The Twitch streamer Doublelift is considered one of the best players of League of Legends in North America of all time. However, he has little understanding of the current pros in LoL. He thinks they voluntarily play too little LoL based on their training program, so nothing can come of them.
Who is speaking? Yilang “Doublelift” Peng is known for 3 things:
- his strong play as ADC in LoL; over the years he shaped the LCS, winning 8 championships. More than anyone else in the US league
- his harsh statements about competitors. Famous is his line: “Everyone is trash”.
- his love-hate relationship with TSM, his former team. He had strong years there and became champion, but he also repeatedly clashed with the team. Most recently, he was fired after publicly criticizing the head of TSM, Reginald.
“They’re probably just hanging out with friends!”
This is Doublelift’s criticism of the current pros: According to Doublelift, the current pros in LoL train too little in their free time. He expects every pro to play at least 3 games a day in the “Champions League” of LoL.
Everyone must invest 2 hours – one could also pull off 4 hours if they want to take a day off the next day (via youtube):
I don’t understand what’s going on. What are they doing? I was a pro for 10 years. I know what people can do after training to get better. You can watch replays, play 1vs1 or 2vs2 in custom matches, and you can play solo queue. What do they do after scrims? They’re probably just hanging out with friends!
Doublelift
How does Doublelift determine this? Doublelift looks at a statistic from Travis Gafford. He keeps track of which US pros in each team have played the most games in the “Champions Queue”: This is a special elite solo queue in LoL, to which only pros, academy players, and the best amateurs have access. Those who mess up in this solo queue can expect public shame and humiliation.
According to Doublelift, the players who play the most in the Champions Queue are also the best players on their respective teams.
Doublelift believes: Western players have excuses to skip solo queue
Doublelift says that in his time, it was expected that players would still play solo queue after training. Especially those who perform poorly must work harder.
He apparently can’t believe that as a pro one doesn’t play more games in their free time. He thinks that when you ask the players who skip solo queue, they come up with countless excuses: They don’t feel well, they would train differently, they suffer from stress.
But Doublelift doesn’t want to accept any of that. Americans should take a cue from the South Korean Faker:
“In Eastern countries, there are no excuses. You just play. You don’t even think about it. Even if you feel bad […] Faker hates solo queue, but he plays 10 games a day. You just have to do it.”
Doublelift
This is what it is about: What Doublelift is doing here is a hobby of many fans who check how “lazy or diligent” a player is based on statistics.
However, this leads to constant pressure and a dangerous vicious circle, causing some e-sport athletes to feel even more pressure that affects their psyche, makes them play even more, and they don’t allow themselves to rest. Performance drops, pressure increases, they play more, and ultimately burnout occurs, and career-ending looms.
Especially in LoL, cases of players known to not be able to cope anymore in their early to mid-20s and suffering from anxiety disorders or physical chronic problems are well-documented. When fans are now on players’ backs, demanding that they play 30 games a week in their free time, it will only get worse:
LoL world champion (22) talks about the obsessive-compulsive disorder that ended his career
