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NRG Palafox backdoors nexus to close out upset against Cloud 9
The last week of the 2023 LCS Summer Split regular season has produced some absolute banging matches. Bottom table squads are looking to push for a playoff spot, while the top side of the table is battling for better seeding, it has become a quite intense fixture for most rosters. Today we are going to take a look at how the best team in the league, Cloud 9, was not able to defeat what appeared to be their nemesis this year, NRG. The match itself on July 19th was long and packed to the brim with tense situations for both sides.
Even after getting first blood and achieving a 1500 gold lead, Cloud 9’s proactiveness started to slow down as the game progressed into the late game. NRG slowly but surely managed to find small windows to farm on the sidelines, which started to cut C9’s lead as the game progressed.
After a couple of incredibly close teamfights around objectives, NRG found themselves one step ahead of their enemies, but not by much. Cloud 9 were able to stop a massive nexus push in the 35th minute, including an ACE to have a chance of fighting for the Elder Dragon. Nevertheless this is where Cloud 9 made a mistake, specifically their mid laner EMENES.
EMENES was left as the only nexus defender for Cloud 9, fully focused on guarding duties. However, he faced a rising NA star in Palafox who was even the strongest member from NRG. After a quick Leblanc combo, Palafox absolutely one shotted EMENES’ Jayce, which gave him the opportunity to look for a backdoor play. Once NRG saw this, they immediately started to flood C9’s members around the dragon to stop their base teleports.
In the chaotic play C9 was able to secure Elder Dragon, however they were not able to go back to their base, they ultimately stayed to try and wipe NRG members in the area as soon as possible. Palafox was able to auto attack both turrets and the nexus incredibly fast thanks to his Statikk Shiv build, and take a much needed win for NRG.
Backdoors are always incredibly tense yet fun to watch, this time around all credit goes to Palafox’s ability to both beat the nexus defender and win the game for his team. Throughout 2023 Cloud 9 has not been able to beat this NRG roster, which also includes the former CLG members after the buyout. NRG has truly become their biggest kryptonite in the LCS.
After this tough defeat, Cloud 9 is not guaranteed to stay at 1st place in the LCS table, as they now share the spot with Golden Guardians. Their next match against TSM on July 20th will decide their seeding in the playoffs.
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