Is Doublelift a Double-Crosser?

Sure, SK Telecom T1 may have cemented their legacy as the greatest League of Legends organization to ever exist by winning their second World Championship… but everyone isn’t talking about that right now.

Yes, as you very well may have heard, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng has jumped off the Counter Logic Gaming faith train to live in the land of bay life: He’s Team SoloMid’s new AD Carry. It’s not April Fools’ and this is no joke.

Right now, Reddit is abuzz with talk of the skies falling, of Doublelift being a turncoat and of utter confusion on what to do or who to root for now. This is book 1 Harry Potter hugging it out with Draco Malfoy. This is Gandalf heading to Mordor for tea and crumpets. Even Martin “Rekkles” Larsson’s move of ditching Fnatic for Alliance/Elements, which mind you was met with universal disdain as a knee-jerk reaction, pales in comparison to this moment.

That’s because for as long as CLG and TSM have existed, they have been rivals. Owner and former Mid Laner of TSM, Andy “Reginald” Dinh even stated that he initially formed the team for the express purpose of besting CLG and becoming the new #1 team in North America.

In the video above, Doublelift talks about his drive to win aligning with TSM, but the gravity of this roster change goes deeper than that when you look at his story as a professional player.

After running away from home and bunking at League interviewer Travis Gafford’s place for a year, Counter Logic Gaming was the organization that Doublelift finally found a literal home with. They took him in and nurtured a talented street rat into the powerhouse personality he is today.

Not only that, Doublelift has shown an extreme (and what many thought to be eternal) amount of loyalty to CLG for saving his life. Over the 5 years of him being on the team, even when CLG had to face the possibility of being relegated from the League of Legends Championship Series, Doublelift refused offers to join other teams.

You could say that since winning his first ever major title in the LCS Summer Split, Doublelift’s newfound maturity is making him be more practical when it comes to chasing victory, but you could also just join the bandwagon of people calling him a traitor.

Whether you’re lamenting the loss of the ever-lovable Rush Hour bot lane with Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black or whether you’re a Fnatic fan who approves of TSM’s complete team restructuring mirroring what the European side did around Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim, you also have to remember that big roster changes and players jumping ship will continue to be a regular occurrence in e-Sports.

Even if you look past the history of players jumping ship in League, you can find similar examples in Dota 2, Counter-Strike or even Starcraft, which isn’t even a team game. In the context of the TSM versus CLG rivalry alone, Doublelift isn’t the first turncoat. Many forget that Yoonsup “Locodoco” Choi was an original member of TSM before defecting to CLG and then doing the double double cross by joining TSM as their coach.

Locodoco (middle) on CLG along with Doublelift (leftmost)

But as the dust settles around the move, it seems that Doublelift’s fate was not even in his own hands. According to Doublelift, he and Pobelter were removed from CLG without prior notice. No word yet from CLG’s company managers, but Doublelift has gone on record to say that he wouldn’t want to stay in CLG anyway.

If you’re still confused about who to cheer for in the LCS when the next season rolls around, then you better get ready for even more shenanigans as we’re far from done with the pre-season roster move period.

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