NRG arrived in the North American LCS in the 2016 Spring Split after purchasing their spot from Team Coast. Their roster was chalk full of potential with veteran imports such as Impact and GBM bolstering the roster in addition to some home-grown talent with Moon, Altec, and KonKwon. NRG’s debut performance in the LCS heralded the potential of the team when they roared to a 3-0 start. By the end of the split, their hot performance had died down a bit, but they would still come out with a respectable 9-9 record including wins over some of the top teams such as TSM and Liquid. This record would net them a 5th place finish for the regular season and allow them to go on to the playoff stages.
The Playoffs
Photo Credit: rebrn.com
In the playoffs, NRG’s opponent was Liquid who had been slumping early in the split, but improved steadily to grab the 4th place seed over NRG. In the regular season, the teams had played each other twice with each team winning one game. It looked like the series would be a close game considering the teams’ records against each other and the other teams in the LCS. Sadly, it was not to be as Liquid swept the series 3-0, completely shutting NRG out and ending NRG’s playoff dreams.
The New Look
Photo Credit: Daily Dot
After their unfortunate series against Liquid, NRG saw their roster being slowly poached by different teams who saw the potential in the individual players. Impact went into negotiations with Cloud 9 for a transfer which ultimately led to him leaving NRG. The North American talents, Altec, Moon, and KonKwon also parted with the team leaving only the mid-laner, GBM, as the only member of the team who remained on the roster. This left 4 roles that would need to be filled and the organization looked around the remaining talent in North America to see who was available.
Since Dignitas had fallen into relegation and did not make it out, many of their players were available for pick-up. KiWiKiD has long since been a cheerful presence in the LCS and has shown the mechanical skill to justify his position. He was chosen by NRG for the support role with another ex-Dignitas member Quas receiving the top role. It should be noted that Quas was not part of the Dignitas team that was sent to relegation as he left the team a few seasons back. The other role that NRG managed to fill was the jungler role. Santorin had moved to the United States to join TSM back in 2015, but was replaced this season for Svenskeren, another European import. Since then he has been playing for Team Huma with his current teammate Quas as a Challenger Team. The only role left to fill for NRG is the ADC role which remains open since the departure of Altec. NRG has commented saying that they are actively looking for a player to fill the role.