FLY Johnsun: “I was looking at the Riot Global Contract Database and saw Aphromoo’s contract was expiring”

Flyquest enters 2022 looking towards greener pastures heading into the new year with a rebuilt lineup. But for returning player, FLY Johnsun, it is an opportunity to once again show why he is a future star in the LCS. One of the most underrated players in the LCS, FLY Johnsun has flown under the radar as one of the top-performing AD carries. Last year on Flyquest, Johnsun lead the entire league in CSD@10 and DMG%, with 14 and 31% respectively. 

Johnsun entered the LCS back in 2020 through Dignitas as the team’s new starting AD carry. With very little experience, many did not know what to expect from the relatively unknown name playing with veteran support Zacqueri “Aphromoo” Black. He enters 2020 LCS and becomes a standout name for Dignitas and nearly leads an otherwise underrated team to a near playoff berth. 

After one year at Dignitas, he joins Flyquest where things are not as successful. He failed to make playoffs both splits and was even benched around the Week 6 mark in favor of FLY Academy botlaner Tomo. But instead of moving on from their young AD talent, Flyquest opted to build around Johnsun in 2021, and the first request he had, was to bring back his former support in Aphromoo.

In this interview, we speak to Johnsun “Johnsun” Nguyen to talk about the process of once again playing with his first LCS support, his shortcomings with Flyquest in 2021, and his new reinvigorated goals for the upcoming season.

I want to start by talking about being able to play with Aphromoo once again. You guys seemed to really work well together on Dignitas. What was the process of being able to play again?

FLY Johnsun: Full transparency, I am a nosy guy, so I was looking at the Riot Global Contract Database and saw Aphromoo’s contract was expiring. When I was leaving Dignitas, we talked about possibly playing together again one day and for this year, I thought he would be a really great fit for Flyquest. He is a great support that has experience leading a team. In my opinion, he was a great person to bring along so I made the recommendation that I really wanted to play with Aphro again.

This is going to be your third year in the LCS. From your experience, what are the differences working with veteran support vs a younger less experienced one?

FLY Johnsun: I'll say for at least in a support role, and North America, I like to find certain qualities like leadership and work ethic. These usually come from supports who have experience in the LCS or were in Academy for a bit. It is really nice having that role be the player who can really lead the team. When building a team, you really want those experienced players mostly in the support role and maybe jungle. They are just the core of the team that brings everybody together. Really glad we have Aphromoo on this team.

While you did not achieve the best results, statistically your laning stats and damage output per game were some of the best in your role. How did you feel about your growth as a player in 2021 vs your rookie season?

FLY Johnsun: I'll say for when it came to 2021, I had some pretty good matchups. I was able to get a double kill or support from Jose that allowed me to get those leads. Results-wise, it didn't work out because of a number of unfortunate things that would happen. We would be winning, but then throw the lead because of having a poor midgame. Nobody really sees the laning or early game if you are the one losing the game. It sucked because I felt like my early game was really good and even better on Flyquest. But I did feel more lost in the midgame. In terms of where I rank myself, I would say I am the fourth-best AD carry in the LCS, but since I was on a struggling team, it can be really hard to see that. This split, I am looking to show why I am a top AD carry.

Do you feel like AD carry is a tough role to shine in with a struggling team?

FLY Johnsun: I think it is different this year, but last year that was the case. There were a lot of dumb champions last year that could really stop our role from being able to do anything like Rumble and stuff. Now, it is not unplayable and I actually feel like it is in a really good spot where you can play a number of different styles. Last year, if you fell behind in the midgame, it was unplayable at that point sometimes.

It seems like now you're in a position to be able to have that full breakthrough year. What are you looking to achieve with Flyquest this year?

FLY Johnsun: Just win every lane if I can. Aphro and I have been able to do that a lot in scrims, which really gives me confidence that we can make this goal happen. I have shown that I can be a really great laner in the LCS. This year is just about bringing the whole game together so I can make the playoffs with a top-six seed. It is a really low goal, but being realistic, that is something I should be focusing on first. If we can make top six in Spring, that puts us in a great position to climb in summer. It all becomes a different story in playoffs anyways. We have leadership and a good mix of young and veteran talent to succeed in that environment. Once we are able to do that, I would like to make a run for Worlds, but I want to start by getting the top six in a split for Spring.

When you were able to make playoffs with Dignitas in 2020 Summer and play that one series against TSM. How beneficial was that for your growth? Like how different was it all?

FLY Johnsun: Yeah, so for my first playoff series, it was a really nice experience because the playoffs have a lot of different stakes. We went into that playoff series thinking we could genuinely win, so we prepared a lot of different compositions for that best-of-five. Unfortunately, we got 3-0d, but it was a different atmosphere. You are putting all your resources into just one team, which was TSM in that case. Rarely do you get to play best-of-five during the year on the LCS stage so it was a first-time experience for me? You really have to lock yourself in and treat it like a marathon instead of the usual sprint that is the LCS season. 

Do you just have any final words to like FlyQuest fans? Maybe? Like, things that may be like reassurance for the upcoming split? Looking past Lock In?

FLY Johnsun: The first day of Lock-In was not great, but I feel as if we performed really well in the following days. We will continue to use this time during Lock-In to get better at the game so that we can make a deeper run in Spring. The main thing is that we got our ticket out of group stages which is really reassuring and nice for us. We can spend more time practicing new types of playstyles now.

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for the latest League of Legends news and highlights. You can find FLY Johnsun on Twitter.