The 2023 LCS Summer Split has been nothing short of a nightmare for FlyQuest, a team that had championship aspirations in the second half of the season after coming within inches of an international berth in the spring. And after a 3-9 start to the split, the team made a substitution in the mid lane, replacing one of its biggest offseason acquisitions in VicLa with Challenger-level sub Spirax ahead of the second-to-last week of the split.
But after one game (a loss last night to NRG Esports), Spirax has been moved back to the bench and VicLa is returning to the starting lineup for today’s game against the tied-for-first Evil Geniuses.
According to an announcement made by FlyQuest today, the decision to bring VicLa back into the lineup after playing Spirax for one game was “pre-planned regardless of yesterday’s outcome.”
The team gave Spirax experience in scrims prior to week five, and in their roster shakeup announcement earlier this week, president Chris “PapaSmithy” Smith and GM Nick “Swaguhsaurus” Phan only mentioned yesterday’s NRG game as a trial period for Spirax, although Phan did leave the door open for a period that lasted “more than Wednesday.” It’s likely, though, that FlyQuest will stick with VicLa for all five of the team’s remaining scheduled games.
In yesterday’s loss to NRG, Spirax posted a respectable scoreline of 3/2/3, but FlyQuest still lost the game in 27 minutes. The team was overpowered by NRG’s double-ADC team comp that featured Spirax’s lane opponent, Palafox, on a Tristana pick that finished the game 7/0/8 and did about 7,000 more damage to champions than him, according to League stats site Games of Legends.
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Just five games remain on the schedule for FlyQuest, and it’s hard to imagine a world where the team can get away with losing any of them if they stand a chance at making the postseason. If there’s any silver lining for this underperforming FlyQuest squad, it’s that the Summer Split playoffs have a playoff bracket that features eight teams (as opposed to the Spring Split’s bracket of six), so it could be easier to sneak in with a losing record. But, even with that being said, FlyQuest are still on the outside of the playoff race looking in. The team’s 3-10 record places them ninth in the league, just outside of any potential spot in the postseason bracket.
Four of FlyQuest’s final five regular season games come against teams ranked in the top five in the standings, starting with today’s match against EG, which is slated for 5pm CT.
