FlyQuest promote Winsome to LCS roster in last-minute substitution
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesJust hours before FlyQuest’s lower bracket final against Golden Guardians, they’ve decided to put Elya on the bench and let Winsome play. Winsome had a great deal of success in the first half of the split, and FlyQuest think he’s got the best chance of winning.
Bill ‘Eyla’ Nguyen generated immense hype when he was announced for FlyQuest’s roster. Paired with Sean ‘Yeon’ Sung on Team Liquid’s Academy team, their bot lane combo was at the top of the Academy for years.
However, Eyla wasn’t able to start for FlyQuest during the first half of LCS Spring due to VISA issues, so Kim ‘Winsome’ Dong-keon stepped up and made a case for being their starting support player. He performed way above the expectations set for him as a substitute.
Now, even after Eyla’s had a few weeks with the team, FlyQuest has decided to start with Winsome instead for the most important games of the Spring Split.
Winsome starting over Eyla for FlyQuest’s final games
FlyQuest is an organization that invested heavily in its LCS team going into 2023. Between Lee ‘Prince’ Chae-hwan and Lee ‘VicLa’ Dae-kwang, they managed to pick up some of the most promising players from South Korea alongside Mingyi ‘Spica’ Lu, 2021 Summer MVP, and Jeong ‘Impact’ Eon-young, one of the most tenured top laners in North America.
These four together have turned out to be a fantastic match, but fans have been divided on who should be the starting support for these rosters since Eyla arrived. FlyQuest had a near-perfect record with Winsome, while Eyla’s record has been a bit less impressive.
Was this because of Eyla? Was it just other LCS teams finding effective strategies to beat the rest of FlyQuest as the split went on? It’s hard to say for sure, but the team has decided Winsome should be their support going into the finals.
In this roster update, it was explained that Winsome had developed upon the skillset that was already working for FlyQuest when he stepped up to the starting spot at the beginning of the split and that he’s an even better fit for the team now than he was before.
It’s as of yet unclear what this means for their Summer roster and whether or not Eyla will be back in that starting spot for the next split or perhaps for MSI if they manage to take down Golden Guardians.
Either way, a lot is riding on Winsome. Depending on whether or not he’s able to perform, we might see a lot more of this support player in the LCS. Considering how his time with Cloud9 abruptly ended in 2022, he’s had a massive comeback as a player and has put himself on the map as one of the best supports in the region.
