FlyQuest qualified for the 2020 League of Legends Championship Series Spring Playoffs on Saturday, March 28 with a win over Team Liquid, and after a wild end to the 2020 LCS Spring Split that featured four tie-breaker matches, FLY locked in the 4th seed in the post-season with a 10-9 record. FlyQuest will look to triumph over 2nd seed Evil Geniuses in the first round of the Spring Playoffs.

After defeating Team Liquid, FLY Mid Laner Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage spoke to Inven Global's Nick Geracie about adjusting to online competition during the COVID-19 pandemic, securing a spot in the Spring Playoffs, and the team's top lane dynamic with Colin "Solo" Earnest and Omran "V1per" Shoura.

I'm joined by FlyQuest Mid Laner PowerOfEvil after securing a seed in the 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs. That's gotta feel pretty good, especially against Team Liquid.

Yeah, obviously I'm feeling pretty good. It was a tough game. It wasn't easygoing at all! *laughs* Team Liquid fought really well, and because of the post-season implications, I think it was a really exciting game for the viewers to watch.

Solo started today, as he has been in place of V1per after being brought onto the team as an Assistant Coach and sub for FlyQuest Academy. Can you talk about what it's been like playing with him and adjusting to a new Top Laner near the end of a split?

We share scrims between Solo and V1per, and we decide from week to week who is best to start against each opponent. It's really helpful that our team is flexible around the top lane situation.

I think Solo is bringing a lot of mechanical value to the team. He is a very strong Aatrox player, and he showed up today by solo killing Impact and setting up a good early gank with Santorin. I think Santorin and Solo have some previous synergy, too, because they played on a Challenger team together that I cannot remember the name of right now.

Gold Coin United! Way back.

*laughs* Yeah.

Is the team planning on continuing to split scrims between Solo and V1per in the post-season?

Honestly, I'm not too sure what the end result plan is, but for now, I assume it's going to be a bit like Cloud9's jungle situation last year with Robert "Blaber" Huang and Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen.

We want to split scrim times and LCS matches between both players until we figure out who is the best possible fit, or we might just keep doing this similar to SK Telecom T1 in 2015. SKT had Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok and Lee "Easyhoon" Ji-hoon, and both Mid Laners had two different playstyles that allowed the team to play different styles by swapping in between the two of them.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused the LCS to go completely to online play. How has that affected you?

This is my first time playing competitively online in like...six years. *laughs* We played last week online and that was a big change, but I think it's a good decision for the safety of the players. Overall, the experience of playing online has been pretty good, too.

Competing online kind of gives advantages to players who are able to play more calmly. Players who get stressed out by the crowd and stuff like that may benefit from this and be more relaxed when playing.

There are advantages and disadvantages, but for me, I feel like I've played so many games that I kind of miss the stage. I miss getting ready to get on stage and setting up your stuff, having that walk to the stage and kind of getting into the zone and the hype around that. I'm still adjusting to playing online, but I think we are doing a pretty good job at it.

Have you adjusted anything about your routine before competing from home to try and simulate the standard competitive experience?

For me, I've never taken LCS games lightly. I always want to play my best and show up. Today I slept in, ate a bit, and tried to get in the zone before the match: go over draft scenarios once more; think about what your opponent can do; think about the worst-case scenario you could have in-game, and from that point on, you just go into the game and try your best.

Cloud9 is looking like the strongest team heading into the post-season, but is there another team that you have your eye on?

I feel like all of the other teams seem really close, so it's really hard to say. I feel like each team has won against all of the other teams. For example, we have split records against TSM and 100 Thieves, so it's really close.

I think any team can win, so I would not know specifically which team to keep an eye on. We will know once we get deeper into the best-of-five series. Champion pool depth will show, and the importance of side selection will show in the Draft Phase. Normally, Red Side has the advantage on counter picks, and Blue Side has the advantage on planned picks, so I'm pretty curious to see how it will all end up, you know?

Absolutely. Thanks for the interview, PoE. Is there anything you want to say to your supporters now that FlyQuest has qualified for the Spring Playoffs?

To all FlyQuest fans: I'm really proud and happy that we made the playoffs. Now, we are just going to try our best to show up.