North American League of Legends has a variety of iconic faces, however just one man can declare he constructed a dynasty out of sheer conceitedness and exact mechanics. Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng is formally coming again to Staff Liquid.
He isn’t choosing up his mouse to play on stage this time, however somewhat signing a two-year deal as a full-time content material creator.
The announcement video featured Doublelift wandering by way of the Staff Liquid facility, casually searching for gadgets he left behind throughout his taking part in days. “Let’s lower to the chase,” he joked within the sketch. “No extra ‘I’m coming again to select up some stuff I left behind,’ like my peripherals. And I left my trophies. Man, you guys haven’t gotten so many of those with out me, huh?”
He even discovered his notorious, unused “Flash from Worlds” stashed away in a drawer, dryly noting that he plans to “put it aside for subsequent yr.”
Re-igniting the Golden Period
For anybody who watched the LCS between 2018 and 2019, this reunion hits the nostalgia candy spot. Doublelift’s historical past with Staff Liquid is the stuff of legend. Earlier than he arrived, Liquid was a company famously trapped in a fourth-place curse, persistently lacking out on the largest trophies.
When Doublelift joined full-time in 2018, he essentially modified the group’s trajectory. He led them to 4 consecutive home championships, picked up an LCS MVP award, and secured a historic second-place end on the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational after pulling off a large upset in opposition to Invictus Gaming.
“I at all times sustain with LCS,” Doublelift defined. “I type of need to be just like the man with regards to co-streaming LCS, proper? And I type of need to be just like the NA League of Legends man.”
He famous that he needed a crew affiliation just like how European streamer Caedrel is linked with the area’s prime stars.
“Staff Liquid made probably the most sense to me as a result of you realize I’ve probably the most historical past with the crew and I believe the crew was most profitable with me on it. There was type of like a golden period in League esports.”
Leaving the Drama Behind
In fact, the highway wasn’t utterly clean. His departure from Liquid in 2020 was a bit messy, leading to a commerce again to TSM after a disappointing Spring Cut up. He additionally had some notable offseason friction with Liquid’s administration a couple of years later.
Trying again, the veteran ADC views these tough patches as vital steps in his journey.
“I believe generally getting kicked off the crew is just like the kick within the pants you want as a professional participant to identical to get disciplined once more,” Doublelift admitted. “Often getting kicked off the crew for me was like a wakeup name like issues want to vary, like I have to get higher.”
As for any lingering awkwardness with administration? That’s utterly previously.
“I did have some drama with Dodo like a couple of years in the past within the offseason and stuff, however you realize, we talked, we each mentioned sorry, and we moved on like adults,” he mentioned. “So, I believe like all in all, I’ve an excellent relationship with just about everybody on Staff Liquid.”
The Final Retirement Village
The brand new partnership is about extra than simply watch events. Backed by company sponsors, Doublelift is utilizing Liquid’s large infrastructure to host a large neighborhood occasion. He’s launching his personal “Retirement Residence Event” on June 27 and 28, streaming reside on his private Twitch channel.
“Working a match, it’s an enormous enterprise,” Doublelift mentioned. “It’s a must to get all of the expertise, you must get the manufacturing, you must get the administration and administration and logistics finished and get everybody’s flights and all this and that. And it’s identical to, woah, that is like one thing I’ve by no means finished earlier than.”
Working with a longtime group permits him to take inventive dangers with out personally burning by way of his financial savings to fund manufacturing. He emphasised that content material creation requires fixed reinvention to outlive. “For those who simply do the identical factor each single day for the remainder of your streaming profession, your stream’s going to die. That’s simply how it’s,” he famous.
He may be retired from the professional stage, however Doublelift remains to be treating content material like an lively aggressive queue. The LCS co-streams simply received much more fascinating, and the principle character of NA is lastly again in blue.
