Doublelift – A look back at his succesful career

The LCS will never be the same as Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng announced his retirement from professional League of Legends play. Having played for top LCS teams such as Team Liquid, TSM (who he finished his career with) and CLG, let’s take a look at Doublelift’s career.

In his official retirement statement that he posted to Twitter, Doublelift talked at length about the difficulties he faced throughout his career on the way to becoming one of the most celebrated and successful players in the LCS. We’ll take a look at his road to success throughout the years.

The CLG era

Doublelift first came into the public eye after he was discovered by current CLG owner George “HotshotGG” Georgallidis, who offered him a role at the organization as a substitute. After brief stints at Epik Gamer, unRestricted eSports and Curse, Doublelift would return to CLG, but this time as the starting AD Carry in their roster.

In the first season of the NA LCS in 2013, CLG’s results were middling. Even though Doublelift was acknowledged as a technically sound and talented AD Carry, CLG would go on to end in 5-6th place in the 2013 Spring Split playoffs and in 5th place at the Summer Split playoffs. Doublelift would go on to be selected as an LCS all-star in 2013, however. In 2014, CLG would go on to finish 3rd and 6th respectively.

After a 5-6th place finish following a painful 0-3 to Team Liquid in the 2015 Spring Split, CLG looked primed and ready to compete for the LCS title in the Summer Split despite a dip in form towards the end. They regained their good form and reached the finals against favourites and dominant force TSM, giving Doublelift his first chance to lift the LCS trophy. CLG proceeded to 3-0 TSM with Doublelift having some great performances on Tristana and Jinx (featuring a pentakill), winning his first LCS title.

Move to TSM, break and loan

For the 2016 season, Doublelift made the decision to move to TSM, leaving CLG after four years. Despite a strong showing at IEM Katowice with the roster, TSM would go on to struggle during the Spring split and finished in sixth place during the regular season. In the playoffs however, they recovered in convincing fashion, defeating Cloud9 (3-1) and Immortals (3-0) but fell to CLG in the finals. 

They got their revenge in the Summer Split however, crushing the regular season and cruising past CLG and Cloud9 to the LCS title. At Worlds 2016 later that year TSM would go on to face Royal Never Give Up, Samsung Galaxy and Splyce. They would end up having to play RNG in a decisive tie-breaker match but weren’t able to pull out a win, resulting in elimination.

For the 2017 Spring Split Doublelift decided to take a break and started streaming full-time for TSM, despite joining up with Team Liquid on loan later in the season and helping them avoid relegation. As he returned for the Summer Split, TSM would end the regular season on a 14-4 record and defeated Dignitas and, once again, Immortals for another LCS title.

Doublelift’s performance at Worlds 2017 however wasn’t as successful, despite TSM being tipped as one of the favourites in their groups among Misfits (Gaming), Flash Wolves and Team WE. TSM tied with Misfits for second place after losing surprisingly to Flash Wolves, forcing a tiebreaker, which they would go on to lose. Doublelift would move on to Team Liquid for the 2018 LCS season as TSM changed up their bot lane.

Winning big at Liquid

At Team Liquid Doublelift solidified himself as one of the LCS all time greats. In his first (Spring) Split with the team in 2018, he finished in fourth place during the regular season with Liquid going on to defeat Cloud9 and Echo Fox in the quarter and semi final respectively. Doublelift got hit with some horrible news days before the final however, after his older brother killed his mother and injured his dad. He would end up deciding to play the final himself despite this, where Team Liquid 3-0’d 100 Thieves to win their first LCS title.

Team Liquid would go on to win back-to-back championships, as they would go on to qualify for and win the Summer Split by defeating Cloud9 and 100 Thieves in the semifinal and final with Doublelift receiving his first LCS MVP Award. Doublelift kept finding himself struggling at Worlds despite domestic success however, with a group stage exit at Worlds 2018. Both the Spring and Summer Split of 2019 were once again won by Doublelift and Team Liquid, making it 4 straight. The victories also made Doublelift the LCS player with the most domestic titles to his name. 

In between Splits Team Liquid also competed in the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational and after making it out of groups (Doublelift’s first time making it out of groups in an international tournament) and defeating Invictus Gaming, they faced G2 Esports in the finals. There the journey ended for Team Liquid, as they were unceremoniously (and quickly) swept with a 0-3 scoreline. At Worlds 2019 Team Liquid was unable to make it out of groups with their 3-3 record, as DAMWON Gaming and Invictus Gaming took first and second place.

Return to TSM and retirement

After a weak 2020 Spring Split with Liquid where they failed to qualify for playoffs, Doublelift would rejoin TSM once more. Together with former teammates Bjergsen and Biofrost TSM secured a fourth place finish and was locked in for playoffs. Things looked to take a turn for the worse as their first opponent Golden Guardians defeated them 3-0 and sent them to the lower bracket.

There they’d find their best form again. TSM would go on to defeat Dignitas and would go on to get a rematch with Golden Guardians. It looked all over for TSM as Golden Guardians won the first two games but TSM hung on and reverse swept Golden Guardians, facing Cloud9 in the semifinals. After a 3-1 victory FlyQuest proved to be the final hurdle in the final and after a tough series, TSM and Doublelift won with a 3-2 scoreline as they took home another LCS title.

After a disappointing showing at Worlds 2020 where they’d go 0-6 in the group stage, TSM decided to change up their roster. Doublelift would go on to announce his retirement, bringing an end to an era as the LCS said goodbye to one of its most influential and winningest players.

What’s your favourite Doublelift moment? Join the discussion on social media or our Discord!

You can also help improve our website by submitting direct feedback!

Image Credit: Riot Games/LCS
*The listed articles are provided through affiliate links. A purchase after clicking through them supports us at esports.com as we will receive a small commission without additional cost to you.