As FlyQuest leaves Worlds 2020, what went wrong for the LCS?

With the loss against DragonX at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship group stage, FlyQuest is out of contention and will leave the tournament as the third and last team from the LCS. 

FlyQuest was placed in a tough group with two potential tournament favorites, forcing the team to bring something completely new to the table for a chance to advance. Taking on Top Esports and DRX was too much for FlyQuest and it was never able to pull out an upset against them. FlyQuest did manage to take down Unicorns of Love but it was not enough to secure a top-two position. 

FlyQuest still has a few games to play at Worlds but they will only be fighting for third place in the group and pride. FlyQuest will therefore go home just like Team Liquid and Team SoloMid. North America will not be represented in the Worlds playoffs.  

LCS teams needed more bloodthirst at Worlds 2020

The general trend for the three LCS teams at Worlds was that they all needed some more bloodthirst. The Worlds meta has been aggressive and requires teams to be proactive to win games. Playing a reserved style has proven to be a bad strategy and all the losses for the LCS teams are proof of that. 

All three LCS teams had glimpses of aggressive and decisive play but didn’t manage to keep up the tempo when it mattered. FlyQuest suffered from the same problems, as they drafted towards scaling compositions and got punished for it. Playing the scaling game against aggressive teams such as Top Esports and DRX will almost guarantee a game loss. 

FlyQuest did show that they can play at a high level, although not high enough to be considered a top eight team in the world. Mid laner Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage got to shine on his Syndra against UoL, but failed to deliver against Top Esports’ Zhuo “Knight” Ding and DRX’s Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon.

The LCS teams need further improvements

Without any success at the 2020 World Championship, the LCS as a region will have to get back to the drawing board and improve together. The LCS teams will have to utilize the Academy league to develop new talent in the region. There seems to be a big gap between the LCS and the other major regions, so this process will take some time. 

New talent is slowly but surely starting to pop up in North America and the teams will have to take advantage of that. The LCS has been known to import players from other regions, but it might be wiser to focus on domestic talent. Team Liquid’s bot laner Edward “Tactical” Ra has been the newest rookie to reach the Worlds stage, but shouldn’t be the last. 

With the correct talent development, the LCS might see a generation shift in the next couple of years, as we have seen to some degree in the LPL and LEC, where new talent can hopefully boost the overall level of the region.