in the 2022 spring split. Jungler Mingyi "Spica" Lu has been regarded as one of the best junglers in the LCS after his meteoric rise at TSM. Support Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme was supposed to be an upgrade over Bill "Eyla" Nguyen, who has shown inconsistent levels of performance during the spring split.
However, it seems like the team has not fully clicked on the rift in the same way it did in spring. Considering their mid-game struggles, many things point towards communication issues within the team. FlyQuest would be wise to work on a solution quickly, as the ongoing week will not get any easier with upcoming matches against second-placed Golden Guardians and the resurging Dignitas squad.
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One option that FlyQuest has used in the past would be to promote their Challenger League support Kim "Winsome" Dong-keon to the main team once more. Winsome has already played the first few weeks in the LCS spring split following Eyla's visa issues, but was later promoted to the main team again after Eyla failed to sync up with bot laner Prince. So far, no indications have been made towards a possible roster swap.
That being said, the LCS format may be lenient enough to give the struggling FlyQuest team a little more time to consider their options. They only need to finish the regular season in the top eight positions, although a top six placement would make a potential playoffs run easier as they get to start their journey in the upper bracket.