North American esports organization FlyQuest has announced Colin “Solo” Earnest as the newest assistant coach for its League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) team. The 26-year-old most recently coached for Echo Fox Academy before it was disbanded due to an internal conflict that saw the slot eventually auctioned to Evil Geniuses.
We're happy to welcome @SoloLCS to FlyQuest as Assistant Coach / Reserve for our Academy team! pic.twitter.com/LJeOJUncxQ
— FlyQuest (@FlyQuest) March 5, 2020
Solo as FlyQuest assistant coach, sub
Solo joins FlyQuest in both the assistant coach position for the main lineup and as a substitute top laner for the academy roster. He boasts nearly six years of experience in the professional League of Legends scene, with his initial start on Zenith Esports in October of 2014. Solo then held the role of top laner on teams like Cloud9 Challenger, Ember, Team Liquid, Clutch Gaming, and Echo Fox.
He joins head coach Anand “Curry” Agarwal, assistant coach David “DLim” Lim, and analysts Joseph “Sygh” Pomroy and Brendan “Loyota” Schilling on the coaching staff. Fans may also see him filling in for main top laner Mohamed “Revenge” Kaddoura on the academy roster, which consists of Gabriel “Fanatiik” Saucier, Stephen “Triple” Li, Brandon “Mash” Phan, and Juan “JayJ” Guibert.
Transition from player to coach
During the few weeks before the 2020 LCS Spring Split started, FlyQuest went through a series of management changes. This included the transition of Tricia “megumixbear” Sugita to CEO, Jeffrey “Graynomic” Hoang to team manager & community manager, Ryan Edens to president, and the joining of Assistant General Manager Matthew “Matt” Akhavan-Kim. While Solo doesn’t have any previous experience coaching an LCS team, he will be supported by industry veterans in his new role.
FlyQuest currently sits at 2nd place in the 2020 LCS Spring Split rankings, with 8 wins and 4 losses. With a recent win against 6th-seeded Team Dignitas and a loss against first-seeded Cloud9, the team heads into week 7 where it will play against Evil Geniuses and Team SoloMid. In comparison to the organization’s performance during the 2018 season with bottom half bracket placements, it has been a major improvement thus far.
