FlyQuest celebrated a successful year domestically, reaching back-to-back LCS finals and qualifying for their first League of Legends World Championship. Their first game on the international stage today ended with the taste of defeat, however, and the team has returned to the drawing board ahead of their next match in the tournament’s group stage.
The team was placed in Group D, otherwise known as the “Group of Death,” alongside DRX, Unicorns of Love, and Top Esports. FlyQuest faced the top seed from China for their first showing of the tournament today but were obliterated in a 31-minute route. Despite the loss, however, mid laner Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage believes his team found valuable takeaways from the match.
“Well obviously it wasn’t the start we hoped for, but after falling behind in the early game I was still happy that we pulled off a fight and tried to fight with that large of a deficit in gold,” PowerOfEvil said. “I feel like next game we just need to be ready, maybe have a better plan.”
The German mid laner believes his team performed better in the later stages of the game but has clear issues to fix moving forward, specifically citing their poor early-game approach. While they prepare for their next match, the North American team will likely target a few key issues.
“I feel like we need to just be having a cleaner early game like one-vs-ones, like river fights, two-vs-twos, and three-vs-threes,” PowerOfEvil said. “I think that’s the main thing because I feel like we just lost not because of draft, but because they beat us in the early game.”
Although TES is widely considered to be one of the best teams competing at Worlds, PowerOfEvil doesn’t think they’re impenetrable. The FlyQuest mid laner said that while the LPL representatives are consistent in their warding patterns and jungle routes, their affinity for taking frequent skirmishes stands out as a punishable weakness.
FlyQuest will be going head-to-head with UOL next, a team who made a strong name for themselves in play-ins. Whereas DRX and TES pose threats as representatives from the world’s strongest regions, UOL offers a different challenge for PowerOfEvil.
“Unicorns Of Love is obviously still a home to me because that was where my career started,” PowerOfEvil said. “That is where I qualified to the LCS and I made a name for myself.”
The German mid laner played for the organization in the early years of his professional career. He signed with UOL in 2014 before eventually parting ways with the organization to join Origen for the 2016 EU LCS season. Neither PowerOfEvil nor UOL are representing Europe on the international stage anymore, but both have found success in other regions and are looking to hoist this year’s Summoner’s Cup for their respective leagues.