FlyQuest came into the 2019 Spring Split with dampened expectations.





While a majority of the team’s players were veterans of the scene, most of them had been cast off their former teams. Having brought in rookie Omran "V1per" Shoura to go along with their good-but-not-great veterans, FlyQuest was expected to be a middle-of-the-pack squad that could possibly sneak into playoffs and become first or second round fodder for a better team.





During the regular season, the team exceeded those expectations. Over the course of the split, they beat TSM, Team Liquid, and a handful of lower-tier teams, finally cementing their playoff seeding after beating Golden Guardians at the end of the split in a tiebreaker. They beat GGS again last week in the quarterfinals, and now they seek a second straight victory over Team Liquid in the semifinals.





We caught up with AD Carry Jason “WildTurtle” Tran after the team’s win over Golden Guardians in the first round of playoffs to discuss the series, how FlyQuest matches up with the Big Three (TL, TSM, C9), and his journey back to Worlds.





Interview performed by Aaron Mickunas; article written by Brian Chang.





If you could, take a minute to describe how you’re feeling after making it back to the semifinals for the first time since playing for TSM.





WildTurtle: Good! That’s the best way to put it.





This is the first time you’ve been back in semis since 2017, right?





Photo via Riot Games





I think so. I mean I played playoffs last summer but we lost pretty early. I think we didn’t even make it to top four, and I think this is the first time in a year and a half where I’ve made it there. It’s been a while.





Do you think anyone in particular stepped up the most on the team to make this top four run possible?





I think mostly V1per. He was definitely struggling the most throughout the whole split. He had a lot to learn and big shoes to fill because he replaced [Lee "Flame" Ho-jong] for the top lane. For him, I think he’s performing really well now. He still has his mistakes, his derpy moments, but that’s every rookie I think, so for him to come this far with us is amazing.





What do you think he did specifically? Was there anything that you noticed he changed to make that improvement possible?





I think he’s just a good player, and I think he’s thinking a lot about macro now and what he should be doing individually himself. We have pretty much dedicated two people constantly helping him after every game, so I think that’s helped him a lot as well.





I assume he takes feedback well?





For the most part, I think so. I mean I don’t know for sure if he’s taking it well or not, but I think so.





You’ve been to playoffs a lot just as a player, mostly with TSM. Was there any more pressure placed on you to succeed this time?





Photo via Riot Games





Not necessarily. I think, for me at least, I don’t really care which team I’m on. I just always want to perform the way I’m happy about, and I still think we’re hungry to improve. We haven’t really proved ourselves as a team, like I think our series wasn’t the best. We had to adapt a lot during the series just to even get the win. I did think we were the better team going into that match and I think some things GGS threw at us caught us off guard and we had to adapt during the series and really had to answer what they had.





That’s good that you guys were at least able to adapt, because that’s something that’s wrong with a lot of teams that enter playoffs.





Yeah, I think going into this match I already knew that it was going to be a hard match. I already kind of knew we had to adapt because I don’t think we know the meta that well as a team so we had to really adapt to it.





I mentioned Pobelter earlier, and you guys played together on Immortals. How do you think that you two specifically rank against some of the competition in the playoffs?

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Photo via Riot Games





I mean I think we can definitely beat our counterparts. I don’t think anyone is extremely above us. Maybe there are players that are better, but the game is pretty much a team game now. We won today as a team. We didn’t really win off individual skill. Of course, Eugene had his pop-off, his Zoe moments, but for the most part, everything was enabled because we were able to play well as a team first and foremost.





When you guys were on Immortals, it was considered one of the best teams in the region, if not the best. Do you think that given today’s results, and given that you guys really improved over the latter half of the split, that you could reach that pedigree on FlyQuest?





For sure. I mean, you don’t compete to not think you’re going to be able to win. I think that’s a good way to put it. Everyone’s always trying to win. Some players obviously, they work the wrong way, but everyone’s always equally trying to win, and for us we just want to work the right way and hopefully we’re putting our resources into tackling the right problems and just trying to improve. That’s pretty much how it is.





How would you rank FlyQuest against specifically Cloud9, Liquid, and TSM?





They’re all really good teams. I think we are definitely the underdogs coming into the matches, but I do think anything can happen on stage.





You think you guys definitely have what it to takes to be the underdog that could upset them?





This patch is crazy. I think 9.6 is the craziest we had to adapt, and throughout the series it’s going to be an adaptive series. I think whoever’s going to be able to find a weak point and capitalize on it is going to be able to win.





Pobelter mentioned that he wanted to face Liquid to get that grudge match. Do you agree? Do you want to face them?





Yeah, I think Liquid potentially would be the easiest for us to play. I think the other teams are a lot more faster-paced and they don’t really give you time to recover and get on your feet. I think against Liquid they leave a lot of pressure points that we can definitely have some breathing room and come back.





In Santorin’s recent Drive video with Riot, he mentioned his struggle to return to the Worlds stage. Do you feel similarly about your journey to get back there?





Photo via Riot Games





Yeah for sure. I think it’s been a long time since I’ve played at Worlds. Obviously it’s still a dream of mine and I do love competing internationally. It’s just so much thrill playing against other regions and seeing what picks they have and everyone plays the game differently, region to region. I like that feeling the most, like “Is my way of playing League of Legends better than this guy’s?” For me it’s always kind of been mostly about playing internationally. I want to say I couldn’t care less about playing regionally but that’s pretty much how I feel. I want to play different teams. I like the surprise factor.





Which team in the playoffs, including teams from the quarterfinals, is the most overrated?





I don’t think anybody’s overrated. I mean TL is potentially falling off because they had a bad last two weeks but they’re still a great team. That’s probably the only team that’s overrated considering they’ve been first the whole split and then they dropped a few games, not trying to take anything away from them.









You said that you guys were the stronger team coming into today, at least in your mind. Could you just explain that?





I thought that GGS were struggling for most of the split. They were pretty much in similar shoes as us and came up around the same time, but we ended up fourth and even in our match we ended up beating them with a sub. I did think we had the upper hand coming in, and they definitely made a ton of mistakes, but we were just as bad today, and I think we weren’t able to show what FlyQuest is really like.





Do you think that FlyQuest has anything that could give you an advantage over any of the other teams in the playoffs?





Nope.





You’ve been around a while, is there anything you want to say to your fans?





Just, thanks everyone for still following me. I know I haven’t really been doing anything on social media because I’ve just been worried about other stuff, and I really haven’t taken the time to respond to all my fans, and that’s something I really want to work on.