Road to Season Seven: FlyQuest

FlyQuest’s veteran players make their long awaited return to the North American League Championship Series after climbing their way through the Challenger Series.

• Top – An “BalIs” Van Le
• Jungle – Galen “Moon” Holgate
• Mid – Hai “Hai” Du Lam
• ADC – Johnny “Altec” Ru
• Support – Daerek “LemonNation” Hart

2016 Season

Cloud9 announced the creation of its new Challenger Series roster on April 22, 2016. This roster consisted of many C9 members who had either previously retired or were on the bench for the main team. The only player on the team whom was not already part of C9 in some facet was Altec, C9 Challenger’s AD carry. The goal of this team was to use this veteran talent to dominate the NA CS and ultimately make it into the LCS.

C9.C easily dominated the Challenger scene, finishing the NA CS in the No. 1 spot without losing a single series. Heading into the promotion tournament, C9.C’s first match was against NRG. C9.C easily took this series, beating NRG 3-0, thus qualifying them for the NA LCS. Since no organization is allowed to have two teams in the LCS, Cloud9 had to sell the spot. After many months of waiting, it was finally announced on Jan. 5 that a new esports organization known as FlyQuest bought C9.C’s spot in the NA LCS, along with four of its players.

Offseason

With Juan “Contractz” Arturo Garcia moving to the main Cloud9 roster, FlyQuest had to find a new jungler for the upcoming season. Deciding to remain an all-North American lineup, FlyQuest chose to pick up Moon, a former NRG and Team Liquid Academy jungler. This will also be Moon’s return to the LCS after spending the 2016 summer split in the Challenger Series.

2017 Season

Although this team did extremely well in the NA CS, I cannot see FlyQuest finishing the spring split above 9th or 10th place. In almost every single position, possibly excluding AD carry, FlyQuest’s players are outmatched by the rest of the league. Balls, Moon, and Hai, who all struggled to keep up with the rest of the league in early 2016, will have a much more difficult time now with all the new imports joining the league. Altec is a big unknown for this team. Before joining C9.C, Altec was an above average AD carry in the NA LCS. Since he was not in the NA LCS for the summer split, however, we can’t be certain that Altec maintained his skill. It is very difficult to judge someone’s performance in the NA CS.

If FlyQuest wants to succeed, Hai will need to micromanage this team like a Starcraft pro. If Hai manages to do this then he will undoubtedly go down in history as the best North American League of Legends pro to ever play the game.

Do you think FlyQuest can win the NA LCS? Let us know by commenting below or tweeting us @GAMURScom.

Article by Malcolm Abbas. Follow him on Twitter @SmashhLoL.

Photo via LoL Esports