The Team that Came to Win: NRG vs TL Lower Bracket Recap

NRG vs Team Liquid Honda showcased an exceptional series in the Lower Bracket Finals of the LCS 2023 Summer Split Playoffs! Here is how NRG vs TL performed in a fight to make it to the Grand Finals.

Game 1: A Generous Throw

NRG kicked off the series with 1-0 lead over TL. TL had their carries on their most comfortable and meta-strong picks.

Hong "Pyosik" Chang-Hyeon and Eain "APA" Stearns particularly on their carry picks alongside Park "Summit" Woo-Tae and Sean "Yeon" Sung showed a very strong team fight and skirmishing prowess. TL maintained a lead in the early game as they made picks and secured objectives.

Unfortunately, they also became gradually disrespectful with their positioning. This gave an opportunity for NRG to come back. TL threw their lead and NRG wasted no time in ending victorious. In a massive push to TL's base, NRG destroyed the nexus with a gold lead of 5.2k at a game time of 30:42 minutes.

Game 2: Yeon, The Glorious Executioner

TL tied up the series 1-1 against NRG. Game 2 had a lot of back and forth plays. NRG was confidently able to win few team fights and likewise with TL. The team that won each team fight came down to who play on whose terms.

NRG made some macro blunders such as making a pick on Summit but in result having their base broken through in the bot lane. Once again TL strong arming themselves with heavy damage picks. Yeon showing bravado as he picks a high-risk high-reward ADC which turned the tables this game.

In a major and final team fight for Elder Drake, TL cleanly swept NRG's members. They then proceeded to end the game with a gold lead of 7.6k at a game time of 34:46 minutes.

Game 3: League of Titans

NRG broke a 2-1 lead against TL. NRG drafted a heavy damage comp with good peel and tankiness whereas TL built around the succession of APA's Pop Blossom. APA did end up finding major multi-member Pop Blossoms but strangely the rest of TL was not able to kill many members. Their damage was spread thin amongst each member. Most team fights left NRG with less than 50% HP but barely any kills could be secured by TL.

On the other hand NRG played fights tremendously after being hit with Neeko's ultimate ability. NRG proactively played for their carries while having damage themselves. With this, they created a lead impactful enough to start dominating team fights effortlessly. Once NRG secured Baron, they ran top lane to then obliterate TL's members and base. NRG destroyed TL's nexus with a gold lead of 8.5k at a game time of 23:20 minutes.

Game 4: Early Domination > Scaling

TL tied the series 2-2 to play the full Bo5 series against NRG. This was the fastest game played in Playoffs and also the 2nd fastest game in all of LCS history!

In a riveting match, Pyosik pulls out the Lee Sin pick which is rarely seen in the current pro play meta. Known to be a powerful early game carry, Pyosik did not disappoint as his final KDA was 6/0/2 out of 17 kills!

TL's win condition was to dominate the early game as much as possible before Cristian "Palafox" Palafox and Victor "FBI" Huang came online. They played to this win condition perfectly as they completely dominated NRG in both team fights and objectives. TL ends game 4 with a gold lead of 11.9k at a game time of 18:57 minutes.

Game 5: The Team that Came to Win

NRG closed out the series 3-2 in a dominating performance against TL. NRG seemed to take off their gloves as they outstandingly fought team fights. Even with APA on Xerath that theoretically counters NRG's comp, they proved that they are simply the better team. FBI and Niship "Dhokla" Doshi notably making themselves strong damage dealers with Palafox, Lee "IgNar" Dong-Geun, and Juan "Contractz" Arturo Garcia providing the extra support needed.

Unfortunately for TL, they seemed to be all over the place with their positioning. Summit had an underperformance with his Gnar as he ended 0/6/2. In the final moments of the game, Summit walked into NRG's team without any chance of getting Mega-Gnar. Obviously NRG killed him, but it seemed highly strange as there should have been no reason to this death. This lead to NRG fighting 5v4 in TL's base. NRG destroyed them and their nexus with a gold lead of 9.3k at a game time of 35:10 minutes.

Moving Forward

Congratulations to NRG as they secure top two seeds for the 2023 Worlds Tournament! They will also advance to the Grand Finals versus Cloud9 on August 20th at 1PM PST/4PM EST. TL is out of the tournament but they will make another appearance as the third seed from the LCS for Worlds.

NRG performed incredible this series. Contractz performed amazingly as he had great presence and ganks in all three lanes. He also played very well with the rest of his team in team fights. FBI and Palafox performed incredibly as well. They were strong and consistent damage dealers in each game and were able to carry fights. Dhokla and IgNar rounded out the team very well with their incredible peel and play making performance. It is no doubt that NRG have pulled themselves from their boot straps and showed the world that they are here to win the LCS trophy. The question is, will they be able to take down the long-standing champions or face being casted as their shadow?

 

 

Featured Image Source: Riot Games