FlyQuest bounced back from a round 1 loss to Evil Geniuses in the 2020 League of Legends Championship Series Spring Playoffs with a sweep of Golden Guardians.  Mid Laner Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage was awarded Player of the Series for his dominant performance in particular. FLY will move on to face TSM on Sunday, April 12, the latter of whom eliminated 100 Thieves in a wild five-game series. 

FlyQuest Jungler Lucas "Santorin" Larsen spoke to Inven Global's Nick Geracie after the series to talk about sweeping Golden Guardians, about his synergy with PowerOfEvil, and the dynamic between FlyQuest's Top Laner platoon of Omran "V1per" Shoura and Colin "Solo" Earnest. 

I'm here with FlyQuest Jungler Santorin after a pretty convincing win over Golden Guardians, who put up a much better fight in the first game than the second and third games. Was that trend a result of momentum or strategic adjustments?

I think our draft in game 1 was somewhat hard to play against their composition. We were playing Rek'Sai and LeBlanc, and they did a good job of playing defensively in the early game. When you look at that composition, GG had Kalista, Corki, Ornn, Taric, and Jarvan IV so I felt like it was hard for us to teamfight against. Golden Guardians was doing a good job of continuing to make a teamfight happen by going to Rift Herald to try to force.

It was really hard for us to actually fight in those situations, but I think it kind of came down to LeBlanc outplaying them later in the game. *laughs* I think PowerOfEvil did really well. In game 2 and game 3, our compositions were a lot easier to play. We all felt a lot more comfortable because exactly how we needed to play to win the game. 

I was impressed with the way Golden Guardians Jungler Can "Closer "Çelik played against you for the most part, but I think PowerOfEvil had an incredible series and mid differential was the main factor today. What were your thoughts on the Jungle/Mid 2v2?

Honestly, I feel like we are just the stronger 2v2. I feel really comfortable playing with PowerOfEvil. I feel like we are really good at finding advantages and knowing how to play the map, especially when he is in a side lane.

Specifically, I think Closer did pretty good in the jungle matchup today, but it's hard because the champions he was drafting were very good at 1v1'ing the other Jungler, like Olaf, for example. I think if we played a slightly better game 1 and then early on in game 3 *laughs* it would have been very difficult for them to play the game against our compositions because they were very mobile.

I feel like our drafts just felt a lot easier to play, and I feel like it was hard for them to make a lot of proactive plays, so it felt like we were ahead in the Draft Phase meta as well. We were just kind of out-drafting and out-playing Golden Guardians.

Still, I liked seeing Jason "Wildturtle" Tran on the Syndra. Was that something you guys felt comfortable trying because you were up 2-0?

Obviously, Syndra is one of PowerOfEvil's best champions, but it's really good in the bot lane right now as well. People don't really know this, but Wildturtle used to play mid lane. He's actually really good at mages.  

This game didn't completely show it, but I think Wildturtle's Syndra is actually pretty good I feel like when he was playing Syndra in scrims his performances were a lot better. Normally, when he plays it, he's actually the one getting a lot of leads and making plays, so I feel like it's another scenario enemy teams have to think about when they draft against us because now we have more champions that we can flex that we're really really good at. 

I'm glad you brought up flexibility because in general, FlyQuest is the only team in the post-season with a substitute. V1per and Solo are splitting time in the top lane, so how does that change your job as a Jungler?

V1per is a really good carry Top Laner. He's really good at the carry champions and he's really good at counter-picking matchups. I think it's always going to be V1per's strength to have a lot of good counters if an opponent picks a certain champion, so in those situations, we'd probably be paying a lot more attention to top lane. Solo is a really solid Top Laner; I don't ever see him fall behind and he's really good at making calls and being proactive.

I kind of see Solo as the shield and V1per as the sword. It's similar to the dynamic Cloud9 used to have when they would start both Jeon "Ray" Ji-won and Jeong "Impact" Eon-yeong in the top lane. V1per is really mechanically talented and really good at playing aggressive champions with attention from the Jungler, and Solo can also play that style, but he's better at champions like Aatrox and Ornn where the map is stable and he can make good engages, plays, and macro rotations. 

I won't make you choose a favorite, but is some of that synergy you and Solo developed on Gold Coin United still intact?

Oh, definitely. I feel really comfortable playing with both Top Laners. It's kind of lucky that the two Top Laners we have on our roster are both players I've played with for a long time. As soon as Solo and I started playing together again, it felt like we were back at it. It feels really natural for me to play with both him and V1per right now. 

Thanks so much for the insight, Santorin. Is there anything do you want to say to the FlyQuest fans? 

Thank you. Just...hang in there. *laughs* I think we're a pretty strong team. If we beat TSM and end up facing Evil Geniuses again, assuming Cloud9 beats EG, I think we will take the win over them next time. We went over our mistakes and they were some really stupid mistakes. I feel that we're the better team right now, and I fully expect us to go to the Finals.