The 2019 season for FlyQuest and support Kim “Wadid” Bae-in came to a close after a series loss to Clutch Gaming in the first round of the LCS Regional Finals. After finishing 4th in the Spring, FlyQuest struggled to remain strong in the Summer Split, finishing 9th. This series loss marks the start of a long offseason for the team where they will look to refresh and rebuild in hopes to come back stronger in 2020. 

Wadid specifically notes his entire year of frustration which started off by being traded away from his old G2 squad after his incredible 2018 Worlds run. With  another trade following the Spring, bringing him to the LCS, he was unable to start until midway through the season. Despite the delayed start and rocky season, Wadid notes how well the team came together at the end of the season and keeps positive for his future with them.

This is Parkes Ousley with InvenGlobal, I have the pleasure of being joined by Wadid the Support for FlyQuest after their series loss to Clutch Gaming in the LCS Regional Finals. Unfortunate series for you there, and while you had a month long to prepare, were there things that were still unexpected about Clutch? Did it play out the way you were expecting it to but you just couldn’t get it done? Break down the series a bit for us here.

We prepared and practiced for a month, and it went pretty well. We finally reached the points that we had needed to work on, team wise and rotation wise. In the final week we were actually winning most of the scrims, and it felt like we could go through this gauntlet, but it was just unlucky that we couldn’t make it today. So we’re just out now. But in general, I’m still pretty happy with my team that we made it to this point. We just need to be better as a team. In my eyes at least, sure we still need to work really hard, but one month ago we were so so bad. Like really bad. But at least right now we are a team, and we can compete against some of the other teams. In general I’m pretty happy, but also really sad because my whole year was really, really sad. I lost most of the times, so 2019 for me is really sad. 

I do want to circle back to that, but before that, how do you even approach this month? It has been a tough season for FlyQuest and you understand you’re in the gauntlet, but it’s a month long break and Clutch was just playing a couple weeks ago. So how did you refocus and figure out how to do it? Was there a catalyst? Was the coach really leading you, was it from the players? 

I mean it’s just everyone, you don’t want to end the season. If you don’t go to Worlds - we were out of playoffs as well - so if we don’t go to Worlds we just have a break for 4 months or something. It’s pretty depressing. So that’s why we all worked really hard, we wanted to go to Worlds. It was really hard, and at first, to be honest, I thought there was like a 10% chance, but by the end of the month I felt like there’s at least a 60% or 70% chance. I was really happy with how we practiced as a team. But yeah that’s just how it is. If you want to get something, and win something, and achieve something this year, you must try hard. And we tried hard. Just for that. We are professional players who want to achieve something, we want to go far ahead. Not just stuck here. 

That’s good that you got to get back to feeling like a team like you said earlier. After the series, do you have any predictions on who you think will win and be the third representative at Worlds for North America? 

I feel like Clutch Gaming was the hardest opponent in this Gauntlet. I felt like if we could beat Clutch Gaming then we could pretty easily pull out of the rest of the matches. But yeah, Clutch was just better than us you know? 

Well best of luck in the offseason. I do want to go back and touch on what you were saying earlier. For those of you who don’t know, this time last year you were with G2 preparing to go to Worlds. You did that and had an amazing Worlds run. Then you were traded and had a bummer of a Spring season. Then you came here to join FlyQuest who had been doing well, but do to unfortunate circumstances, there was a slow start and you weren’t able to play at first. So what has that been like for you? You said it was disappointing, so talk about that a little bit and what you want to change moving forward. 

After the Worlds run, something happened and I couldn’t have any other options by myself. Just everything happened randomly, and it was really rough to deal with. I couldn’t win a whole lot of games. I needed to deal with a new environment as well. I don’t know what happened but it just changed so many things. It was pretty rough to deal with that situation. I mean, as a professional player, I should be able to deal with it, but I was not good enough to deal with it. So I will just take this depression as a huge lesson in my life, and I’m going to go far away from this and prepare for next year. There’s nothing much more I can do at this point because there is nothing to play for and nothing I can do. So just going to stay positive and I do believe there are still fans who are still supporting me even though I didn’t achieve anything this year, they still believe in me. And I appreciate it so much, that’s why I can play. I’m not crying, you know? Even though my 2019 was really horrible. I can still stand up. 

Still the positive Wadid that we know, that’s good to hear. Are you planning to just take a break and come back refreshed or are you going to keep grinding right now? 

Ahh, I’m probably going to just go back to Korea and just chill a bit. Maybe I’ll show up on broadcast or something at Worlds. It just depends you know. If Riot Korea wants me, or Riot Europe! If they want to invite me. Haha, but I’m just going to do my own thing and refresh and refocus. But I really loved to work with Turtle, it was nice to have him as my ADC partner, he is really nice. It’s just so sad you know? My teammates were really trying hard as well. Probably the best teammates I ever had. So it’s really sad for them.

Well I am sorry about that of course, I’d love to see you go on as well. Maybe we’ll get to see a Turtle and Wadid special this year at Worlds though. Anything you’d like to say to your fans before we sign off? 

For me this year, there were so many things as a professional player… I need to learn how to deal with rough situations that I can not deal with. I felt like FlyQuest supported me really hard, their organization is really great. I appreciate my coaching staff as well, and my manager. Everyone from the FlyQuest staff, even the CEO. And also, I can not believe I still have my fans. I didn’t do anything in 2019, but they’re still supporting me. And because of that, I can still stand up and keep going forward. So I’m just going to stay positive and maybe show up on some broadcast. 

Well keep standing! Thank you so much to the fans, and thanks to the fans for InvenGlobal as well. That does it for us, please like and subscribe, we’ll see you next time.