Ryan Goodrich
The word is out that Team Liquid is moving AD carry Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng to Team SoloMid. This marks the return of the seven-time League of Legends Championship Series champion to his former team just ahead of the summer split. Liquid received significant interest from multiple teams within the league concerning Doublelift’s contract rights, according to sources. But Doublelift ultimately ended up choosing TSM over other options since he was involved in the process of choosing which team he went to.
Returning to old friends
Now Doublelift is set to reunite with mid-laner Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg as well as support Vincent “Biofrost” Wang. These two are players he has experience playing with during previous championship runs on SoloMid. He replaces Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup, who joined Team SoloMid back in November 2019 after his championship run with Splyce ended.
Kobbe’s future in the pro League of Legends circuit is yet to be determined. This timing is especially complicated as many teams in North America have no remaining player spots available. Plus the Coronavirus pandemic resulted in significantly shortening the mid-season period to accommodate schedule changes.
Doublelift’s return to TSM comes after two-and-a-half years with Team Liquid. His time with TL amounted to four domestic championships, a runner-up finish at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, and a ninth-place finish this spring split. As of April 16, sources reported that Liquid made the decision to make Doublelift available for trade.
Doublelift’s recent difficulties with Liquid
During the spring split, Doublelift contracted laryngitis, which prevented him from competing during Week 6 of the League Championship Series (LCS). Liquid ended up using Academy AD carry Edward “Tactical” Ra as a replacement. Shortly afterward, he ended up retaining the started position with Liquid. This was then followed with the announcement that Doublelift was benched following his recovery. He returned to Liquid’s starting lineup later in March. The team still ended up finishing the split with the worst finish in team history.
Team Liquid plans to evaluate their AD carry options over the coming weeks. For the time being, they will plan on moving forward with Tactical as their full-time starter.
Looking back at history
During Doublelift’s time with Team SoloMid, he won two League Championship Series titles in 2016 and 2017. After the end of the 2017 world championship, Doublelift and Biofrost’s contracts with TSM were not renewed. Instead, TSM picked up G2 Esports’ bottom-lane duo Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen and Alfonso “mithy” Aguirre Rodriguez.
Doublelift went on to join Liquid, effectively rebuilding the team’s entire roster. He then went on to win four consecutive championships throughout 2018 and 2019.
Are you excited about TSM bringing the old roster back together? Will it be enough to win another world championship title? Let’s see how the remaining season turns out.
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