FlyQuest continues to be a dark horse in this Summer Split. Previously in the Spring Split, they were in the bottom rung of the ladder and as a result, garnered doubters thinking they would generate similar results going into the summer. They quietly came up the standings and currently sitting tied for 3rd place with Echo Fox. With one last week in the split, FlyQuest’s AD Carry Jason “WildTurtle” Tran talked about the split thus far, his pro gaming career, and what he thinks is the best Support he’s played with.
This year was Riot’s first experience with franchising. What are your overall thoughts about it? Are there any changes you would make going into next year?
WildTurtle: I didn’t notice any big differences. The only difference from me at least is that no one’s afraid of getting relegated anymore. The teams at the bottom three don’t mind as much anymore. Overall, that could be healthier for the league because you always see the same faces. At the same time, it could be a little more detrimental competitively because you can pretty much be last for the next couple splits.
I don’t know if anything can be changed because I only noticed that one difference before and after franchising.
There is a decline in viewership this year in the LCS broadcast. Why do you think viewership has declined?
WildTurtle: I just think there’s a variety of other titles now. Back then, League of Legends grew rapidly and there was no other game that could compete against it. Gaming has significantly grown from the time League was the only game out there. Now you have games like Fortnite and Overwatch. The player base has spread out more insanely now. Kids, for example, watch a lot of Fortnite and other kids are watching Overwatch.
I think League of Legends retained most of its audience from the generation of people who watched League of Legends. I feel that the current viewers we have are people who still follow League even though they might not even play it anymore.
I think no one really plays League of Legends anymore in North America. There’s just so many great games to play nowadays. League of Legends was the sole best game back then.
What can Riot do to get the viewership back up?
WildTurtle: Just make a new game (laughs). Riot has a lot of tools that they can use to expand their universe.
The Overwatch World Cup is starting soon. If League of Legends had their own World Cup and you were the captain of the Canadian team, who would be in it?
WildTurtle: I would get Andy “Smoothie” Ta, Danny “Shiphtur” Le, Brian “TheOddOne” Wyllie, and Derek “zig” Shao. Maybe I would try Vincent “Biofrost” Wang in the jungle. Those are the players that I can first think of at the top of my head.
In Spring Split, you guys placed 8th. Then in this split, you guys turned it around near the top of the standings. When did you guys start gaining confidence and what do you think contributed to your wins?
WildTurtle: A generic answer would be that I think everybody in this team wants to win. I think for us, we took noticeable steps to get better as a team. Obviously, we are still improving as a team. Since we’ve only played together for two months, I think we already have good synergy and we can only get better from here. I’m pretty happy with how far we’ve gone and I do think we can go pretty far in playoffs if we practice really well.
You’ve played with various support players over your career. What makes Juan “JayJ” Guibert different than other supports you’ve played with?
WildTurtle: Other supports I’ve played with do things that would make laning phase easier for me, while JayJ doesn’t know how he can do that yet. So I would teach him where to position and let him know how I can get a better advantage in lane. I think I would need to let him know what I want as an AD Carry.
Do you see him continue to improve going into next year?
WildTurtle: I think he’s already improving really well — he just needs to expand his game knowledge and impact the game with wards and communication as an example.
Who is your favorite support that you played with during your career?
WildTurtle: Definitely Ham “Lustboy” Jang-sik when I was in TSM. He’s carried me a lot and it felt pretty good. I felt that he knew more about the bot lane than I do. I miss playing with him sometimes. When we see each other in the hallway, I would say what’s up and give him a hug.
You’ve played with different teams and different rosters over your career. How do you continue to play at a high level?
WildTurtle: It’s definitely been pretty stressful. For me, my main motivator is that I like competing. I think winning is always fun. I would try to portray how I want us to win as a team. I just pretty much want my teams to win. What I do to achieve that is communication and think about ways to get better. I try to get on the same wavelength as my teammates because you have to understand how they think in the game as well. If they have arguments why the game is bad, you got to talk to them about it and let them know why this way is better than another way.
I think the main reason I continue to play at a high level is just communication with my teammates. I wouldn’t say I’m a leader, but I’ve definitely talked more than in the past.
How do you continue to stay motivated even though there may be a roadblock like a losing streak, for example?
WildTurtle: I don’t even know what keeps me motivated. I love playing video games, personally. Being competitive was not in my personality before. I just like getting better at certain skills. Getting good at League of Legends was a skill that I didn’t care for at first. I just happen to get really good at the game.
There’s one week left in the split and you guys are going against Golden Guardians and Cloud9. What are things you guys can improve on to lock a spot in the playoffs?
WildTurtle: I think we have a great general idea of what we need to do. We just need to play well individually and get those leads.
