Well, after the first three weeks of play, FlyQuest has done it all: 2-0, 1-1, 0-2. Currently rocking a 3-3 record, FlyQuest sits in a three-way tie for fourth with 100T and Dignitas after a disappointing 0-2 week. Do FlyQuest have clear skies ahead heading into Week 4?
Logo Courtesy of Cloud 9
Cloud9 joined FlyQuest in their TreeQuest this week, promising to plant 1 tree for every kill, 10 trees for every Cloud Drake killed in the match, and 100 hundred trees if they won. By the end of the game, C9 had 117 trees to plant, as they took the game in commanding fashion. The turning point was innocuous enough, in that it was a simple swap of the C9 botlane towards the Topside to take Rift Herald. After securing the herald, Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen, Robert “Blaber” Huang and Phillippe “Vulcan” LaFlamme swiftly rotated top, picked off Omran “V1per” Shoura and snowballed the game out of control. At 10 minutes, the gold lead was about 1,000 in C9’s favor; less than two minutes later it had ballooned to 2,200. C9 proceeded to suffocate FlyQuest of resources and push their lead to a crushing victory.
That’s not to say that FlyQuest looked bad, per se. Prior to V1per being caught out in top lane, the game was relatively close. The issue was not that FlyQuest played poorly, but that C9 played very, very well. Even when FlyQuest did something that normally would have given them an advantage (such as Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen 3-buffing Blaber, or Santorin’s engage midlane around 14 minutes), C9 was ready for it. Ultimately, this is a good loss for FlyQuest; there are things to improve on, specifically around the early Herald play, but they can hold their heads high when reviewing the VOD.
There’s no denying that Blaber was C9’s Player of the Game. The fact that he overcame a bad early start to keep himself in the game, combined with his flash bodyslam early to kill V1per and start the snowball puts this victory squarely on his shoulders. C9 can be proud that they have a young jungler who can recover from getting three-buffed by Santorin.
For FlyQuest, the player of the game has to go to Santorin. His engage midlane around 14 minutes was really that last gasp of air FlyQuest had left, and while it wasn’t successful, it was close to turning the game around for his team. Hats off to the man in the jungle.
Logo Courtesy of Evil Geniuses
When casting this game, Sam “Kobe” Hartman-Kenzler remarked that “Everyone is gonna remember this as a bot-centric game!” On the one hand, he is right; there was a lot of action on the bot side of the map, especially early. But FlyQuest fans are more likely to remember this game as being all about positioning. That early bot focus that Kobe mentioned, which started with Svenskeren’s pre- 3 minute gank, burned Jason “WildTurtle” Tran and Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun of their flashes, but IgNar kept playing forward. This set off a chain reaction, wherein Evil Geniuses would come down bot as often as they could to punish FlyQuest’s flashless pair, allowing Daniele “Jiizuke” Jiizuke to start snowballing.
Once Jiizuke hit level 6, he and the rest of EG looked to punish each and every one of FlyQuest’s mispositionings. He picked off Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage in the midlane at 13 minutes and Wildturtle during the final midlane teamfight. The Malzahar was the last pick of the draft, but it proved to be instrumental in EG’s victory, locking down FlyQuest whenever they tried to make a play.
Jiizuke played his part excellently this match; one would argue he was the main reason EG won, with his ultimate keeping FlyQuest from reaching critical item thresholds by forcing them to pick up a Quicksilver sash or face death.
On FlyQuest’s side, Santorin once again played well, this time sneaking in to steal an infernal drake out from under the nose of Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen after V1per’s unfortunate TP play bot lane resulted in a quick kill to the side of EG. Props to Santorin for keeping cool under pressure.
Logo courtesy of TSM
Both Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik and V1per have been playing overaggressively these past few weeks, so expect to see a lot of action on the top side of the map early. Driven by Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett’s aggressive playmaking, TSM has one of the best early games in the league; thankfully, Santorin is just as aggressive as Dardoch, so FlyQuest can match that early aggression with calculated plays of their own.
In order to pull out a win, FlyQuest must cut down on the positioning mistakes which plagued them last week; V1per cannot spend too long in a sidelane, because he will be punished for it, as both Colin “Kumo” Zhao and Blaber showed him last week. Additionally, IgNar has to put in a performance like he did against Dignitas in Week Two, zoning Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg out of the fight just like he did to Henrik “Froggen” Hansen of Dignitas the week prior. If Santorin can keep FlyQuest in the early game, and IgNar can neutralize TSM’s late-game carries, PowerOfEvil and WildTurtle can carry the game from there.
Jungle is going to be an incredibly entertaining matchup, because both Santorin and Dardoch both love to go aggressive early. Expect early fighting from these two junglers as they look to match the other’s early game pressure. I expect Lee Sin to be a highly contested pick, so look for the coaches to draft either it or a traditional counter like Rek’Sai in the first rotation.
Prediction – TSM Wins a close one
Courtesy of 100T
William “Meteos” Hartman has not quite looked like his old self this year; his early game does not look quite as crisp and clean, and his synergy with Tommy “Ryoma” Le is not yet fully realized. This plays into FlyQuest’s strengths as a team perfectly; Santorin and PowerOfEvil look like FlyQuest’s best players right now. If the two of them can get good early leads, FlyQuest has shown that they know how to close out games when they’re ahead.
The one cause for concern is top lane. V1per is a good player, and he can solo carry games when he’s playing well. But last week, it felt like there was some miscommunication between him and the rest of the team. He had two very questionable teleports in the game against EG, and he stayed too long in lane against C9 (just after the first Rift Herald take) and against EG (he pushed too long as Camille and Kumo nearly ran him down as Aatrox while pushing toplane). Against Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho, those mistakes can mean a quick loss, as Ssumday can easily carry a game if given the chance.
Image Courtesy of Riot Games
This is V1per’s chance to prove that he also knows how to play safe. He has demonstrated that he can carry games, whether with his Riven or his Aatrox, but he needs to learn to play weakside of the map. If he can do that, and keep Top lane a stable matchup that does not swing too far in Ssumday’s favor, FlyQuest will come out of Week 4 with a win.
Prediction – FlyQuest Wins Handily
Need More?
What are your predictions for Week Four? Tell Richard what you think @Imp_Richard
Featured image courtesy of
Follow The Game Haus for more sports and esports coverage.
Twitter: TGH Esports
Facebook: The Game Haus
“From our Haus to Yours”
