The LCS Spring Finals weekend is just a day away. FlyQuest and Golden Guardians will compete in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 8 for the right to challenge Cloud9 for the LCS Spring Split trophy. FlyQuest isn’t leaving anything to chance, however, announcing today a big change to its starting roster.
FlyQuest will return to the starting lineup that brought them so much success earlier in the LCS Spring Split by benching starting support Bill “Eyla” Nguyen and reinstating Kim “Winsome” Dong-keon to the support role.
The lineup change was announced on Twitter in an update video from FlyQuest president and chief gaming officer Chris “PapaSmithy” Smith and general manager Nick Phan. It’s a shift that brings the FlyQuest roster back to the beginning of the Spring Split when Eyla was delayed from joining FlyQuest as the team’s intended starting support due to visa issues. While Eyla and FlyQuest waited for that paperwork to be sorted out, Winsome stepped into the support role and promptly helped the team to an 8-1 start to begin the split, including an impressive victory over C9 that cemented FlyQuest as the team to beat in the LCS at the time.
The team encountered more bumps in the road once Eyla finally rejoined the starting lineup, going 6-4 in the remaining games of the split, including a tiebreaker loss to C9 for the first seed in the playoffs. The team picked up a bit of momentum by sweeping 100 Thieves to open their playoff run, but C9 again swatted them back down to Earth with a 3-0 of their own to put FlyQuest in the lower bracket.
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PapaSmithy and Phan noted how Winsome has grown while playing in the NACL with FlyQuest Challengers since Eyla stepped into the starting roster, with Phan specifically saying Winsome “did a great job in finding his voice” after stepping down to the NACL. Phan also noted how Winsome has impressed FlyQuest with his response to feedback.
“One thing that we’ve been really impressed by with Winsome is just his ability to take all the feedback that we could possibly give him and work on that in the immediate next scrim, solo queue game, review, whatever it is,” Phan said, praising the support for his flexibility. “He’s been hungry and he’s been malleable, and I think a lot of that he’s going to be able to bring to the table this weekend.”
FlyQuest will need that ability to pull off the starting roster swap on short notice. They face a resurgent Golden Guardians that shocked many by making it this far to even earn the right to play C9, a team they haven’t been able to get the better of in months.
FlyQuest and LCS fans everywhere will see if the change pays off when the team takes on Golden Guardians on April 8 to open the 2023 LCS Spring Finals.
Published: Apr 7, 2023 07:49 pm