The boys in green are flying high.
The group stage of the LCS Spring Split ends in just two weeks and so far, it's still pretty much open on which team can secure a spot in the playoffs. Popular favourites like Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses have so far been able to keep their top-three placements in the spring split. Heavily-invested super teams like 100 Thieves and Team Liquid have underperformed this season, currently languishing in seventh and eighth respectively.
But if one such team has made a genuine impact at this year's LCS Spring Split, it is none other than FlyQuest. Ever since its second week of games, FlyQuest has been at the top of the LCS group stage leaderboard. The team's only losses so far came against TSM during the LCS' first super week and against EG last week. But aside from that, FlyQuest has been very much consistent with its performances.
What's different about FlyQuest this season?
Ever since attending Worlds for the first time back in 2020, FlyQuest has been unable to replicate that sort of form. Their 2021 season saw them fail to make it past the group stage in both the LCS spring and summer splits, which also saw plenty of roster changes being made as well. While their 2022 season was slightly better with the team making it to the regional playoffs, it still wasn't enough for them to qualify for either MSI or Worlds.
After even more roster changes during the off-season last year, it appears that the organisation is finally prepared to challenge for a top spot. Their biggest move of the off-season came with their swoop of two rising LCK talents Dae-gwang "VicLa" Lee and Lee "Prince" Chae-hwan. The inclusion of LCS veterans like former world champion Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong as well as Mingyi "Spica" Lu alongside newcomer Bill "Elya" Nguyen has proven to be a shrewd piece of business.
Prince, in particular, has been a great addition to the squad. The former SANDBOX Gaming AD carry has been one of the LCS' standout players this split, bagging two 'Player of the Week' awards as well as five group stage MVP awards. Price has grown from strength to strength ever since moving from the LCK, where he was also awarded the LCK 'Player of the Split' award last summer. He is currently the top farmer in the LCS with 10.5 CSM as well as sharing the record for most kills in a single game alongside Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng with 14 (which was also against 100 Thieves!)
Amongst all the AD carries in the LCS, Prince currently has the second-highest KDA with 9.2 while also holding the highest average kills at 6.2 per game. He also averages the highest CS at 10.5 as well as having the highest GPM at 508. As for how useful he is in teamfights, Prince is currently fourth in assists at 4.2 per game while his kill participation percentage is quite low at only 67.9 per cent. Of course, he does offset his team-fighting with great farming capabilities.
VicLa's inclusion has also been a major contributing factor in the team winning their mid-lane duels. The LCK Summer Split 2022 "Rookie of the Year" has been a formidable force in the mid-lane for FlyQuest in recent games, particularly his Sylas versus Cloud9 in the second week. He is also the second-highest FlyQuest player with three MVP awards, followed by Spica with two and Impact with one.
With both Prince and VicLa's inclusion into the starting roster, FlyQuest has since been a force to be reckoned with. The team has looked a lot more stable and with a clear and distinct playstyle. Throw in the level of experience both Impact and Spica has with the LCS and you can see why the team has been performing so well over the past few weeks. Even Eyla has been a decent pick-up for the squad after some great performances at the LCS Proving Grounds and Academy League.
What's next for FlyQuest?
Having more or less confirmed its spot in the spring split playoffs, the team still has five more games to go before the end of the group stage. There are still the likes of Cloud9, Golden Guardians, and TSM to tend to with all three teams still fighting for a playoff spot. Of course, the likes of Team Liquid and Immortals are still within contention to qualify, but the odds of that happening are highly unlikely, given how both teams have failed to perform so far.
FlyQuest's opening match was a dominant victory over Team Liquid, a squad that saw plenty of imports coming in but has not been able to succeed thus far. With the rematch happening later today, it will be interesting to see how Team Liquid will play this out. Another loss and their spring split run could very well be over. As for FlyQuest, this will be the best time for the team to experiment with compositions and strategies with one eye on the playoffs.
While it is still too soon to say how far FlyQuest can go in the playoffs, they are within a shout of actually winning the spring split. The closest the org came was in 2020 when it finished as first runner-up twice in the spring and summer splits. However, with an entirely different squad and playstyle that has been eating up the LCS, this could be the org's best bet to finally clinch some silverware.
Last spring, FlyQuest lost to EG in the lower bracket quarterfinals 3-1. In the summer, a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Team Liquid saw FlyQuest drop down to the lower bracket where they lost 3-2 to TSM after going 2-1 up in the series. And with all that being in the past now, FlyQuest will hopefully be able to go further than ever before this season.
Week seven of the LCS Spring Split starts later today with Team Liquid and FlyQuest to kickstart the day. This is followed by Golden Guardians and 100 Thieves, two teams that are in the top six and hoping to stay there. Another top-six match comes right after with Evil Geniuses and Cloud9. TSM versus Immortals will be the fourth match of the day while Counter-Logic Gaming and Dignitas finish off the first day of week seven.
