In League of Legends, the international tournament MSI 2024 is currently taking place in China. The US team FlyQuest, filled with European veterans, had big plans and wanted to prove that they are better than the poor reputation of the LCS. However, the awakening was all the harsher: They were eliminated 0-2 against a team from a small LoL league in the qualifiers. Mockery and derision are raining down on them.
This is what FlyQuest said before the tournament:
- The top laner of FlyQuest, the Belgian, Bwipo (25), emphasized in an interview with Dexerto that they and Team Liquid have made great efforts to exceed the standards set for North America. The region is generally considered tactically inferior and struggles with decisions on when to attack and defend in a LoL game.
- He says, everyone on the team played exceptionally strong: Mid laner Jensen is playing better than ever before. And jungler Inspired is an exceptional player. It seemed as if the Europeans wanted to break the US curse.
- International tournaments like MSI are what motivate him. Participating there is a great privilege, according to Bwipo.
Against Faker, Bwipo took a 0-2 loss:
Team beats underdogs first, loses rematch clearly
This was the situation: The MSI is structured such that in a preliminary round, the four strongest representatives from the small regions in LoL and the four weakest representatives from the major regions compete to determine which four teams progress to the main event.
Normally, the 4 representatives from the small regions get eliminated here.
Teams from major regions that are eliminated embarrass themselves and face the scorn of fans.
This is how it turned out: FlyQuest played in Group A of the Play-Ins and managed to secure a 2-1 victory against PSG Talon, a team from Hong Kong, in Match 1.
However, against T1, the reigning world champions with Faker, they suffered an expected 0-2 loss.
In the final of the round, they were eliminated 0-2 without a chance against PSG Talon. In the 2nd match, Bwipo played Renekton 0-7-3, and Jensen lost in the middle 0-3-1. Only Inspired managed to secure 5 kills for his team.
Thus, FlyQuest is the only team from the 4 major regions that has already failed in the preliminary round of MSI. The European counterpart to FlyQuest, Fnatic, advanced relatively easily.
Mockery and derision for FlyQuest
This is what they are saying now: The guys from FlyQuest showed themselves very frustrated after the match. Mockery and derision are raining down on reddit:
- One writes: “After the match, FlyQuest visited a home for orphans in Chengdu: ‘It is heartbreaking to see their little sad faces with no hope,’ said 6-year-old Li.”
- “Losing to a team from a small region is bad enough. But the other team was simply classes better in the games.”
- “How can the duds be the second-best team in North America?”
- “Inspired and Bwipo should better keep their mouths shut forever if they play like this internationally.”
Bwipo asked for “space to recover” and criticized his own performance in the match.
The phenomenon of US teams failing at major international events and being extensively flamed by fans is well-known in LoL: US team eliminated from Worlds – Streamer calls them “mama’s boys,” criticizes their attitude
