PowerOfEvil talks synergy, growth in FLY’s playoff run

The 2020 LCS Spring Split Grand Finals are now set as Flyquest secure their spot against Cloud9. While the Evil Geniuses knocked Flyquest into the lower bracket back in round 1 of the playoffs, Flyquest managed to make a formidable run, knocking out Golden Guardians and TSM to run it back to EG. This time, Flyquest managed to get the better of Evil Geniuses— a team that they had yet to topple throughout the year.

This time around, with a different starting top laner in Colin “Solo” Earnest, Flyquest finally defeated the Evil Geniuses in a 3-1 victory to move back up into the Grand Finals. SlashShout had the opportunity to speak with midlaner (and Player of the Series) Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage in this exclusive interview!

I’m here with PowerOfEvil after his clutch 3-1 victory against Evil Geniuses! First and foremost, what were the comms like towards the end of the game?

Well, I think the comms throughout the series were really loud. I feel like everyone was really hyped. Everyone was kind of screaming around, trying to make the right call. In the last game, we were trying to figure out what was the best way to close the game, and we decided to 1-3-1. We managed to end the game straight through, you know? We were just all screaming, “Just hit the Nexus, hit the Nexus!” It was really exciting.

That’s awesome! And for the first time in history, you guys are making it into the Grand Finals— but more on that later on. 

Flyquest has actually lost against EG all season. So for the second time around in the playoffs, how does it feel to finally win against them?

Well, it feels amazing that we managed to win against them after losing in the regular split, and in the first playoffs round. I feel like the first playoff round that we played against them was pretty close. The game four with the Chronobreak and the pauses really caught us off guard. I think we could have maybe won that game, and made it a five-game-series. But nothing to take away from them; I think EG might have been the better team, and they won against us. 

I think we just learned from that one, and we got a lot of best-of-five practice. We played another series against the Golden Guardians, and another one against TSM in the lower bracket. We had a lot of games, managed to beat all of them, and get really close as a team. We also made good synergy with Solo as well, who stepped up since week 8. So I think that it’s been really helpful for the experience and the synergy. We managed to pull it off today.

Yeah, Flyquest has had a really strong miracle run through that lower bracket to make it back up into the finals. So now focusing on your individual play, tell me about your performance against Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro for this series.

Well I think in games one and two, both of us played incredibly well— but in game three, I think Jiizuke got the better of me. Evil Geniuses played really well around him; they even gave him the level-4 blue buff, so I think he really capitalized all these advantages and they just snowballed as a team. We didn’t really have any win condition. I think pretty much everyone on our team lost, and I lost the hardest. 

But for game four, I just picked the same matchup again, I said that I thought I could make the matchup more even and more competitive. I knew I could get the better of him. EG’s comp had 4 AP champions, so it wasn’t the best for their early game. So, we managed to get all the dragons and get advantages from my Corki packages to win the teamfights. And I think we just played really well as a team, too.

I think there was some criticism towards the end of the regular season against FlyQuest, where you weren’t necessarily carrying every game. But now that you’re in the postseason, you’ve actually been the Player of the Series for every Flyquest win so far. How do you think that your performance has changed from the end of the regular season versus playoffs?

I feel like during the last week or two of the regular season, we didn’t have the best practice. I feel like we were trying to somewhat change our style and try to figure out what would be the best for our team going into the playoffs…and stuff just didn’t really work out for us. And obviously, we changed our top laner, so there were synergy problems and communication problems, as we had a completely different player. 

I think all of this together was definitely a hard challenge for us towards the end of the regular season. But I think we’ve managed to make it work in the last few weeks. You know, in the playoffs, I think we managed to get that stuff sorted out and find our playstyle. And I think my teammates are really good at playing around me and utilizing me in a good way, I guess.

Now that you guys are in the Grand Finals for the first time, you guys are going to be facing off against Cloud9. Your team has actually avoided Cloud9 all postseason; do you think that’s a good thing? Or do you think that Flyquest could’ve used more experience in the upper bracket?

Well… that’s a tough question… I don’t think a series against Cloud9 would have helped us anyway. Because we couldn’t really choose it, right? They chose 100 Thieves for their first round. So we just ended up against EG, and that’s just how the bracket works. 

Anyways, I think us getting more best-of-fives in the lower bracket after losing against EG was really helpful for us getting ready for the finals. I think we just need to be confident in ourselves. And yeah, just take it one game at a time, like we always do, and try to win tomorrow, right? To win it all.

Right. And of course, when we talk about Cloud9, we can’t forget the MVP of the split— their jungler, Robert “Blaber” Huang. What is your opinion on how your mid/jungle synergy with Santorin will compare with Blaber and Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer in tomorrow’s series?

Well, I definitely think Blaber and Nisqy are really strong: both individually and in their mid/jungle synergy. They’re all really high up there. But for me personally, I’m not too worried about it. I think I can pull off good performances against most of my opposing laners. I think people rated Jiizuke as high as me as well, but I showed up against him, and I pulled out pretty good performances. And I’ve faced insanely strong midlaners in my career before. So I’m not really too scared in a sense. 

But obviously, you should not underestimate them. Blaber and Nisqy need to be respected. We need to be ready for what they can bring and what they can pull off in the game. Then I’ll just go try my best.

That’s it for now. Do you have any final messages that you want to say to your fans?

Well, I’m insanely happy that we managed to get our revenge against EG in a really important best of five! Now, we’re going to try everything to win for tomorrow.

PowerOfEvil and Flyquest take on Cloud9 in the LCS Spring Split Grand Finals on Sunday, April 19th. You can watch the action beginning 1pm PST, on watch.lolesports.com.

Stephen No

Stephen "Steph" No is a communications major and esports journalist. Currently covering the LCS and the OWL, Steph is aiming to become a prominent Asian-American voice in Western esports media. You can follow his twitter @kdpanthera for more LCS and Overwatch League related content.

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