FLY Nukeduck: "Gen.G is the best drafting team from the LCK [...] We're happy that we showed signs of life"

Erlend "Nukeduck" Våtevik Holm, head coach of FlyQuest at Worlds 2024, North American representatives

"Blindly copying them is definitely not a winning strategy, and it might not help you improve that much either"

Despite valiant efforts against Gen.G, FlyQuest must now return home and exit the quarterfinals. Nonetheless, the North American representatives showed much more than what most had expected of them at the 2024 World Championship and have shaken the very foundation of Western League of Legends to its core. In this exclusive interview, the team's head coach, Erlend "Nukeduck" Holm, voices his thoughts on the difference between East and West, recaps his team's last series, and talks about the future of North America.

Did Gen.G perform as expected today? Did they pull any surprises?

Erlend "Nukeduck" Holm: It was pretty much as expected. Our fear going into it was what they ended up playing in the last two games. When they played scaling team comps that kind of needed to get broken in the laning phase—those were the team comps I thought we would have the hardest time against, and that's what they did in the last two games basically. But everything seemed as expected.

Despite the loss, the team still seems relatively happy and proud of its achievements. What was discussed after the match?

Nukeduck: I mean, we were happy that we showed signs of life. We just had a brief chat with everyone, and people seemed fine. But yeah, you know, we were okay. We knew we were underdogs, and almost winning doesn’t do much, but we definitely had some plays. I hope at least it was a fun series to watch.

Do you have any specific regrets about this series? Do you feel you did everything you could and are proud of what you achieved today?

Nukeduck: Well, in retrospect, when you lose, there are always some draft considerations you could have thought about. Maybe in the last game, Maokai and Ziggs were a bit too annoying to deal with. We didn’t find the winning strategy against it, and we weren’t used to playing against Maokai support. Basically, they had really strong laners and carries, so when they played champions like Nidalee and Maokai, they just had vision everywhere and forced the game to be slower. That was maybe a problem in the last game.

When they had Ziggs and Maokai, I thought we’d be stronger and could take the objectives, but we were too worried about Ziggs taking our towers. So, it was a mix of things. We didn’t find the winning line, but we also could have just banned Ziggs. I don’t think they could have played Maokai with something else. That’s a regret. We also could have preemptively thought about Nidalee with an AD mid, but we kind of had to see it.

Worlds 2024 Knockout Stage Bracket. Credit: Sheep Esports

Do you think there was something else you could have done, especially against Nidalee? It seemed like that pick turned the series around.

Nukeduck: Yeah, that's true. I'm not sure about the first game we lost against it. I mean, it was kind of an unlucky game, or like, we messed up the early game really badly. They had Kassadin and Nidalee, and we gave two kills to Kassadin trying to dive him. So, in that game, it wasn't clear to me that Nidalee was the big problem or anything like that; we kind of just forgot about it. I picked blue side, but when I saw their Nidalee and Tristana, I could easily tell that this was not something we were going to have a good time against if we played it again. In game five, it felt like they found a similar comp and figured us out.

Do you think your performance at Worlds this year could mark a resurgence for the West?

Nukeduck: Yeah, I think we have some things that are better for us. Of course, we have some major disadvantages, like our solo queue is worse and our scrim opponents all year are worse. So, in a completely standard game, we’re worse than them, which is our downfall against Eastern teams. However, we have creative players, and as a staff, we work very hard to find ways to trip them up. We have a very open-minded group, so I think that helps a lot with that.

Should other Western teams take inspiration from FlyQuest's run this year? Is this the way for the West to contend in the coming years?

Nukeduck: Yeah, I think at least a little bit. A lot of pro players get stuck just watching what Eastern teams play and then copy it without understanding why it's good or figuring out why something would work or not. Their drafting isn't perfect at all. For me, Gen.G is the best drafting team from the LCK, or at least the one I resonate with the most. But blindly copying them is definitely not a winning strategy, and it might not help you improve that much either.

FlyQuest has shown significant growth this year. What do you think has contributed to this growth, and what specific aspect gave you the edge to reach this position?

Nukeduck: Adding Mithy and Quad to the squad helped a lot. If you watched the LCS, Quad was very integral to our win in the Summer Finals. He’s a very good carry player, which gave us an extra layer of depth. Mithy is extremely knowledgeable about support and the bottom lane. Our bottom laners were a bit new, but he helped them a lot because they’re very smart and mechanically skilled; they just lacked some information that we specifically worked on.

After playing together longer, we realized what we were good at and built our identity. People also bought into it more because they saw what worked and what didn’t. So, we’re more of a team now because of that.

Massu and Busio have shown impressive growth. Will this experience be pivotal for their development as a bot lane next year?

Nukeduck: Yeah, I think they're good. Massu is a very mechanically talented player, and he also has a great mindset for improving. He challenges himself on everything and wants to play perfectly, so he’s going to be good for sure. Busio has the same thing—extremely good mindset and also talented.

Gen.G-FlyQuest Players' Rating. Credit: Sheep Stats

In NA, there aren’t that many good bot lane players; it’s mostly Team Liquid that pushes them. We’ll have to see how it goes during the year. The thing is, when you play against different competition, it’s harder to keep improving, but they’re both pretty good at doing that. So, yeah, they have bright futures for sure.

You've had a long career in the LEC as a mid laner, and now you're at Worlds in a different role as head coach. How did it feel to be here at Worlds as a head coach for the first time?

Nukeduck: Yeah, I started coaching in 2023 as an assistant coach on 100 Thieves, and this is my first year as head coach. It's been fun. I feel like I'm more settled into coaching now than in the first year. It feels really good to watch the guys beat or take games off Gen.G, and it’s very rewarding for us as a staff when things are going well in the games and the strategies we worked on or the drafts we prepped actually work. It's very fulfilling.

Do you have any last message for the fans to give them hope for next year?

Nukeduck: If you want to see more leagues like this, you should watch America's league, where FlyQuest will be participating. We're going to try to do even better next year."

Header Photo Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games