Remembering Doublelift’s Decade-Long Career

On November 25, 2020, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng announced his immediate retirement via TwitLonger. In the blink of an eye, the nearly decade-long career of one of the most outspoken, controversial, and legendary American players came to an end.

Despite knowing the day of his retirement would eventually come, the news was a shock nonetheless. After all, Doublelift had been around for as long as League of Legends (LoL) itself, playing before the LCS even existed. Doublelift has never not been a competitor; he has always been there, always a constant force pushing the region forward as a whole. Love him or hate him, an LCS without Doublelift is something unimaginable and alien to us all.

The massive outpouring of support for Doublelift shows that he has left an indelible mark on the game forever. His story is and will continue to be an inspiration to pro players and fans alike. To truly understand the extent of his career though, we need to look back almost a decade, to where it all began.

Rocky beginnings

In the developed LoL scene we have today, players compete for all kinds of reasons. Some dream of winning Worlds, some play to satisfy their competitive drive, while others simply do it for the money. Back in 2011 though, financial stability wasn’t an option for any player, no matter how good. It was a massive risk to drop out of school or forgo university to play LoL professionally, as you were gambling your future on both your individual talent and the growth of the scene. Only a passionate few took the plunge, building up LoL esports into the massive phenomenon it is today.

The “shy, forgettable, unconfident, and unpopular” 17-year-old Doublelift was among those few early pioneers. In his retirement post, Doublelift recalls how he “was quite nerdy and unpopular,” before becoming a pro, and was the victim of bullying at school. Gaming was his only escape, often playing titles like Diablo 1 and Starcraft on his older brother’s computer. When he finally got his own computer as a hand-me-down, Doublelift dove into games like WoW, Dota, and HoN with his brother and friends. When League eventually released, he got his hands on it as soon as possible.

Doublelift began climbing the ladder playing support rather than ADC, particularly favouring Blitzcrank. As he got better and better, he began to get noticed by some of the best players on the server at the time. Among them was George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis, founder of Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) and one of the biggest streamers at the time. Impressed by his Blitzcrank performances in solo queue, HotshotGG offered Doublelift a spot as a substitute for CLG. 

Doublelift accepted of course, but it wasn’t long before he moved to Epik Gamer as their starting support. It was with this team of Marcus "Dyrus" Hill, Daniel "Dan Dinh" Dinh, Trevor "Salce" Salce, and Jonathan "Westrice" Nguyen, that Doublelift attended his first tournament - Season 1 Worlds.

Worlds back then wasn’t quite like the huge annual event we know nowadays. “The prize pool was minuscule, the crowd was 30 people, and the matches were played on tiny laptops,” writes Doublelift, describing his first tournament experience. Regardless of the lacklustre conditions, Doublelift immediately realised that this was a future that he wanted more than anything:  “When I sat down to play my first match, I felt a fire in my heart that drove me to chase the dream of becoming a pro player and being the best.”

Up against seven of the best teams from across the world, Epik Gamer managed to beat Europe’s ‘against All authority’ and Fnatic to top their group 3-0. Despite this strong showing in groups though, Epik would be swept by Fnatic in Round 2 of the winner’s bracket, and then swept once again by TSM in the loser’s bracket to exit the tournament with a fourth-place finish. 

Fnatic and aAa would go on to become the finalists, with Fnatic taking the first world championship title. As a complete rookie though, Doublelift put on a great performance and was able to enjoy some of the $7000 that Epik won in prize money. It was obvious to everyone that he had a bright future in the scene, but his parents didn’t see it that way. Upon returning from Sweden, Doublelift’s strained relationship with them reached a breaking point. 

In a now-famous Reddit post, Doublelift describes how he was kicked out of the house a week after turning 18. With only the $1400 prize money from Worlds, his computer and his bike, Doublelift had no choice but to turn to the online LoL community to find a place to stay. His appeal was answered by interviewer Travis Gafford, who invited Doublelift to stay in his home. Doublelift gratefully accepted, intending to stay for just a week. As they became close friends though, a week quickly stretched to a month, and then to a year, 

This period also marked Doublelift’s transition to ADC. Joining Team Curse (known as unRestricted at the time), Doublelift began to create gameplay guides in an effort to make money fast. After a few months, Doublelift returned to CLG as their starting ADC ahead of Season 2, beginning the first of three defining eras in his career.

• Read More - Community Figures React To Doublelift's Retirement

The Face of CLG

Returning to the rift for Season 2, Doublelift found a new motivation to be the best; his survival. While other players may have had higher education or money to fall back on, Doublelift had neither – there was no plan B. Lacking social skills and any kind of real-world experience, playing League was all that Doublelift knew.

It seemed he had nothing to worry about though, as he quickly proved himself as one of the most mechanically gifted ADCs around. Backed up by HotshotGG, Brandon "Saintvicious" DiMarco, Michael "bigfatlp" Tang, and Steve "Chauster" Chau, fans expected this star-studded roster to be winning tournaments left and right. Unfortunately, CLG always seemed to fall short before finishing the job, collecting a long list of second, third, and even lower placed finishes. 

It seemed that all five players had their own way of seeing the game, and often weren’t on the same page. Doublelift recognised this, deciding to continually hone his individual skill rather than relying on his teammates to carry. With the mentorship and micromanagement of his experienced support Chauster, Doublelift was able to cement himself as one of the best ADCs in NA, and perhaps even worldwide. The only problem was that he couldn’t win by himself, and the tense and often toxic environment in CLG made teamwork difficult.

Over the years, many changes were made to try and remedy CLG’s mediocrity. It felt like people came and went often, earning CLG a reputation as a “revolving door” of players and staff. If players weren’t outright replaced, they often shuffled their roles in an attempt to find some magical combination that would finally bring them success. These roster changes often brought controversy too, as both Doublelift and CLG faced fines for poaching players like Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaya. 

During this time Doublelift also built up his reputation off the rift, becoming NA’s resident trash-talker. His inflammatory comments divided the community, some loving his awkward bravado while others felt that he had no right to act so arrogantly. By 2015 Doublelift still hadn’t won any tournaments in his career, and CLG had almost lost their spot in the LCS to Curse Academy in the 2015 Spring Promotion tournament. The meme of Doublelift’s empty trophy case even spawned its own subreddit, and it seemed that things were only going downhill for CLG.

After years of disappointment though, 2015 turned out to be CLG’s year. They started off strong in the Spring split, never dropping below second for the first eight weeks of the regular season. They narrowly missed out on a playoffs bye in a tiebreaker with C9 and ultimately failed to make a run in playoffs when they were knocked out in the quarterfinals by TL. Still, this had been one of CLG’s most promising splits ever, and the introduction of Pobelter in Summer was the edge they needed.

Like in Spring, CLG looked strong at the beginning of Summer. They held the top spot for the first four weeks, but four consecutive losses then left them tied for fifth in week six. A resurgence pushed CLG back up to second place by the end of the regular season, their 13-5 record only behind TL’s. In playoffs CLG maintained their momentum, sweeping both Team Impulse and TSM to take their first championship. While CLG disappointed at Worlds, failing to escape a relatively easy group, Doublelift had finally put the first trophy in his cabinet, and many more were to come.

A Change Of Allegiance

To the horror of many CLG fans though, none of those future trophies would be won with CLG. It seemed that relations between the dominant bot lane duo of Doublelift and Aphromoo had broken down, and Aphro had given CLG an ultimatum. As a result, Doublelift, who was almost synonymous with CLG, left his team of four years and joined their longest-standing rival – TSM. Success did not come instantly though, as the quasi-superteam of Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell, Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, Bjergsen, Doublelift, and Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim had trouble finding their footing in the regular season. They ended up scraping a playoffs spot in sixth place, and expectations were low. Luckily for them, the highly-regarded sports psychologist Weldon was brought on board to fix the roster’s issues ahead of playoffs. Whatever he did, it seemed to work a treat, as TSM beat both C9 and IMT in dominant fashion to reach the finals. There they faced Doublelift’s old organisation in a heated showdown but were edged out 3-2 by Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes' Tristana.

For Summer 2016, YellOwStaR returned to Fnatic and was replaced by LCS rookie Vincent "Biofrost" Wang. Biofrost had been scouted from NACS and invited to TSM’s Korean boot camp for tryouts, and eventually joined TSM ready for the Summer split. Under the close tutelage of Doublelift, who by then had matured somewhat, Biofrost turned out to be the missing piece they needed. The result was an absolutely dominant TSM roster, losing just one series for the entire regular season. They were almost uncontested in playoffs too, sweeping CLG before beating C9 3-1 in the finals to take Doublelift’s second championship. 

Even with such a strong team around him, Doublelift was unable to make headway internationally. TSM was drawn into a difficult group of Samsung Galaxy, RNG, and Splyce, and eventually lost out to RNG in a tiebreaker for second place. Losing at the group stage took a toll on Doublelift’s motivation, and he felt the need to do something different for a while. He had been competing at the highest level for so long, and a break was entirely warranted. TSM announced that he would be sitting out the 2017 Spring Split, spending his time streaming and decompressing.

True to his competitive character, Doublelift couldn’t stay away for long though. Before the end of the Spring split, he joined TL, helping the struggling team to avoid relegation from the LCS. He then returned to TSM for Summer and won them their third consecutive championship in dominant fashion. Unfortunately, TSM also continued their international record from the previous year, falling out of another relatively weak group after a second-place tiebreaker with Misfits.

After failing so agonisingly at Worlds twice in a row, TSM decided to make some changes to their roster. Unexpectedly one of those changes was to the ADC role, and Doublelift was kicked from his organisation for the second time.

Proving Them Wrong

Eager to compete and take revenge on TSM, Doublelift joined Team Liquid. This change would see a complete reversal of fortune for the organisation and brought an end to TSM’s domestic dominance. Even when Doublelift suffered the unimaginable tragedy of his mother’s murder by his own brother in April 2018, dropping out of the competition never crossed his mind. He went on to win the split for TL, and for the next two years, he reigned over NA, winning three more splits in a row.

It seemed like wherever Doublelift went, domestic success would follow, but his Worlds runs were similarly punctuated by disappointment. Only at MSI 2019 did Doublelift finally make a mark internationally, beating Invictus Gaming to reach the finals for the first time. In the end, though, all that meant was that he had a bigger stage to get swept on by G2.

The End Of The Story

By 2020, the repeated international failures were taking their toll on his motivation, and he publicly made comments saying that Spring split no longer mattered after the removal of championship points. Doublelift’s poor attitude caused the previously dominant TL to plummet through the standings, ending in an unbelievable ninth place. The Doublelift we saw in Spring was different from the one we had grown used to, and he had not seen such a disappointing result since his time with CLG. This failure obviously caused issues between him and TL, prompting a return to TSM for what would be his final split.

While TSM did manage to make a resurgence and win the Summer Split, there’s no doubt that Doublelift was not the main character. Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg was a one-man army in Summer, pulling back games that should have been completely unwinnable. Doublelift, in comparison, did not seem quite like himself. Regardless, ending his domestic career with another championship isn’t a bad way to go at all. His retirement was only tarnished by one last international disappointment, perhaps his worst yet. TSM, after making such a miraculous run in playoffs, was unable to even take one game at Worlds 2020, making the return flight home with a 0-6 record. 

Alongside the retirement of TSM’s MVP mid-laner Bjergsen, this offseason feels like a watershed moment for TSM, and NA as a whole. As Doublelift writes in his post, it’s now time for the rookies to “take up the torch”, and try to elevate the region on the international level. How they will fare without two of the GOATs of NA remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that both the personality and playstyle of Doublelift will be sorely missed.

Images via lolesports