The life and times Doublelift – Part 2

TSM Doublelift — Doublelift is back at it with TSM(Image Credit: ESTNN)

As mentioned in Part 1 of our journey into the life and times of Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng, this North American star is a veteran who has been competing in League of Legends since 2012. He has a stacked cabinet filled with prizes. If you are interested in his personal and team achievements, sit back and enjoy what we have to say about his career.

How did Doublelift's career start?

We have already mentioned that Peng did not have anyone supporting him while he was growing up. Even though his older brother was there for him, it was simply not enough. So, how did his career kick start if he did not have anyone to back him up?

Like most brilliant people, he did it all by himself. It all started with George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis who noticed how good the young player going by Doublelift actually is. In early 2011, Hotshot asked him to stand-in for Counter Logic Gaming, but only as a substitute. Not long after that, Doublelift decided to part ways with CLG and join Epik Gamer. He did not stick around a lot there either since he was put into a Support role.

The first team where Peng really established himself was unRestricted. Shortly after, Curse Gaming picked up the entire unRestricted roster and Yiliang finally got to compete on the big stage.

His spell with Curse Gaming did not last long and he went back to Counter Logic Gaming. This time around, he got that desired role of ADC. He finally felt that this was the right team for him as he spent 4 years representing CLG. After the 2015 competitive season was over, Doublelift moved on to compete under the TSM banner. From our perspective, he was at his peak while competing for TSM.

In 2017, Yiliang wanted to take a break from League of Legends and he decided to focus on streaming. In late 2017, this North American veteran was announced as a substitute for Team Liquid. Early 2018 was a breakout year for Yiliang as he decided to represent Team Liquid full time.

Achievements

So far in his career, Doublelift has won a total of 16 events. Here is his long list of victories:

MobaFire Take Your Best Shot
NESL Pro Series Season 4
SoloMid Series Week 3
NA LCS 2015 Summer Playoffs
NA LCS 2016 Summer
NA LCS 2016 Summer Playoffs
Rift Rivals 2017 NA-EU
NA LCS 2017 Summer
NA LCS 2017 Summer Playoffs
NA LCS 2018 Spring Playoffs
NA LCS 2018 Summer
NA LCS 2018 Summer Playoffs
LCS 2019 Spring
LCS 2019 Spring Playoffs
LCS 2019 Summer
LCS 2019 Summer Playoffs

2015 Competitive Season

2015 did not start well for Doublelift and CLG. After being fined for poaching players, CLG and Yiliang paid a total of $4,500 in fines. On top of that, the North American ADC injured himself while playing basketball and his competitive season was left hanging.

However, he came back in August to help CLG secure their first LCS Split playoffs title. Not so long after this event, CLG announced that Doublelift would be leaving their roster and TSM came knocking.

2016 Competitive Season

First rivalries were born as TSM looked to snatch a trophy in the NA LCS playoffs. However, no one gave them a chance as they looked really bad. However, after signing one of the best esports psychologists on the market, Weldon "Weldon" Green, TSM looked much better. They bested both Cloud9 and Immortals and Doublelift was matched against his former team, CLG, in the finals.

Even though this was a competitive match, CLG got the better of Team SoloMid with a 3-2 result. In late 2016, Team SoloMid announced that Doublelift would be stepping down from the active roster and they had to forfeit a couple of tournaments because of that.

2017 Competitive Season

Another turbulent year for Doublelift. First, he decided to focus on streaming and only came back to help Team Liquid survive the NA LCS Spring Split. Even though he helped TL a lot, he decided not to stick long there and returned back to TSM. After a couple of strong performances from him, TSM were able to win yet another NA LCS title.

Once again, Yiliang's team had a very poor showing during the World Championship and guess what, Yiliang was one the move once again. In November, he signed a contract with Team Liquid.

2018 Competitive Season

As we already mentioned, 2018 was a rough year for Yiliang. After his mother was killed, he decided to stick around and compete. Keep in mind that this was Team Liquid's first NA LCS grand finals match ever.

After everything he went through, Doublelift delivered in the grand finals as Team Liquid dispatched if 100Thieves with an easy 3-0 scoreline. It is also important to mention that Yiliang won his first MVP award during his run at NA LCS Summer Split. As always, Peng and his crew did not stand a chance in the World Championship and once again, they failed to get out of the groups.

2019 Competitive Season

2019 was a breakout year for Yiliang as he found himself the League of Legends player with the most titles in the NA LCS. Even though Team Liquid were battered by G2 in the MSI 2019, this did not stop them from winning.

Even though Team Liquid did not dominate during the NA LCS, it was still enough to beat Cloud9 in a close 3-2 series. However, Doublelift was once again eliminated in the group stage of the 2019 World Championship.

2020 Competitive Season

After publicly stating that he had lost the passion for the game, Doublelift apologized to his teammates, but that was not enough. He was benched and replaced by Edward "Tactical" Ra, an academy player.

This did not last long and Pengwas brought back from retirement to try and save the season. Ultimately, Team Liquid finished the NA LCS Summer Split in 9th place and they were unable to qualify for 2020 Spring Playoffs. Not so long after the event, Doublelift was traded to TSM.

An overall turbulent career for the young pro so far, but this shows that his path is not over yet. He is back to TSM, though may speculate that this might have something to do with his girlfriend Leena Xu, holding a high position in that org. Still, Doublelift has always performed there and maybe, this time he'll stay for good.

If you are interested in the journey of the best and brightest in the esports world, check out our other Life and times stories:

READ MORE:

And make sure to come back next Saturday for another exciting story in the Life and times of esports players, here, at EarlyGame.