At first, ending the first week of the 2023 LCS Summer Split without a victory didn’t deter FlyQuest—there was always next week. But as that second week came and went, so did another loss, and another, and another.
That’s when the concern really started setting in. This was a team made of star talent from all over the world, one that bested a majority of the competition just a split ago and nearly emerged from the Spring Playoffs as victors. But with the Summer Split’s shortened schedule, every single match mattered, and now without a single victory FlyQuest was facing the real possibility of not qualifying for Playoffs—and missing their chance to qualify for the World Championship.
For the team’s jungler and LCS veteran, Spica, this was an all-too familiar position after multiple finishes at the bottom of the LCS standings, and one he desperately wanted to avoid succumbing to again. And thanks to a resurgence of communication within the team, it’s a fate he won’t fall victim to once more, as FlyQuest earned their first victory of the Summer Split yesterday over Team Liquid.
“It’s a lot of pressure to be 0-6, I’ve been there,” Spica explained to Dot Esports, laughing. “The last time [for me] it was just over, but we still have 12 more games to play. Coming into this week we were super focused of what we need to fix, why we went 0-6, and I’m glad that we were able to get a win even though it wasn’t as clean.”
Spica joined FlyQuest prior to Spring Split as part of a massive LCS restructuring from the organization, bringing a player touted as one of the league’s best-performing junglers to a new team for the first time in over two years. He’d previously been a part of TSM, where he began his career on the main LCS stage, earning accolades including the coveted MVP title for running through the competition in the 2021 Summer Split.
Fortunately for Spica, heading to his first new team after TSM wasn’t too much of an arduous task. The jungler was steadfast in getting comfortable with his new teammates, none of whom he had played with on the same team before, and finding what exactly his niche would be alongside them in their ups and downs.
In the forefront of Spica’s mind was winning, and nothing less. He’d seen firsthand what a losing team brought out of its players, noting the harm that individual players trying to “carry” a team back up from poor performances could bring. This mindset ultimately led to a successful Spring Split for FlyQuest and a Spring Playoffs run that almost resulted in the jungler’s second domestic title, but the start of the Summer Split would change that momentum drastically.
On paper, FlyQuest had everything they needed to succeed in the Summer Split. They had even brought in a multi-time LCS champion in support player Vulcan, who Spica touted as being an important extra voice within their team that increased their overall confidence heading into the start of the split.
Yet for some reason, when these five players hit the Rift on the main stage together, something wasn’t clicking. While the team had shown they were more than capable of accruing significant early leads, it appeared that their synergy completely dissipated as games reached crucial team-fighting situations, where any lead they had before was gone.
To Spica, this stemmed from major internal communication issues, ultimately leading to the team’s focus being driven in multiple directions at once.
“I will say our biggest problem from these two weeks is just not listening to each other, everybody is doing a bit of a different thing,” Spica explained. “The problem with our team is not necessarily skill level, it’s more so how it feels like we made each other worse. Maybe it’s our communication…maybe it’s how we felt in the game, but it’s less of a skill problem and more how we approach the team play aspect.”
After suffering six consecutive losses, the team stood face to face with Team Liquid, who had found their footing once more after struggling immensely in the Spring Split—paralleling the now-present issues with FlyQuest despite having a star-studded roster. But this didn’t look anything like the FlyQuest fans had seen just a few days prior.
Between staggered crowd control chains and near full-game protection of ADC Prince, this was a team that had seemingly rediscovered their synergy, one where everyone knew exactly what they had to do to bring the game to a close. And Spica is certain that this first taste of victory for the team is just what they needed to get back on track.
“All the players on the team are very momentum-based, so I know that once we get a win we’re going to be very comfortable with each other and how to win,” Spica said. “I expect us to do better and that we work on a lot of problems that were making us lose some very winnable games, and naturally we’ll start winning.”
This victory has spearheaded Spica’s main goal of the split: return to Playoffs. Though FlyQuest still has a ways to go before they can reach that point, Spica is determined to do everything he can to contribute to further success for the team in the immediate future and “make [their Summer Split run] better than last.”
FlyQuest will look for their second victory of the 2023 LCS Summer Split later today against NRG, who currently boast a two-game win streak after taking down two of the top teams in the league, Cloud9 and Golden Guardians.
