After an impressive year, Palafox, who recently achieved a remarkable quarterfinals finish at the 2023 World Championship, is now gearing up for the 2024 League Championship Series (LCS). As the reigning North American champion, the 24-year-old mid laner garnered attention last year with the best performance among any Western team on the international stage. Today, we had the pleasure of sitting down with NRG's star mid-laner to discuss his thoughts about the upcoming season in an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports.
Dhokla, Palafox, and Contractz, at Worlds 2023.
| How has being on NRG and winning your first LCS Championship been like last year?
Palafox: “Being on NRG has been great. Not many teams since franchising have been able to have a story like ours. We built a squad, slowly got better and better, made small adjustments and then... we just ended up winning, right?”
”Nowadays, this type of story is quite rare. Most of the time, organizations just build super teams. Being in a team where everybody was written off and achieving so much has felt so good. Beating G2 at Worlds and proving that NA is better than EU for the first time...”
| [Laughs] I'm half Canadian, so I'm fine with that honestly.
Palafox: “[Laughs] Yeah, that's all been great... Honestly, winning the championship was pretty nice. I would say at that moment I couldn't believe it happened... I still think that beating G2 felt even better though.”
| After last year, there are two types of LCS fans. Those whose expectations for NRG have risen significantly, and those who still seem to underrate your team. How have you been taking the weight of expectations so far?
Palafox: “I took a pretty long off-season after Worlds, and I don't really touch the game when I take breaks. Obviously, I was sick for a long time, so I just know that, at least for me, I still need to ramp up a little bit.”
“I've always been that type of player, where, in spring, I'll usually play a little bit worse; and in summer, I'll play a little bit better. I don't really look and think about the general perception that people have about us.”
“I just hope, for the sake of my teammates who put in a lot of effort, that I can put in as much effort to catch back up. I think I'm not the only player on my team that needs to, everyone will need to work really hard. I think we need to temper our expectations a bit and make sure that we understand that our path needs to be an upwards trajectory. If we start the season off badly, we have to be careful not to tilt and keep on working hard to find our issues and improve.”
| Last year you finished the Spring Playoffs in a tied fifth place, and then you won the championship in summer. Do you expect this year to go similarly in that case?
Palafox: ”Because of our deep run at Worlds and the experience I got there, I kind of just expect a little bit more out of myself. When you see how high you can go, you should push yourself to go even higher. There's no reason why you should lay back and just tell yourself "Yeah, that's my limit" and play below it.”
”From our scrims and watching others, I think that a lot of teams are facing problems at the moment though. With all the changes to the map and items, a lot of people don't really know what to do yet. For example, there's a whole different layout for how level ones are gonna go, for how contesting objectives is gonna happen, right? I think that it'll be very rewarding to work hard and play a lot.”
| Have you been playing Champions Queue?
Palafox: ”I've been trying to but, it's been a bit hard in the most recent weeks because, like I said, I got sick. We've also just had so much content to record for the league that I haven't really had the time. It's a little bit annoying in a way, but... Not this right now. We've just had like a lot of small things piling-up that my days have been very long, and I haven't had the time to actually be playing that much.”
[Transcribing Note: Sorry Palafox!]
| Do you have any thoughts on the changes that were made to the LCS, notably playing on live patches?
Palafox: ”I think that people who slack will get punished a lot more this year. Before, you would play two weeks on the same patch, whereas now you will have to be way more reactive with live changes. You'll actually have to be updated with solo queue 'cheese' strategies, and be really, really in tune with what actually is going to be strong.”
| You've received a lot of fan support and even earned the nickname Palafaker. How are you handling your growth? Are you afraid that this fame could prove to be a double-edged sword and expose you to criticism?
Palafox: ”I've never really dealt with criticism in a negative way. Realistically, a lot of the people outside of esports just say what's on their mind, they don't know the inner workings, right? Sometimes, even casters have the same sentiment.”
”Let's say, at Worlds, right? Xiaohu was playing a champion like Neeko, and he wasn't playing that well, but he was doing his job in the sense that he was dying for his team. He CC'd my teammates, and he let somebody else shine. Faker also does this a lot! On the other hand, Poby on T1 wasn't necessarily feeding but, he wasn't doing anything, and sometimes, not doing anything is all the more harmful to your team.”
”I think that a lot of players are afraid to die a lot and care too much about what people say or what they'll think about them. I like to try and look for opportunities and criticize myself. I don't think too much of fan criticism.”
| Last year represented your first Worlds appearance. What are your main takeaways from this tournament?
Palafox: ”In the past, as a young player, I used to play without thinking of my own physical health. I have some arm issue right now, and I used not to give it much regards, so I would play through pain a lot.”
”I started to really feel it in 2021 when I was on FlyQuest. At that time, I started slacking and I stopped caring to some extent. I would struggle between wanting to play at my peak level or playing in a manner which prevented me from feeling this pain.”
”At Worlds, even though it was painful to play, I disregarded my issues and told myself that I'd fix them after the tournament. I want to play in a way where I feel like I'm playing the best I can, I don't want to slack anymore.”
| Closing thoughts?
Palafox: ”Thank you to the fans for supporting us. Please be patient with us in the beginning. But I mean, if we're winning at the start, I truly believe we'll probably win the split. So yeah, be excited!”
What's next?
With growing anticipation for NRG, the team is slowly ramping up in preparation for the LCS 2024 Spring Split. Reflecting on his past and looking towards the future, Palafox is ready to lead his team from January 20th onward. Facing-off against Cloud9 in the first week of competition, the team will be taking on a major challenge which readers will not want to miss.
Week 1 NRG LCS Schedule:
- Saturday 20th, 13:00 PST - NRG vs C9
- Sunday 21st, 15:00 PST - NRG vs DIG
