Player Yilang “Doubelift” Peng (27) is one of the most well-known US professionals in League of Legends. He explains the problem many LoL professionals have: they are not team players but egoists who want to look good themselves. With this selfish attitude, they have become professionals. But that later harms them. Because they play the wrong champs.
What is Doublelift about? The US professional explains the problem of many professional teams: players would choose the wrong champions during the drafts. They play heroes that make them look good, but provide nothing for the team. Hardly anyone is willing to sacrifice themselves for the team and play a champ they don’t actually want to play.
According to Doublelift, it already comes down to how one becomes a professional in LoL:
Almost no professional player is where he is because he was a team player. Essentially, one became a professional because one played selfishly. You put yourself in a position where you could win, were the carry of your teams, reached high elo, and worked on your own game and learned more about LoL.
The path to becoming a professional does not lead through being a team player.
Doublelift
Everyone wants to be the schoolyard bully in the LoL lane
This has consequences: Doublelift explains that this attitude of professionals, wanting to shine personally and not play for the team, leads to problems in the composition of LoL teams:
- Players would like to play “Lane Bullys”: Champs that are strong in the laning phase and can put pressure on the opponent in the first minutes of a match. The players want to be active and shine themselves.
- Almost no one wants to play a champ that runs against a strong pick in the laning phase. Because then you are under your own tower and trying to survive. You can’t shine like that.
The problem is that a team does not function if it mainly relies on champs that are strong in the laning phase.
This leads to teams being built that only function in the early game but do not scale, thus being weaker than the opponents in the mid-game and late-game.
Or the refusal to “pick a champ for the team” leads to major weaknesses in the lineup.
The most flexible teams win titles
What this is about: This is a conflict that many professional teams in LoL face: Who is the chief and who are his Indians? Even the superstar Faker is currently sitting on the bench in Korea because his coach believes there are too many in the team who want to give orders.
A team where everyone wants to be the star, get the most kills, and have the best plays will not work. Ultimately, there have to be people who subordinate themselves and set up the star.
Especially the teams from the USA performed poorly at the 2019 Worlds and seemed to be far behind China, South Korea, and Europe.
Doublelift shows a clear conflict:
- You become a professional when you shine and stand out.
- As a professional, not all 5 players of a team can shine, but there must be a balance.
At the two strongest teams of the Worlds 2019, G2 Esports and FunPlus Phoenix, it was especially noticeable how flexible the players are and what a wide variety of champions they master. But none of them push themselves into the spotlight in every game. Although G2 Esports and FunPlus Phoenix both have many players who can “carry” a match, they take turns.
The star of the LoL Worlds 2019, mid-laner Doinb, had outstanding games with the killer mage Ryze. He eliminated Fnatic almost single-handedly. But he can also do otherwise and put himself at the service of the team.
Thus, the ADC of FunPlus Phoenix set a record in the final: He achieved 21 kills in 3 matches without dying a single time. This was only possible because the star of the team, Doinb, subordinated himself in the match, chose the more defensive Nautilus, and played “for the team.” He then initiated the plays that another finished with kills.
The range of Doinb during the World Championship ranged from offensive and spectacular killer champs like Rumble to totally defensive champs like Malphite or Galio. Doinb was able to shine in both roles from the midlane.
With Nautilus, Doinb did not achieve as glorious a statistic as with Rumble or Ryze: Nautilus was the champion with whom he died the most (via lol.gamepedia). But it was also the champ with which he earned by far the most assists for his team and ultimately brought success.
This is what made FunPlus Phoenix so strong and ultimately the world champion.
Doublelift, who appears analytically here, is still an active LoL professional and changed teams before the season. The LoL veteran is not only an excellent player and entertaining streamer but also quite the loudmouth.
Sometimes it goes well, but in June 2020, it went horribly wrong:
LoL star vows revenge, wants to destroy ex-team, fails miserably
