Doublelift Joins TSM (2015)

Lore & Background

Doublelift comes from California, and started playing console games before jumping to PC titles such as DotA, World of Warcraft, and Heroes of Newerth, eventually moving to League of Legends. In an interview with Machinima in 2013, Doublelift said his relationship with his parents was strained, because of his dream of being a professional esports player. "I would always struggle with my parents... we would just argue over everything, especially games. When I wanted to play they thought it was just a complete waste of time. It got worse and worse over the years." Doublelift first entered professional League of Legends when he gained the attention of George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis, founder of CLG, who recruited him as a substitute Support player. Shortly after, Doublelift left CLG to become the starting Support for Epik Gamer. He later joined UnRestricted as the starting AD Carry, and the team was acquired by Team Curse later that year. Doublelift's first major tournament was DreamHack Summer 2011, also known as the Riot Season 1 Championship. Hosted in Sweden, he needed his parents' permission to go, but at the time his beginning esports career was a secret to his parents. "They wouldn't let me go... They were like 'You're going to die if you go to Sweden for Dreamhack'." He was ultimately allowed to go after Doublelift's older brother helped convince their parents. Doublelift was timid and socially awkward around his teammates. "I was really awkward and really introverted at the time. I was just that typical Asian guy who does nothing but play games. When I finally met my team I was like 'hi' and that was like the only thing I said. I said nothing after that. I was just a presence with them but I didn't interact with them very much." In a Reddit AMA, Doublelift said he owed it to Epik Gamer for giving him the opportunity to begin his career. "Without Epik Gamer, I would have never made it into the pro scene most likely." When Doublelift returned home, he said his parents were not proud of his accomplishment at Dreamhack. "They wanted me to go to college." Tensions grew between him and his parents over his choice of career, until in 2011 his parents told him to leave the house. He did, taking his prize money from Dreamhack and his computer.

Reader's Guide

Doublelift's career includes stints with Counter Logic Gaming (2012–2015), Team SoloMid (2016), and Team Liquid and a brief return to TSM (2017–2020). In 2015, after CLG informed him they would not re-sign him, Team SoloMid announced that Doublelift would be joining, replacing long-tenured AD Carry WildTurtle. On his new team, Doublelift reached the finals of the spring split, and faced off against his old team CLG. TSM fell 3–2 to CLG, and took a second-place finish, missing out on the Mid-Season Invitational. In summer, Team SoloMid added a new support to pair with Doublelift in the botlane, picking up Vincent "Biofrost" Wang. The team saw significant improvement in the summer split, improving their previous 9–9 record to a 17–1 standing at the end of the regular season, and earned a bye into playoffs. Doublelift also earned First Team All-Pro honors for his performance. Doublelift once again made it to the finals, and this time won, defeating Cloud9 3–1, to give Doublelift his second title.

Did You Know?

• Doublelift was fined $2,500 in 2015 for poaching ZionSpartan.
• Doublelift was benched during the 2015 Summer LCS due to an injury incurred from playing basketball.

The Departure and a New Chapter

After a 2015 season that swung between triumph and heartbreak, Doublelift found himself without a team. CLG had captured their first-ever LCS Split playoff title in August, but the international dream shattered at the League of Legends World Championship, where the roster finished a dismal 12th out of 13. On October 31, the organization informed their star botlaner they would not be re-signing him. The North American scene reacted quickly. Team SoloMid announced that Doublelift would be joining their roster, stepping in to replace WildTurtle, the long-tenured AD Carry who had anchored TSM's botlane for years. The 2015 campaign itself had been turbulent—Doublelift and the organization were fined for poaching ZionSpartan, and he sat out the summer split after a basketball injury. Still, that August championship proved the roster could win at the highest level. Now, with a new organization and a fresh opportunity, Doublelift carried that momentum into an entirely new chapter.

Spring 2016: A Bitter Rivalry Finale

The spring split of 2016 set the stage for one of the most emotionally charged matchups in North American League of Legends history. Doublelift and TSM pushed all the way to the split finals, only to find their old organization, CLG, waiting on the other side. The series went the full distance, and in the end, TSM fell 3–2 to their former teammates. The result was a second-place finish that stung in a particular way: it meant the team would miss out on the Mid-Season Invitational, the premier international event of the year. For Doublelift, who had just left CLG after their own Worlds failure, the irony was sharp. He had spent the better part of four years building that roster, winning their first title together in August 2015, and now he was on the losing end of a rivalry that had defined his career. The spring split served as a painful reminder that talent alone does not guarantee silverware, yet it also set the table for a summer that would deliver the redemption he craved.

Summer 2016: Redemption in Gold

If the spring split was a wound, the summer was the healing. TSM made a critical mid-season adjustment, adding Vincent "Biofrost" Wang as a new support to pair with Doublelift in the botlane. The impact was immediate and staggering. Where the team had managed a modest 9–9 record in the spring, they stormed through the summer regular season with a 17–1 standing, earning a bye into the playoffs. Doublelift's individual performance was equally dominant, earning him First Team All-Pro honors for the split. The playoffs delivered another finals appearance, and this time the story had a different ending. TSM defeated Cloud9 in a commanding 3–1 series to claim the championship, giving Doublelift his second LCS title. The victory carried enormous personal weight. He had come to TSM after being released, had lost a grueling five-game series to his former team just months earlier, and now he stood on the other side of that rivalry with a trophy in hand. The summer split validated the decision to change rosters and proved that the right combination of talent and synergy could transform a struggling team into a championship contender overnight.

A Career in Context and the Road Ahead

By the time Doublelift's TSM tenure wrapped, his career statistics already placed him among the most accomplished players in North American League of Legends history. Across 18 splits of competitive play, he had accumulated one Split MVP, five All-Pro First Team selections, and one All-Pro Third Team honor. His reputation as a fierce competitor and unapologetic trash-talker made him as memorable off the scoreboard as on it, epitomized by his 2013 All-Star declaration that "Everyone else is trash." The TSM chapter, however, was not his final one. Before the 2017 season even began, the organization announced that Doublelift would be stepping away from professional League of Legends for the spring split, describing the move as "a small break." This pause came at a moment when his career trajectory was still evolving—he had already played for CLG, Team Liquid, and 100 Thieves, and would eventually form his own personal team, Near Airport. His journey from a homesick teenager in California who needed his older brother to convince their parents to let him travel to Sweden, to a multi-time champion and content creator, underscored a career defined by relentless reinvention.