The LCS uncs ran the open qualifiers; can they do the same in NACL?
The rag-tag band of prominent (League of Legends Championship Series) LCS names from years gone past made it through the Open Qualifiers. Now, they look at the North American Challengers League (NACL) with one ultimate goal: make it back to the League of Legends Championship of the Americas (LTA).
Near Airport unc squad makes it to NACL
The team was initially announced earlier this year. They played through the NACL 2025 Split 1 Qualifier where, out of 64 teams, they were one out of the three teams that earned a spot in the NACL.
Near Airport played five matches and swept the competition each time. They did not drop a single game in the open qualifiers.
The team is composed of the following players:
- Top lane: Ashkan "TFBlade" Homayouni
- Jungle: Mingyi "Spica" Lu
- Mid lane: Eugene "Pobelter" Park
- Bot lane: Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng
- Support: Vincent "Biofrost" Wang
If you have been a long-time follower of old-school Western LoL Esports, then most of these names would be familiar to you. Spica, Doublelift, and Biofrost all played for TSM previously. Pobelter spent a lot of his career hopping between orgs like Iike CLG, Immortals, and Team Liquid. Croissant was a strategic coach for NRG and CLG before this stint with NA.
Near Airport also marks TFBlade's professional debut after years as a high-elo streamer. Biofrost even alludes to this in the team's introduction video, saying that the top laner has flamed him multiple times on solo queue. His temperament has gotten better since, though, with TFBlade saying that "in an environment where everyone puts effort, I feel like it's impossible to get angry." He says he's also trying to improve
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Near Airport's motivations and controversy
A clip of Doublelift circulated in the community recently - saying that the team needed to "figure out" whether they wanted to commit to NACL.
He addressed this in the video, too.
Why would we come in and half-ass it, and be like Ruddy Sack - get made fun of at the end of the year for not trying? I don't wanna do something and half-ass it and everyone looks at us and is like "Why are these guys even doing this if they're not gonna go all-in?"
Light jab at Ruddy Sack aside, Doublelift assured their fans that the team will be trying their best in the NALCS, with the ultimate goal of qualifying for the LTA.
Near Airport is one of the few streamer teams that have formed recently. By far, the most successful one out of them is Los Ratones, headed by Marc "Caedrel" Lamont, who just qualified for a top 4 finish in the EMEA Masters.
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