FLY Busio: "You’re definitely going to get exposed if you only 'kind of' know your matchups against Eastern teams"

"Why did I still make that mistake? I know this stuff. That’s what’s frustrating"

Despite coming close to taking down Bilibili Gaming, FlyQuest has been eliminated from the 2025 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), finishing in a tied 5th–6th place. After gaining valuable experience from the tournament, the boys in green now shift their focus to the Summer Season of the League of Legends Championship of the Americas (LTA) North, set to begin on July 26. In an exclusive interview, support player Alan "Busio" Cwalina sits down with Sheep Esports to discuss what went wrong, what was missing, and what the team plans to do moving forward.

How are you feeling after this loss, and what are you taking away from it?

Alan "Busio" Cwalina: "Well, I feel pretty bad. Obviously, there was little hope left in game five because of some unfortunate things that happened early game. But I'm looking more at games two and three. I made very sad mistakes—things I already know. So those mistakes are the worst, you know? When you make a mistake and learn something new from it, it's fine, but I made mistakes I already knew, so I'm very disappointed in myself for that. Those definitely could have changed the game.

But yeah, at the same time, I had some good games, some good moments, and we were quite competitive with the East—especially considering the mistakes that we're making, that I'm making. So that should give a lot of hope to keep working hard, because if I can just fix those mistakes, we can win. And then my teammates probably think the same themselves, if everyone just gets a bit better, we will be beating Eastern teams.

What were the specific mistakes in games 2 and 3 that you're looking to fix?

Busio: There are a few I'm most sad about. In game two, where I played Renata Glasc, Massu (Fahad Abdulmalek) and I had a fantastic first three waves. The way we played early lane was really, really nice. Then wave four came, our ward expired, and their jungler added some pressure. Rell chunked us because when she cast her Q (Shattering Strike), I needed to insta-cast my Q (Handshake) so I could cancel her W (Crash Down). But I cast E (Loyalty Program) first, didn’t have time to Q, and missed the cancel. We just lost HP—not the game—but it’s like, I know this. Why did I still make that mistake? Later, she Q-flashed on Massu. That one was harder because it was out of the bush, but still—I didn’t react fast enough with Q. And I know I can, so that’s what’s disappointing.

In game three, on Alistar, with the lane position we had, I should’ve pre-leveled Q (Pulverize). Then, when Nautilus hooks me, I can press Q, get Aftershock, and the trade’s slightly better. Massu still autoed them a couple times and healed, so it ended up fine, but if I did it properly, it would’ve been even better. Later, Nautilus was max-range hooking me. If I Q before he hooks, I don’t get Aftershock or the CC because I’m too far. I need to step slightly closer. And again—I know this stuff. That’s what’s frustrating. These things didn’t lose us the game outright, but they made our lane worse than it should’ve been. If I played it right, we could’ve won lane or had a better position in the game afterwards.

Those were the individual mistakes I meant. As for the team stuff—teamfighting and such—that’s more for VOD review. I had pretty solid teamfights overall, but in the Renata game there was one moment I regret around Atakhan—Rell flashed on Massu—and I ulted in her direction without waiting to see where Pantheon was ulting from. I should’ve held it a bit longer. Maybe we win that fight, maybe we win the game, and the series—and we’d be here celebrating. It’s just small things, but they could’ve changed everything. And I bet all ten players are thinking the same. Small things matter. I just wish I did them better—and I will, next time.

When it comes to those small mechanical or micro mistakes, are there concrete ways to improve on them? Or is it just about time and experience? Kacper "Inspired" Słoma mentioned how solo queue and practice in the LTA aren’t as punishing—do you think these are things you can realistically fix while playing in North America?

Busio: Those things, yes. And I would say for those specific things that I was mentioning, they’re things I already know—so I must have been distracted or a bit nervous, and that made me cause those mistakes. In a comfortable environment, I would only make those mistakes if I just wasn’t paying attention. So those can be fixed with just experience, confidence on stage.

And other mistakes—like the Renata teamfighting one—those are less punished in the Americas, and you notice them less because we’re generally better than the other teams. Our scrim stats were revealed, and we had a very high scrim win rate—around 80%. We don’t get punished as much, and then you don’t think about those mistakes as much. Sometimes even, you don’t even know it’s a mistake, because the enemy played so badly.

What Inspired said about that is absolutely true. We improved so much in this one and a two-ish weeks, man. I personally learned a lot, saw a lot, and I’ll definitely take away so many things. When we come back to NA, we can’t practice all of those things as much—but you still can practice a lot. So it’s just about doing the best you can and taking these learnings from international back to our region.

Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau mentioned how scrims against Asian teams can be overwhelming. What do you feel these scrims teach you the most compared to what you’d normally get in NA?

Busio: Laning is the first one. Laning against these Eastern teams is just much more calculated. They all have very good ideas of their lane, they’re very experienced, all the players are mechanically good and knowledgeable—so you really have to have a good idea of your matchup. You can’t “kind of” know. If you kind of know, you’re definitely going to get exposed. That’s the baseline just to scrim an Eastern team: you need to really know how to play that matchup.

And then it just keeps going. Once you get out of or win lane, they play the map really well, and they teamfight really well. So you have to have those three aspects of the game down: laning, mid-game and map play, and then teamfights. If you can do all three well and you're on the same wave-length as your teammates, then you can have a competitive scrim block and start learning other things.

Inspired mentioned in the press conference that he felt game 5 was mostly lost due to draft. Do you agree?

Busio: I don't really think like that. I'm not responsible for the draft, nor do I criticize our draft. Sometimes, when the game feels really hard and I feel like I’m doing the right thing, I’ll say, “Guys, my pick must suck—or something must suck—because I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Please tell me, because this feels unplayable.” But most of the time, I just think about what we’ve selected and how we can win with that. And I didn’t see a big problem.

Their comp was obviously strong. For example, our jungler got invaded early, but I’m not sure if that was because of draft or because of lane issues. Quad (Song Su-hyeong) had some troubles early game, and our lane started off quite tragically—with the chunk, the Summoner Spells being blown, and then the lane position being really hard.

But I believe in a normal game, we would’ve found a way to win that—because if we can get five of our champions versus five of theirs, we'd win the fights. A lot of their comp is indexed into globals, so they should get a lead early and have tempo mid-game with how they control the map. That’s expected. Maybe their draft was slightly better, but I definitely see and understand how we win that game. If our early game wasn’t so tragic, we would’ve had a very good shot—regardless of the draft.

Looking back at that rough early game in Game 5, do you think there was anything more you personally or the team could’ve done to stop the bleeding and stabilize?

Busio: For sure, we were a bit too desperate at times. I’m not exactly sure what happened bot, but after that level one, we somehow managed to kill the Ashe and crashed our wave. Props to Massu—that was a tough situation. After that, we kept dying in the jungle because they had prio, globals, and Ashe arrows flying. Small things—like saying, “Be careful about Ashe arrow, Inspired—be ready to ward hop it”—just little nudges to teammates. If we’d been more aware, it could’ve changed a lot.

Even with a rough early game, when you have similar items or reach your spikes, you can still win fights. Our comp is strong in fights. But we got too desperate, picked bad fights, and got caught too much. If we’d been more level-headed, we could’ve still won. But honestly, if the enemies lose from that position, level one, after just three waves—they need to review themselves.

What would you like to say to the fans after this match?

Busio: Thank you guys for the support. We learned a lot from this tournament—I learned a lot, too. We’ll hopefully remember these lessons in NA and be excited for our next internationals."

Header Photo Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games