With the backing from their new ownership group, FlyQuest are coming into the 2023 LCS season as a contender.
It was only two years ago, back in 2020, FlyQuest made back-to-back LCS Final and was one of the top teams in the league. Unfortunately for the organization, the success was limited to the calendar year and they were back to competing for the last playoff spots in 2021 and 2022, despite an obvious effort in roster-building. At the end of September, it was announced that FlyQuest was acquired by the Viola family office, the owners of the NHL team Florida Panthers. And it looks like the new owners are opening the checkbook.
The main part of the change in FlyQuest started from the top, with the acquisition of Christopher “PapaSmithy” Smith as the Chief Gaming Officer from 100 Thieves. PapaSmithy, also a former caster, was the General Manager of 100T for three years, in which he brought the organization their first and only LCS title. And with Papa at the helm, it is looking like FlyQuest will try to back their glory days of 2020.
Please welcome our new President and Chief Gaming Officer Chris “@PapaSmithy” Smith!
A legendary figure in the scene, we are excited to bring him on board to help build the future of FlyQuest.#ShowcaseGreatness pic.twitter.com/x7HWDLyIqp
— FlyQuest (@FlyQuest) November 10, 2022
Becoming a free agent attraction and rebuilding a finals team
The 2022 roster of FlyQuest was already on a good level, with players like Zaqueri “aphromoo” Black and Loïc “toucouille” Dubois, who were both fan favorites and at the top of their roles. But not good enough to outright win a championship. With the LCS teams reportedly cutting costs and having a new ownership group, FlyQuest were able to attract big-name talent like they couldn’t before. According to industry reporters Alejandro “anonimotum” Gomis and Brieuc “LEC Wooloo” Seeger, FlyQuest has reached verbal agreements with two of the biggest free agents on the market, Jeong “Impact” Eon-young and Mingyi “Spica” Lu.
Impact was just recently voted by an LCS panel as the best top laner in the league’s history, and he is coming off a championship with the Evil Geniuses in Spring Split. And Spica, who was the LCS MVP in the Summer of 2021, is still one of the best native junglers in the region. He did not have the best 2022 with TSM, but considering he played with three different sets of players in top, mid and support, TSM’s small playoffs run in the Summer proved that he can still carry a team given the resources. Wooloo also reported that FlyQuest will sign TL Academy support Bill “Eyla” Nguyen. Eyla is seen as the best support prospect in the Academy and was a big promotion candidate for TL if they decided to move on from Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in.
With all there of these players being LCS residents, FlyQuest also has two free import spots, which they are rumored to fill with Korean players. Lee “VicLa” Dae-kwang from LCK’s KT Rolster is the name mainly talked about for mid lane candidates. And according to Travis Gafford, the main bot lane target for the organization are Seo “deokdam” Dae-gil, Park “Teddy” Jin-seong or Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk. The latter of which seems less likely as the former Gen.G star is looking like he will be heading to LPL to join reigning champions, JD Gaming.
