LCS Finals Summer 2024 Blog: 9/6-9/7
Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
I wasn't sure what to expect heading to my first ever LCS Finals in-person, but ended up having the most unforgettable and amazing experience of my life! I would definitely recommend it if you've never gone!
For some context, I first became an LCS fan in 2018 (shoutout huhi and CLG😭), stuck around till I quit league in 2020 and lost interest. I came back around to it in 2022 which is when I became a huge fan of the roster with Impact, Inspired, Jojopyun, Danny, and Vulcan. I made a trip to LCS for the first time in spring 2023 with my lovely friend Delfi; sadly I couldn't meet the Boys back then because they got covid and didn’t play in the studio.
In June this year, after graduating from uni, I came to SoCal for personal reasons. At the same time, I was able to visit LCS again and meet my favorite players for the first time! Since then I had the fortune of being able to go to LCS 3 more times (all during FlyQuest game days).
I had been debating whether I should get a ticket for Finals, but finally realized that I would regret not going while I’m this close. Around the time I decided that, I heard from my friend Eri (that yeoncyclopedia fan) that she was very compelled to go. So we wound up buying our tickets together to sit together which was great, and I’m very thankful for that!
I will try to recall as much as I possibly can and keep this blog as my journal of what happened this wonderful weekend.
Day One: Lower Bracket Finals; FLY vs 100
Fanfest
4x6 postcard prints
I came with freebies that I wanted to give away. I ordered C9 prints as well because I truly believed they would make it to finals and well, let’s not talk about it. Despite that, I did give away all the C9 prints so hey, it was still fine.
I arrived around 10:10am and headed straight to the FlyQuest booth to find my friend Angie, who was yapping into a megaphone and seemed quite busy. I will forever cherish the special Inspired MSI jersey she gifted me, which let me rep my favorite player at finals. Though it’s medium size which is too big for me, I tied it up and it was fine!
Photo by Marv Watson/Riot Games
Thank you Angie and FLY
The booth was surrounded by balloons and resembled a circus tent. Inside you could receive a branded coconut if you bought merch. The coconut helped me keep a bit more sane as the sweltering heat continued climbing. I also picked up a stamp card that you could get at any booth- if you get a stamp at every booth, you could redeem the card for some free merch.
I stayed there for straight up 30 minutes for some reason, handing out prints to some Fly staff plus a fan who found me, and watching Angie hard at work. Angie passed out jersey giveaway raffle tickets to people in exchange for something I forget. She was also asking fans in the line stuff like “Can you name any of our players other than Bwipo,” and not everyone even could. Well, I hope they can now!
Eventually I headed to the bathroom and changed into the Inspired jersey. When I exited the bathroom, it was around 10:50am and I saw someone in front of me wearing a Berserker jersey. Then I realized it kinda looked like Berserker from the back of his hair. Then I noticed Jojopyun. And then I saw Thanatos and it hit me that's freaking all of C9, what? Couldn't believe my eyes.
Suddenly all of C9 spawned in front of me and I didn't even know how to react
They walked toward the C9 booth a few feet away and I heard the manager explain the whole Sion Rift Racing vs fans setup to them, then the players walked to the tent where the PCs were.
in this pic you can kinda see the right half of the giant tent with the C9 logo is where the PCs were. not pictured to the right of the redbull umbrellas is the cloud wall where you receive freebies // Photo by Marv Watson/Riot Games
I had made up my mind that I’m too much of a noob to participate as I’m aram-only and don't even play Sion. So I kinda stared at their backs for a while and then walked to the right, where a C9 staff was saying that you could get freebies if you walk up to the cloud wall and ring the bell.
“Is it that easy?” Someone in front of me wondered doubtfully. He rang the bell, and a goodie bag appeared in the opening. So I did the same and acquired the goodies: a C9 pin, sticker, and thundersticks.
Example…? of the cloud wall in action.
I gave the staff a print and she said wow, have you given this to the players? I said no cuz I don't really wanna play Sion Speedway and she was telling me it’s okay and I just gotta click but I’m like… eeeh I’ll think about it.
After that I went to find my friend Ruii since she had arrived during that time w/ her friend Khun. I went downstairs and lined up at the IMT booth since one of my friends not in attendance really wanted the free IMT trading cards. I found out they had run out fast, so I knew I had to return the next day.
photo from @immortals twitter
Upon finding Ruii, we headed back upstairs. I believe we started with the NRG booth, but they had run out of free mousepads to sign, so the players were just signing papers which was scuffed but in a funny way. They also ran out of huhi stickers- I was told he ran out the fastest. But there would be more tomorrow.
Photo from @nrgleague twitter
The players were at a long table signing in a row similar to kpop fansigns. I greeted huhi:
“Hi Jae!”
“Hi, nice to see you!” He said with a smile.
“How’s it going?”
He shrugged a little. “Okay… It’s just offseason, y’know.”
“Yeah. Well it's good to see you. Are you rooting for anyone?”
“I’m rooting for my old teammates on 100 Thieves,” he said after a moment of thought. (By that, he probably meant River and staff?)
lcstwt fanartist joint slay!!
After that, I got some photobooth photos with Ruii!
We circled around to the C9 booth on the opposite side. I noticed Vulcan standing around the inner middle area not by the PCs. Seeing other fans there, I also walked in. I greeted Vulcan and asked if he wanted a print, so he said “sure I’ll take it.” I asked how he’s been and all but of course it's probably been a tough week understandably. Ruii helped take a picture.
I found out the fans playing Sion Speedway got to choose which player they wanted to go against, so the other players weren't always occupied. As we were deciding where to go next, I noticed Blaber appeared in the inner middle area where Vulcan still was. I decided to go in and greet him too.
Upon asking Blaber if he wanted the print, he smiled big and said sure! Then I asked for a picture. Blaber asked if I want a selfie or want someone else to take a picture. I said it’d be cool if someone else could take it and he called Hai, who was standing near us, over. Hai was like: “yeah, I gotchu.” Afterwards I gave him a print as well.
In hindsight, I should have turned my cap backwards to match Blaber. In hindsight, I also wanted to say a lot more things to Blaber because I’ve watched him and been a fan since he first entered the league in 2018 summer. It’s clear that Blaber is a very friendly and considerate person. Still sorry I didn’t get the chance to draw him as Nidalee before the split ended (that was his suggestion when I played with him during C9 ARAM night).
Anyway I believe some fan standing there asked me for a print, and we talked for a while. Then I saw Ovilee passing through with a C9 jersey, so I approached and asked if she wanted a print. She gasped, exclaiming: “Did you draw this?? You are so talented!” She asked me if I had given it to the players yet.
“Oh, just Blaber and Vulcan since I saw them standing around,” I said.
Ovilee was then very insistent that we would make it happen. She marched me forward and passed me off to the C9 general manager David Han after explaining the situation to him. When showing him the prints, he was impressed and very willing to take me to the inner PC area to gift Thanatos, Jojo, and Berserker. I was kinda shocked too, like: “Really? I don't have to play or anything?”
“Nah, no problem,” he said.
The inner PC area was right there, but you had to go up like 3 small stairs to get in. That’s where Thanatos, Jojo, and Berserker were sitting. (Blaber and Vulcan’s PC setups weren't inside there, they were outside.)
David helped tell the players one by one that there's a gift for them and I handed them the prints while being shy and not saying anything really. They just kinda smiled in response.
Berserker was standing on the other side, perhaps waiting for a fan who was coming to 1v1 him, and he turned toward us with a very neutral expression like 😐. When I handed him my print, his whole face brightened with a wide smile. “This is cool,” he told me. “Thank you!” (No thank you Berserker I’ll just have to be a fan now😭)
I gave a print to David and he asked if I wanted one signed for myself. I was like :O really?? is it possible? And he was saying yeah, he’ll ask them right now. So he went around to them one by one to ask for signatures.
Thank you so much I really appreciated this. After this i really felt like I had done everything that I wanted to do LOL. I was so giddy. And I know things went sour this year for them but I will still miss this roster.
I met back up with Ruii downstairs. We decided to wait around for Eri who would be arriving soon from the airport. I lined up at the Team Liquid booth and bought a cute little Blue plushie keychain.
photo from @teamliquidlol twitter
Eri showed up around 11:40 am. While we were talking my friend Arsh somehow appeared, and I was like, “how did you find us?”
He said: “I see someone wearing an Inspired jersey and a BLG jersey next to each other, who could it be?” Throughout fanfest, Arsh lowkey just popped up randomly from time to time and disappeared often. He claimed to have a “tall sight line” which made him able to spot us easily as there were apparently not many groups of girls walking around.
Eri, my goat, the biggest extravert of all time, spent the next 30 minutes or so dragging me around fanfest profiling fans who might be interested in a FLY or C9 art print. (She also helped Ruii track down TL fans.) We discovered that most C9 fans walk like they have places to be. Still, I think I only got one rejection when asking people, so overall asking was good and I should be more confident.
We also picked up a free bucket of cotton candy from C9 which was yummy.
The Games
We finally headed inside the theater and ran into PapaSmithy. I knew he wanted a print, so I handed him one. He told me that most of the FLY players still keep theirs in the practice room(?) which is very sweet (I had given them the prints during regular season).
YUMMY TACOS
After finding our seats and setting our stuff down, me and Eri went back outside the seating area to buy food. The food was astoundingly goated. I bought these street tacos and they tasted amazing.
There were some empty seats in the row in front so we moved to sit next to Ruii as well. I sat between Eri and Ruii. Eri was rooting for 100 Thieves on the day because she's a Quid fan.
I held up the freakspired sign during the preshow and it was shown on broadcast faster than I thought it would. “I’m answering that call,” Raz said on the desk.
I had a few sign ideas and I let my friends and followers pick their favorite. Needless to say Freakspired won by a landslide. don't blame me for this it's just for the meme😭
Friends told me that Caedrel liked the sign and I love the clip of him reacting to it.
The first game we got the Aurelion Sol + Amumu mid-jungle and I wasn’t certain but it ended up being great, and Massu had some great Ashe arrows.
The second game we had Inspired Amumu again and Bwipo performed off Renekton which meant it definitely was shaping up to be a good clean day. Although Quid was trying his best to carry 100T, Massu got super fed from the start of the game and played the Kai’Sa out cleanly from there.
Inspired was back on Ivern kitten duty in game 3, the Bwipo Olaf pick was going crazy, and Quad was mega fed on Corki. Even though 100T got some kills early especially on Tomo, it felt like FLY was still pretty in the drivers seat and ended up running away with the whole game.
With that clean 3-0 speedrun, the day ended super early before 4pm. I had told my dad slightly in advance that he could come pick me up.
In the lobby after the series, we met up with Angie and talked a bit. During that time I learned that the FLY MSI jerseys weren't sold with custom gamer tags because it would take longer to make and ship those, and the Inspired jersey I had was apparently from a test order, and only one of two in existence or something.
nice meeting yall <3
Unexpected Inspiration
I walked toward the parking lots, waiting for my dad to pick me up. He was trying to figure out where I was- it seems that he got lost especially with a lot of roads being blocked off. In ten minutes, he couldn't figure out how to get to where I was, so he told me to just go back toward where he was. That required a long walk under the summer sun, so I was getting irritated. But as I walked on the sidewalk, I suddenly saw Arsh coming from the opposite direction.
He greeted me, he must have just finished the press conference or something. And he told me: “Sources say Inspired and Busio are standing right there-” he pointed a ways behind him -”if you wanna see them.”
I jolted to life, almost leaping forward. “Seriously??” I exclaimed. “What?? Can you come with me?”
“I gotta go,” Arsh said, scurrying away. “They're just right there!” He pointed again.
At that instant my dad’s car pulled up beside me on the road. He rolled the window down, and I yelled “sorry gimme two minutes please!!” And bolted. He was clearly confused but anyway PRIORITIES.
I got to the entry place and turned left, and sure enough there were a few Flyquest people there including Inspired. I went to say hi and congrats.
“I saw your sign,” he told me with a smile.
meetup of doom
Whatever embarrassment I felt about that was pushed down by my excitement at unexpectedly getting to meet him here. “Oh yeah!” I pulled said sign out of my bag to show him. He picked it up and was giggling.
I also pulled out my black marker (I didn’t think I’d be able to meet him otherwise I should have brought my white marker) and he seemed to think I would ask him to sign the sign so… I let him do that. But then I asked if he could also sign the back of my jersey. I explained the rarity of the jersey and how Angie gave me it, and he was like “wow really?”
“It's kinda hard to type on this,” he said while signing.
“Yeah no worries… type??” I repeated with a laugh, realizing what he’d said.
It is a bit hard to see the black signature on the dark green. Should I go over it with white? Should I wait until the next time I ever get to see him, who knows when that’ll be? What do y’all think?
“Thanks for coming today! Are you coming tomorrow too?” Kacper asked.
“Yeah!! Good luck you got this! Is there gonna be any way to see you tomorrow too?”
“Probably? There should be a fan meet after the games,” Kacper said, contemplative. (Later Angie said he was just making that up.)
“Really? Okay, hopefully! Well see you tomorrow!”
“Yeah I’ll see you tomorrow!”
I had a feeling this would be our last meeting anyway, but I gave him the last wave goodbye, picked up my bags, and headed back to my dad’s car feeling elated. Like don't worry dad, there's no problems, in fact thank you for being lost!! 😭
the way he signed it there makes the sign now look like it's asking "will you answer inspired" sob
I also have an emote called blaberbedge in my friends discord server. Here it is
Since the day ended early, I figured I had time to make a new sign for the next day. I decided to make the “When does C9 play” one with Blaber because I felt like he was very friendly and I haven't made him a sign yet.
Blaber liked my tweet of the sign so I’m glad! It's not supposed to be flame at all, just in good fun and a little shoutout to the team I Thought would be playing this weekend.
shoutout to my irl friend for helping me draw the hands
Day Two: Upper Bracket Finals FLY vs TL
Fanfest
I arrived around 9:30am, and first things first I went to the NRG line to see if I could get a huhi sticker this time. There was now a note on the table saying “limit one sticker,” so there were plenty of stickers available for each player. I also noticed the free mousepads were back, so I grabbed a mousepad to get signed.
cute nrg stickers, photo from @nrgleague twitter
While in the line, Eri and Ruii messaged me that they could see me. They were standing in the Mastercard photo line which was kinda far away but still visible from the NRG line. So I waved at them. I couldn't join them in the line so I waited for them to be done.
I think we went to FlyQuest afterwards. I didn't have anything to do there, I think Eri was just buying a scarf.
We ran into Arsh talking to our friend Zyko (NACL player for Dragonsteel) aka Ryan. He asked me “Who am I” as if he was testing me and I’m like ….Ryan..? That was a pretty cool meetup, I did not realize he was coming.
I got asked so many times by strangers where I got the drink from
We went around and checked out the Red Bull booth where they were giving out blueberry lemonade with boba for free in cute bear shaped containers, helping me stay hydrated.
We were walking in a direction trying to decide where to go next and I believe (although I’m not 100% certain) this is when some Riot staff with camera equipment approached us and asked if we would be okay to film an interview for Eyes On. I was so taken aback, I blurted out “eyes on what?” And the guy started trying to explain what it was (the documentary type video series on the LCS youtube channel). But I went “oh no I mean… like… just eyes on LCS finals?” And he said yeah.
The 3 of us (Me, Eri, and Ruii) were pretty surprised but excited at the idea so we agreed. I asked why they picked us and the Riot guy said that they saw us walking around with conflicting jerseys and thought that would be interesting.
We’re on Flickr… CAUGHT // Photos by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
I was holding my freebies in one hand, so I decided to show off the FlyQuest prints and I also pulled out my signs for me and Eri to hold. I had to hold up the freakspired sign because it’s the best one I had there😭😭 and I gave Eri my old Yeon YCS sign.
I guess I won’t spoil the interview questions because I don’t know how much of the interview they’ll use in the video (probably won’t be much honestly) and don't know when the video is coming out. Maybe I’ll come back and update this blog after it releases. What I will say though is the last question asked for our predictions on the series score and we were all wrong in the end (I said FLY 3-2). We flopped!!
What was crazier to me is that after the interview, the interviewer asked me if… if I was me! And he said he’s seen my art and stuff? I guess he wasn’t aware initially but realized it when I pulled out the signs and art! Eri told me to add that the guy then told me that everyone at Riot knows me which is??
photo from @dignitaslol twitter
After I picked up a free stress ball at Dignitas booth, in case the series would be stressful. We walked to the nearby Shopify Rebellion booth where you had to do at least one activity to get a stamp. It was hot and lines for balloon animals and face paint were long so we decided to just make bracelets. I didn’t know what to make so I made an NCT bracelet with 19 green beads, since it matches FlyQuest colors too anyway.
photo from @shopifyrebels twitter
Going around again we joined the very long AT&T League trivia line. You get to answer 10 trivia questions on a screen related to LCS and League in general. Everyone gets different questions since when discussing afterwards I realized Eri had different ones from me.
The staff member standing there asked me something like “How you feeling?” When I reached the front of the line.
“Umm… I dunno, we’ll see,” I said, something like that.
“You a little too chill for me. You the chillest of the bunch!” The staff said lightheartedly, referring to our little group. Is that true? I dunno but that was funny.
I got 8/10 questions correct. I can’t admit which one I got wrong because it's embarrassing but I supposedly get a “rare skin” emailed to me for it. All I got so far is an email saying to “stay tuned.”
this pic is from day 1 when there was a doublelift fanmeet, I missed it but it's okay since I met him last year // Photo by Marv Watson/Riot Games
Next Eri and I were joined by Ryan in the Kia line. You fill out a quick survey/form and then get to click a button to activate gacha. There were several doors with prizes behind them and one of the doors would light up randomly when you click the button. It's possible to get an NRG or C9 jersey, but I don't know how low those odds were.
I won a bucket hat that says KIA on one side and LCS on the other. Eri and Ryan both won a fanny pack. The draw is rigged just like my usual gacha luck.
sorry i'm a peace sign onetrick. i should have done the same pose as eri
We took photos at the Kia booth to manifest Ryan’s NACL championship. It totally worked as his team did end up winning the NACL finals the next day. Congrats to him!
After that we went downstairs and, I picked up some IMT photocards for my friend.
I grabbed a stamp at the Pagoda booth too along with a free coupon and headed to TL to get another stamp.
Don't tell anyone but the TL guy gave me a stamp for the 100T booth too so I didn't end up going to 100T. Listen it was much hotter downstairs because there was no cover downstairs and lines were long TT. However, I was later told if you brought Crocs you could get free 100T Jibbitz, and now I have slight regrets because I HAVE crocs and didn't bring them.
Then I ran to the ‘new skinline’ area and got a stamp before going back upstairs to get my last stamp from the Mastercard booth. Redeeming the stamp card gets you a free shirt (it's a little big for me but pretty nice) and some little goodies.
I checked the C9 booth one last time to see if I could spot Meteos and it turned out he was doing a photo op along with with C9 Jack and Emilia. I was able to gift them prints and tell Meteos that he’s my favorite costreamer and that I enjoy him on The Dive and C9 Forecast.
I spent a while looking for oomf who was trying to meet up with me, and then I rejoined Eri at our seats around noon. She informed me that she had run into the 100 Thieves LCS team earlier around the food line and even taken a picture with Quid! Eri wants me to add that it was a hand heart picture and they touched fingers. 🫶
We went together to get food. The line stretched long and to our right was a glass door to something labeled the “Champions club.” About a minute into waiting, we saw a bunch of pro players/League personalities dressed in the same black and white LCS jacket walk out of the club and towards the opposite direction of the line. It was mind-boggling, like I first noticed Phreak and then I realized there were a ton of pros behind him. I saw Blaber right behind Contractz- I waved at Blaber as he passed by, and he waved back. I didn’t even notice in the moment, but Eri told me that Contractz thought I was waving at him and nodded or something.
Wondering what that was all about, I ordered the same goated street tacos and headed to the seats with Eri.
The Series
First of all, during the preshow i got to hold up my “when does c9 play” sign.
Leading up to the opening ceremony, a 60 second countdown started- we saw the backstage view of the FLY and TL players on the big screen and felt super hyped. From the mist, the guest artist emerged to sing Warriors, the 2014 Worlds song (oomf told me it’s the 2020 season cinematic version). And the legends of the LCS scene emerged from both sides of the stage as the hype video on screen flashed the past winning rosters of every LCS split and a series of iconic plays.
They all wore those black and white LCS jackets, as Eri and I had seen back in the food line. So that’s why they were all there.
Photo by Marv Watson/Riot Games
Lastly, the two legendary GOATs and friends, Bjergsen and Doublelift, appeared together, carrying the LCS trophy. I remembered how I watched so many finals in the past from home, watching Doublelift win over and over; back then it seemed like these guys would be playing in LCS forever.
okay the joint slay // Photo by Marv Watson/Riot Games
The song continued as the Team Liquid and FlyQuest players themselves took to the stage, positioned in front of the old legends on both sides. I did happen to be sitting on the Team Liquid side (crowd left).
Unfortunately the production messed up and filmed Massu when Inspired’s name was announced. They also filmed Quad when Massu’s name was announced. I can hardly blame them because the names were called out in a weird order (support, jungle, adc, mid, top), but surely this would have been practiced? So sadly I couldn't see Inspired when his name was called live, but the video LCS posted to their channel edited those mistakes to be fixed with what I’m assuming is a backup camera shot.
After the announcing of names, the players took their seats. A brief hype video for the series played and it was soon time for champ select. Seeing the trophy at the center of the stage, it hit me that I would be watching someone lift the trophy today, and how crazy that would be.
Shoutout my friend Sock who was here in spirit. I kept dming her for draft analysis every game 😭. She also told me that Caedrel pointed my freakspired sign out again during draft.
I was hyped up that FLY was winning the first game pretty cleanly from early on. Since TL left up Lillia and didnt first pick it, it was a good ol’ Inspired Lillia carry angle. I enjoyed seeing Inspired messing around with Impact (as ex teammates they respect each other highly but also are friends with great banter).
Game 2 being mostly a stomp in the other direction got me a bit nervous, but I still knew FLY could pull this series together based on game 1. And I knew TL is a good team so I expected the series to be close like last week.
The 3 seats on my left were empty the whole time so Arsh came to sit by us during game 3. He told me that he believes TL will win the series although he wasn’t rooting for anyone, just rooting for a good series.
The photo quality from arsh's phone left a bit to be desired
The draft was kinda crazy to me but ended up being a good game. TL was up in kills early, especially for Impact, but I was still pretty hopeful seeing that Inspired was building a lead in jungle and neutral objectives while playing another carry champ, Zyra. They started to win teamfights hard. Arsh was excited by Busio playing well, I was excited in general, and Eri was like why am I surrounded by this negative energy (I’m sorry Eri). I was not familiar with Massu’s Seraphine game and now I am. His performance for a rookie bot laner in his first year is so impressive, performing on both AD carries and mages on a big stage.
After the 3rd game, Arsh left; I forgot why but I think he was finding other people or something. Some friendly strangers sat in the empty seats and I passed them prints.
Me and Eri held our signs on broadcast again during game 4 champ select, this time I used my silly Rizzspired sign.
Onto Game Four, which started slowly and ended in the most insane way. Inspired after playing 3 carries in a row was back on Ivern kitten duty, and a crazy top lane Garen pick came out for Bwipo. The game was going so slowly for the majority of it that I was feeling sleepy.
TL started the game with a bit of a lead, and then at some point when APA got caught toplane, FLY started hitting Baron and then turned and won the 5v4, got Baron, and reversed the gold lead.
With their 2nd Baron buff expiring, FlyQuest managed to kill CoreJJ then push into TL’s base 5v4 and take both nexus turrets. As Busio said in his postgame interview, during this point he “griefed” by dying to APA under top inhib turret and started a ‘bad spiral’. FLY got aced two fights in a row after taking nexus turrets and the second time, Team Liquid with all five members alive thought they could end the game with one collective push down mid. Everyone watching, including casters and staff backstage, initially assumed it was a Team Liquid win and that we would be pushed to game 5.
But suddenly, on the bottom corner of the screen we could see that a giant wave with super minions had reached TL’s open nexus and were slapping it with no mercy. The TL nexus’ HP dwindled as the Team Liquid players were all in the FlyQuest base distracted by the freshly respawned and only alive member of FLY, Busio, who went in on a solo hero mission to save the game by going for the TL minion wave.
Those few seconds he bought mattered. The FLY minions ended the game while the camera was pointed at the FlyQuest base, suddenly panning toward the bottom left indicating FlyQuest’s victory. It happened so suddenly I wasn’t even ready to record the ending because I thought TL was about to win there. Fans in front of me stood up and I stood up too; I lost my voice screaming and freaking out like no way that just happened.
And that’s how FlyQuest won the series, earning the right to lift the trophy.
Looking back at the replay, you can see that bot wave had stacked up and during the start of the last fight the wave was still barely past the river, but at the end of the fight (when all of FLY died) the wave had pushed up almost to the edge of the TL base. There were 2 super minions hitting that nexus as Busio was distracting TL in FLY base. Azael realized first that TL was gonna lose and you could hear how much he was freaking out in his voice. I didn’t hear him live because I was so tense and going insane.
my reaction to the ending
I could barely hear my own thoughts let alone the players in the postgame interviews over the buzz of the crowd and victory music blasting. I’m watching it back and I hear Inspired talk about how he was already thinking about game 5 draft, and Quad was the one yelling “MINIONS!” You can just hear the exhilaration and energy coursing through Inspired as he lets out a happy little set of giggles after that. Bwipo sounds on the verge of tears speaking about his love of the game, Massu sounds calm as usual but you can see he’s pleased with the victory. Busio talks about how he thought they lost but they suddenly won and there’s an excitement in his voice too, Quad looks so happy and almost like he can’t believe it.
Inspired won Finals MVP very deservedly and I’m proud of him he really proved his value as a player, teammate, and leader, as well as proving himself versatile- able to play different styles for whatever the team needed in a draft. Supportive or carry, he could do it all.
It took a second for me to process, but after the interviews and photos, we saw the FlyQuest team slowly ascending the stairs and fist bumping fans on both sides, with Inspired leading the charge holding the trophy in one hand.
“You go!!” Eri yelled, pushing me toward the other side of our row (which had already emptied out- maybe those were TL fans). I realized this would be my true last time seeing him.
As he approached our row, I called out “Kacper congrats!” He turned, grinned, and fist bumped me.
That’ll be my last time seeing Kacper for a long time, probably. I couldn't have asked for a better circumstance to meet him in for the last time this year: basking in cheers under the green lights, clutching his well-deserved LCS trophy in one hand, a joyful smile lighting his face.
I said my final farewells to my friends, and it was time to go.
While heading toward where my dad was driving in from, I saw Raz and Emily heading the opposite direction and I waved at them excitedly. I was probably high off the victory and saying how today was amazing. Emily mentioned that she liked my sign too, and I said I liked the Quad Draw my life she made. We got a selfie, Raz being the tallest was kind to take it for us.
After that, I literally saw Doublelift appear out of nowhere next to us and he was about to enter a car. He was saying something to someone, and as I was walking off I yelled “DOUBLELIFT I LOVE THE COSTREAMS!”
At that, he turned and said “thank you!”
How darn poetic is it that my very last sight at LCS in both 2023 and 2024 happened to be Doublelift.
super scuffed haul picture since I was sleepy
Closing Thoughts
You know, I used to think my live attending games was cursed. Because my first time was 2022 worlds and well, I saw EG and 100T get eliminated from groups. And then of course the spring 2023 incident happened, and I really felt like giving up back then. But I’ve been so blessed this year that I can't believe it. I just thank God for these opportunities and the great memories I’ve been able to make. I’ll be back home (not california) next year, which is why I say I don’t know when the next time I’ll be able to return to LCS is, but I’m more than thankful for all the times I got this year.
Inspired even told me that my support helped them win, which is very kind of him, but really I didn't have anything to do with it, just like I didn't have anything to do with the losses in the past either. It's him and the team who stepped up this weekend and played their hearts out! All I did was cheer from the sidelines and celebrate when they won.
shining // Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
Speaking of Inspired, I want to talk about him. The LCS community especially on reddit has perceived him as a “villain,” and he's said on interview that he even likes that because it means people talk about him. So…… I can't help you there Kacper. But what I want to tell the lolesports fans is that he is no villain. I barely even get where the sentiment comes from. He can be blunt on camera, sure, but most pros are blunt off camera anyway. (He’s European.) He levels up all his teams because of his leadership, drive, and skills. He’s so helpful to developing and guiding rookies, helping them understand the game more. And he’s so friendly in real life, like he’s genuinely good at socializing, which not a lot of pro players naturally are. If you meet him you can just feel this bubbly energy and genuine enthusiasm from him. And he's very appreciative of his fans so… Yes, that’s my piece, I hope that you wouldn’t dislike him, and I hope more people could like him as a player and personality.
I told the Eyes On interview that Inspired and Jojo were tied for my favorite player, and I’m a little sorry to say this now but… truthfully after everything, I must admit that Inspired is my favorite player. His kindness to fans is so heartwarming and I would feel happy to support him and root for him over everyone else especially when many people dislike him.
I also want to shout out to Danny who's been watching LCS playoffs as a fan, supporting the teams with his friends! He supported FLY and TL and C9! If you look at his tweets and replies you can see him giving support to his pro player friends and it really warms my heart!
Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
I’ve been a fan of LCS for a decently long time, and I wonder how cool it would have been to be able to attend finals at least once back in 2018 or 2019. (As a CLG fan I would have been a neutral observer.) Still, the biggest difference between then and now is that I have many friends now. Back then I wasn't on twitter much and didn't make friends who were also LCS fans. But now I am so thankful to have met so many fellow LCS fans, especially fellow fangirls. I believe this was the best time that I could have attended an LCS finals. In 2018 and 2019, I wouldn't have had any friends to meet. And in 2022, I wouldn’t have either since I was still getting back into it, and that spring I wasn't using twitter at all really. And in 2023, my faves didn't make it to finals weekend for the most part. So now really was the best time IMO.
Many people said kind things to me these two days. Some people even asked me to sign the art prints I gave out, which made me feel shocked (like why do you want My signature LOL) but touched. I really had considered taking another break (I was feeling somewhat burned out again), but I felt my enthusiasm be reignited again after this event thanks to how fun it was and all the encouraging words I heard. I’d like to thank everyone who talked to me and my friends who weren’t able to be there irl but still talked with me online.
You guys know that I’m very hesitant to throw praise at esports org staff, which is perfectly understandable after experiencing EG. However, I would at least like to at least express my own feelings in the moment with the limited knowledge that I have. The FlyQuest staff I’ve interacted with over the visits to LCS this summer have been very kind to me and I appreciate that. Most especially, Angie is my friend and I know she's very passionate and sweet. (Note: I have not met all the staff, just some of them.) I also felt similarly toward C9 although my interactions with them were far more limited. And I think every staff working hard at fanfest in the burning heat did a great job to make fans have a fun and unforgettable experience there.
Lastly, I would like to “show off” my various signs from the summer, they were always fun to make and I hope y’all enjoyed them too!
P.S. If you made it this far thank you so much for reading all my yapping!! I still have some flyquest prints left over so I’ll probably do a giveaway for some, but it’ll be a while since I’m very busy this week ^^
