Much hype has surrounded Near Airport, a team created and captained by LCS Legend Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng in March. Doublelift teamed with fellow veterans Eugene “Pobelter” Park, Vincent “Biofrost” Wang, and Mingyi “Spica” Lu, all former LCS champions, as well as popular streamer Ashkan “TF Blade” Homayouni. With these popular personalities, the team's goal was to compete in Tier 2 play while streaming their games and scrims, in line with the huge success of Caedrel’s Los Ratones in the NLC.

After crushing the Open Qualifiers and placing third in the NACL regular split, they seemed to be one of the top teams contesting for the NACL championship, with a potential shot at playing an LTA North promotion series. However, those ambitions came crashing down in Friday’s series against Conviction, a team that had trailed closely behind NA, having placed 4th in the regular season, and having lost to them in their one prior matchup.

In their first foray into Tier 2 play, in the Lower Bracket Semifinals of NACL 2025 Split 1, NA was soundly defeated by Conviction 3-1.

Conviction Steps Up

Conviction is a team made up of five players with no experience in Tier 1 play. For CNV’s players, like Aaron “Chrome” Li and Isaac “DARKWINGS” Chou, their past triumphs consist of Collegiate championships, not LCS ones. And far from the many years of support veterancy of a player like Biofrost, Conviction support Daniel “Minui” Zhang only began playing the role at the start of 2025, having swapped from ADC before joining Tempest Gaming. With Tempest, Minui and his teammates promoted to the NACL together, before the roster was acquired as five by Conviction. The team recently added new members mid-split: announcing a partnership with Cloud9 involving the support of C9 coaches Marius "Veigar v2" Aune and Nicholas "Inero" Smith.

The best of five series showcased exceptional teamplay and resilience from Conviction. Near Airport and Conviction took Game 1 and 2 respectively, setting the stage for a close series. Game 3 seemed to be hugely in NA's favor, with an over-5k-gold lead, but the younger team stood and fought. A decisive triple kill at Baron by Chrome’s Tristana, and the increasing damage of DARKWING’s infinitely-scaling Veigar, brought the team back in the game, and soon to the enemy Nexus.

Staring down NA’s NA goats, the ensuing Game 4 was a controlled stomp from Conviction, ending the series 3-1, and knocking Doublelift and his team right out of playoff contention.