FlyQuest Academy are the first ever champions of the NA LCS Academy League

After a grueling, five game series against Echo Fox Academy that lasted a little over three hours, FlyQuest Academy became the first ever champions of the NA LCS Academy League.

FlyQuest Academy’s impressive Finals victory was led in large part by the team’s mid laner, Jang “Keane” Lae-young, whose past NA LCS experience shined through in his impressive 10/3/6 performance in the last game of the series. Jang’s Echo Fox Academy counterpart, Tanner Damonte also put up an impressive showing, but it was the team’s AD Carry Lawrence “Lost” Hui who proved to be the real star. Despite his team not quite being able to take the series, Hui put up four incredible performances and nearly helped to bring the team back from the brink of defeat in the 52 minute final game.

This marks the end of the first ever playoffs for the NA Academy League, which proved to have very different results than many were expecting. While both FlyQuest Academy and Echo Fox Academy performed well during the regular season, the two teams finished third and fourth respectively, while Team Liquid Academy and Cloud9 Academy finished in first and second and seemed to be far stronger teams. However, when playoffs came around, the FlyQuest and Echo Fox Academy teams proved superior when they both won their semifinal matches as underdogs.

While a majority of these players are likely to stay with their current academy teams, the upcoming offseason could provide a chance for some of these players to move up to their teams’ main rosters, or even be traded to another side. While this may not be the case for a team like Echo Fox, whose LCS team will finish either third or fourth, it could be true of a team like FlyQuest, that has struggled during the Spring Split finishing in eighth place.

The NA LCS Academy League will join the rest of North America in its midseason break between splits, but will return with another nine weeks of games during the Summer Split, later this year.