Doublelift returns to Liquid starting roster for upcoming Immortals match

Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, Team Liquid’s bot lane carry, will return to the active roster after sitting out the last three games of the team. Doublelift, who got benched due to lack of motivation, was replaced by Edward “Tactical” Ra for the entirety of week 6 and the week 7 match against Counter Logic Gaming this week, which Liquid lost.

Doublelift’s benching was confirmed last week by Liquid’s CEO Steve Arhancet, who said the situation has nothing to do with bot laner’s poor health. Later the same day, Doublelift confirmed that it is his lack of motivation that got him temporarily expelled from the starting five.

Doublelift’s lack of motivation hasn’t been a secret either. In official interviews, the bot laner had previously stated that he “just didn’t care” and only started to once Team Liquid got behind in the rankings. The move to bench him and replace him with Tactical for the time being then came as tool to put pressure on the star carry and whip him back into prime form.

Whether Doublelift is being called back to the starting roster because he’s regained his motivation is not clear, and it might just be because of how difficult and important Liquid’s next match is. Later tonight on Monday Night League, Liquid face Immortals, both teams tied for 6th place at 6-7. A loss against Immortals will put the reigning LCS champions in a very difficult position. They will fall to 8th place in the rankings with just four matches remaining, three of which are against Evil Geniuses (4th, 7-7), FlyQuest (2nd, 8-6), and Cloud9 (1st, 12-1). With how unconvincing Team Liquid has been the entire season, losses against all three of these teams is not an unlikely scenario, and Liquid might even miss the Spring Split Playoffs.

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