Team Liquid is facing another roadblock in the LCS. The team will play Week 6 in the 2020 LCS Spring Split without star player Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng. It will instead start academy player Edward “Tactical” Ra.
The bottom laner is currently recovering from laryngitis and cannot use his voice, forcing him out of Liquid’s upcoming showdown with Team SoloMid. Tactical trained with the LCS roster over the past few days and the team is confident that he can rise to the occasion.
Doublelift’s illness couldn’t come at a worse time. Liquid is right now in a four-way tie for sixth place and struggling to find its footing in the competition. The addition of jungler Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen, who was left in limbo for weeks due to visa issues, is not having the desired effect. Liquid is struggling with basic elements of the game, which has resulted in a sharp decline from 2019, which saw the team capture both LCS titles.
Individually, the players are underperforming and collectively the team is yet to find a strategy that works for them.
Liquid’s most recent victory wasn’t a dominant performance. The team scored a fairly easy win over Dignitas but that was largely thanks to their opponents under-performing. In that match, Liquid looked like a capable team, but nothing more.
Despite the negative results, the team is keeping its spirits up and taking it one game at a time. In the second half of the season, every game counts and Liquid must secure more wins if they want to make it to playoffs.
Week 6 is a crucial point in the season for Liquid, as it will face TSM and 100 Thieves. After a slow start in the season, TSM climbed all the way to third place in the standings.
Under regular circumstances, Liquid has a fighting chance against TSM. Without Doublelift, those chances decrease drastically.
