Days after swapping their former World Champion marksman into the midlane, Team Liquid has once again claimed all esports headlines with their acquisition of Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng.
In a Facebook post, Team Liquid announced that Doublelift will be coming in to take the starting AD carry spot from Jung “Youngbin” Young-bin, who held the spot for just a single week of games. While this shouldn’t be confused with a full acquisition, all signs point to Peng leaving Liquid by the end of the Spring Split, when he should be rejoining his TSM family. Youngbin will remain on Team Liquid, where he will be “learning from Double throughout the rest of the split for tryouts in Summer.”
This temporary acquisition may bring some much needed leadership to Team Liquid during a tumultuous and troubling season. However, Doublelift and new midlaner Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin both bring tremendously powerful personalities to the table, which may clash under the pressure that comes with Liquid’s current last place standing in the league.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this announcement is the fact that Brandon “Saintvicious” DiMarco is still holding the team’s ‘strategic coach’ position. Maybe after what feels like the millionth swap in the past year, Liquid’s should take a moment to review how much benefit they’re getting from their support staff.
Team Liquid resumes LCS competition this Friday against Cloud9, who sit atop the league standings.
Editor’s note: this article was written prior to Team Liquid’s morning announcement on March 8th that they would also be acquiring North American support player Adrian “Adrian” Ma. You can read the full statement about this latest roster move on Team Liquid’s Facebook page.