Doublelift announces his retirement from pro League of Legends

Team SoloMid bottom laner Yiliang “Doublelift” Penh has officially retired from competitive League of Legends.

Doublelift surprised man of his fans by announcing his retirement. The star LCS players is exiting Summoner’s Rift after a little over a decade of playing at the game’s highest level.

“I wanted to be a pro player who stands out incongruously, someone who speaks his mind and is “real”. It makes me happy to know I’ve let the fans see me transparently for 10 years – all my strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures,” wrote Doublelift.

Doublelift is retiring at a bittersweet point in his career. The player recently returned to the 2020 World Championship, where TSM had the worst performance from a first-seed team ever recorded. Not everything is bad though, Doublelift has won eight out of the past 11 splits in the LCS, including four consecutive titles at Team Liquid.

“Hard work and determination paid off. I’m fully aware of the irony of saying that in my retirement post. I’d like to have been able to say I won Worlds (or even just made it to quarters), but let’s just have the rookies take up the torch on that one,” added Doublelift.

Doublelift is the second TSM player to retire in the offseason, the first one being mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg. At the time of Bjergsen’s retirement, Doublelift said that he considered leaving together with his friend, and now it seems that he’s made up his mind.

Who will play for TSM in the 2021 LCS ?

With Doublelift retiring, TSM needs to find a replacement. The team so far has jungler in Mingyi “Spica” Lu and mid laner Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage. TSM is still missing three players on its roster.

The team is supposed to sign Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon as its starting top laner, but no announcement has yet been made. TSM was also in negotiations with former Suning support and World Championship finalist Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh. SwordArt’s signing is still up in the air. According to some rumors, TSM hasn’t been able to complete the signing.

It’s still unclear who could replace Doublelift as the team’s bot laner.