Doublelift ready to fold as Riot threatens to “go nuclear” & cancel LCS split

Doublelift spoke about the LCS walkout at length, calling the LCSPA demands “unrealistic” and revealing that, given the choice between missing out on the LCS Summer split and competing, he’s prepared to fold to Riot.

Peter ‘Doublelift’ Peng is one of the longest-standing veterans currently competing in the LCS, not to mention one of the most successful. Throughout his career, he’s been a defining part of some of the best North American organizations in the past, including TSM, CLG, and Team Liquid.

Though CLG have sold their LCS spot and TSM plans to leave NA soon, Doublelift has stood the test of time and is still kicking on 100 Thieves. With him having been around for so long, his words hold a lot of weight in the community and the pro scene.

Doublelift has broken the silence surrounding the LCS walkout, confirming that he’s ready to prioritize competition over the LCSPA demands. With Riot, as Doublelift put it, ready to “go nuclear” in regards to the LCS Summer split, the ADC player is prepared to fold if it means he gets to compete.

Doublelift prepared to “let go” amid LCS walkout

The LCS walkout has quickly escalated over the past few weeks, with Riot going from complete silence on the situation to threatening a full-on cancellation of the Summer split if the players chose not to compete.

What’s more, there’s been a great deal of silence around the negotiations involved with getting the LCS Summer split underway with circumstances both parties are happy about. Even an episode of The Dive podcast meant to clear up these issues was canceled.

So, Doublelift’s word on the situation is the first word that’s come out since Riot effectively shut down the LCSPA’s demands. And his opinion on the LCSPA’s statement and NA’s ecosystem as a whole doesn’t bode well for negotiations going forward.

In his over 20 minute long video discussing the LCS walkout, Doublelift called the LCSPA’s list of demands “unrealistic”, claiming that the old Tier 2 ecosystem is just as bad as the new one, and that there needs to be an entirely different system in order for any meaningfully positive change to occur.

He spoke about how players could sit on a paycheck in the old NACL ecosystem without having to push themselves further, all while players who had a shot at breaking into the LCS were contract jailed by their orgs and placed behind “ridiculous” buyouts. Tyler1 had a similar opinion to Doublelift in this regard.

While he lamented that jobs were lost in transitioning away from teams being forced to field rosters, he also feels that it wasn’t sustainable.

Additionally, putting the best players in contract jail also doesn’t help the development of a region if those players never get to move beyond the Tier 2 ecosystem and hone their skills against NA’s best players.

With Doublelift in many ways disagreeing with the LCSPA’s demands, he’s ready to “let go” of the situation and move on if push comes to shove with Riot. What’s more, he had his own opinion on what it’d take to keep the NACL alive.

Doublelift proposes a more open market in NACL

Doublelift’s proposed that the NACL should be made up of teams that want to be there rather than teams that are forced to field rosters, using Disguised Toast’s DSG roster as a prime example.

He expressed that these teams should also get support from Riot, but that organizations within the Tier 1 League being forced to field a roster.

To some extent, this isn’t unprecedented in the League of Legends pro scene, with the LDL (China’s Tier 2 League) having 24 teams in comparison to the 17 main LPL rosters. While every LPL (China’s Tier 1 League) team is forced to have an LDL team, there are also 7 other spots new organizations can buy their way into.

Though now defunct, the Young Miracles organization scouted and fielded some of the best talent to ever touch the game in China like 2018 World Champion Gao ‘Ning’ Zhen-Ning, MSI 2023 winner Zhuo ‘Knight’ Ding, and two-time MSI winner Yan ‘Wei’ Yang-Wei. Yet, they only operated as an org within China’s Tier 2 ecosystem and ran independently from 2016 to 2023.

However, the LDL’s more open structure has also paved the way for a number of gambling and match-fixing scandals amongst orgs that have joined the LDL. One such scandal saw almost 40 players and coaches getting banned, and another involved almost 30 players and coaches.

It’s important to clarify that teams tied to LPL organizations also participated in match-fixing, but that multiple independent teams helped orchestrate these schemes in both mentioned instances. There’s clearly no one-size-fits-all fix here.

Nonetheless, Doublelift may have “ruined” the LCSPA’s negotiations.

LCS fans and analysts who have seen Doublelift’s takes on the situation believe that his admissions essentially spell the end of any bargaining power the LCSPA had in regards to negotiating anything in the short-term.

It remains to be seen what this means for the future of the LCS and NACL as this story develops.