Yilang “Doublelift” Peng (28) is a legendary player in League of Legends and today a Twitch streamer. His career has been closely associated with Team SoloMid, the most valuable and largest LoL team in the world. Now he says: The team is damaging its brand value with the current roster for 2022. Because TSM is going “full China”, making it difficult for fans to remain fans.
Who is Doublelift?
- Doublelift is alongside Bjergsen perhaps the most important and well-known player of LoL in the USA. He has been champion 8 times in the US league LCS, either with TSM or against them.
- After his active career, Doublelift worked as a content creator for TSM since 2021 – here but there was a break with team leader Reginald. The two publicly insulted each other. Reginald then kicked Doublelift out.
- Team SoloMid is the most valuable and largest LoL team in the world, even though they have never celebrated a sporting success internationally, the team leads in marketing and on social media worldwide. Recently, they concluded a $210 million deal with a crypto exchange . Doublelift now explains why he predicts the decline of TSM.
TSM signs 2 young Chinese players – now has 4 Asians in the roster for 2022
This is TSM’s current roster for 2022: Alongside jungler Spica (China) and top laner Huni (South Korea), who remain from 2021, they have brought in 3 new players:
- TSM has signed the ADC “Tactical” from Team Liquid who Doublelift once replaced, but he could not really establish himself as an equivalent successor
- Additionally, TSM has signed 2 talents from China who played in the 2nd division, the “Academy League”: Support Shenyi and Mid laner Keiadu.
- The new head coach is 30-year-old Chawy, who was born in Singapore.
Thus, TSM now has 3 Chinese, one South Korean, and one American player under contract for 2022.
TSM had actually wanted to sign their star player Bjergsen for 2022, but he decided to move to Team Liquid despite a great offer. TSM then announced they would focus on young talents, but promised to remain competitive.
Doublelift believes it will be hard to be a TSM fan in 2022
This is what Doublelift criticizes: The streamer says:
“As for the brand value, I don’t think it’s fun to be a fan of a roster that mainly speaks Chinese. It’s just like that. We are in the West, we are in America, in NA, and we supposedly have an American team. We want them to represent our culture. It’s going to be really hard to be a fan, I guess.”
He says TSM has gone “full China”. Alongside Team Liquid, which is supposed to be a purely EU team, and Team Korea (Cloud 9), now there’s a China team in the US league LCS.
However, Doublelift acknowledges: The two Chinese newcomers are probably better than simply taking two NA players and totally failing.
The other option for TSM would have been to buy expensive, established stars from Europe and the USA like Jensen or Mikyx. However, the two Chinese talents are certainly much cheaper.
Investing in players from North America, Doublelift believes is not a good option; they are just terrible.
TSM loses streamer with one of the largest Twitch channels in the world
This is the next blow for TSM: In addition to the criticism from Doublelift, TSM has now also lost its star streamer Myth. He says he no longer feels comfortable at TSM, after key people for him have left, such as LoL player Bjergen and Leena Xu. He also feels that he plays no significant role in TSM’s content strategy.
Therefore, Myth will not renew his contract with TSM and will leave the organization.
Myth has one of the 10 largest Twitch channels in the world with 7.4 million followers.
Apparently, there is a significant upheaval at TSM. In just a few months, nearly all the “big names” have left: Alongside Doublelift, Bjergsen, and Myth, the strong German mid laner PowerOfEvil, the outrageously expensive supporter SwordArt and, with Leena Xu, an important identification figure in the organization.
This is behind it: The US league LCS has huge problems building players from its own region. In recent years, more and more Europeans and Asians have entered the league. It’s not like many Americans played or coached for TSM in 2021.
TSM is replacing a German, a Dane, an Australian, and a South Korean with 2 Chinese, one American, and someone from Singapore in 2022.
But the strong focus on people who speak Chinese is striking and apparently also occupies Doublelift.
In the past, US teams often brought in players from Asia who had already reached their peak there and extended their careers by one or two years in the USA, where there is much less pressure than in the top leagues LCK and LPL.
Top laner Huni is a typical example. The now 24-year-old played a year for SKT1 in 2017 and has since flitted around various teams in the West without achieving significant success.
However, TSM is not bringing in veterans for 2022 but youth players from Asia. While they focused on western talent in recent years and fielded two legendary US players with Bjergsen and Doublelift in 2020, they are now heading in a completely different direction.
It’s a bit puzzling that TSM is opting for a “cheap solution” when so much money is coming in from huge deals. We’ll see if the young players from China can impress fans in 2022.
Overall, TSM is currently undergoing a transformation, probably also because many have a problem with the behavior of team leader Reginald:
