Despite being heavily criticized in the community for hanging onto most of their LCS-qualifying roster and hasty entrance into the LCS under their new white and gold banner, FlyQuest initially took the split by storm. After a steep drop in their success mid-split, most expected the team to quietly lose in the Quarterfinals to Counter Logic Gaming.

After a grueling 3-2 victory, FlyQuest are on their way to face Team SoloMid in the semifinals. Their support staff has been admittedly minimal, leaving fans and the community wondering about the team’s setup. Yahoo Esports caught up with FlyQuest Team Manager Jeffrey Hoang to discuss the team’s infrastructure, support staff, and success.

How long have you worked with FlyQuest?

I joined a week before the first game of LCS. It was a tight timeline to get everything situated, but it’s worked out pretty well. We started off winning six games.

Going into the split, FlyQuest received a lot of criticism for retaining the majority of their qualifying roster, with Moon as a very late addition. Do you know why management decided to hang on to this roster.

That was an organization decision made prior to my arrival, but I do think that having well-established members on the team and using their likable personalities helped jump-start FlyQuest as a team. Perhaps the thinking was it would bring some fans over to kick-start our team. We also know that these players are veterans in LCS, they know how to play in LCS, they’ve been through everything together. Keeping that team dynamic is something that’s important and has worked out very well this split. In terms of picking up Moon, I think we were supposed to pick up someone else initially and there were visa issues. I’m really glad to have Moon. He’s a great personality, he’s really good, and he’s very dedicated to bringing his best potential to the team.

Another thing that FlyQuest has been criticized for, more recently, is a lack of communication or vague mission statement. Can you describe what the team’s goals were for this split and what the general organization’s goals are?

Sure, our goal for the split was to create the foundation of what we’d like to be considered a world-class organization. We were conscious of the fact that that doesn’t happen overnight, but with proven winners like Hai and Lemon and Balls we liked our chances to be competitive right out the gate.

Taking that into consideration, what is the team structure like from an organizational standpoint?

There’s been some misinformation going around recently about our organization’s structure. It’s true that we had a very quick ramp up ahead of the season and are still developing the organization around our players. But we have a good team in place.

I’m very proud to be the team manager and we’ve got a great GM, coach, and a terrific analyst, Chase, who does a really good job. He was onboarded at the start of the split and while he’s not onsite, he’s very professional and engaged with the team.

My job is to take care of the players’ well-being. I make sure the players are comfortable, that they’re fed, sleeping right, and are in peak physical condition. And I take care of the team house. As an organization we try our best to stay on top of the players’ needs so they can focus their energies on winning.

So that’s pretty much everyday life in the house?

Yeah, we make sure the players are comfortable. I think they like that they don’t have any sponsor obligations right now so they can do what they want. They’re basically living at home and working with a bunch of friends.

View photos Galen “Moon” Holgate after a FlyQuest victory (Riot Games/lolesports) More

So for gameplay support staff like analysts, extra coaches, etc. what are you guys looking for? What does an ideal FlyQuest support staff look like?

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