Pokimane defends TSM Leena following Doublelift re-sign criticism

Twitch star Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys defended Team SoloMid President Leena Xu during the May 3 OfflineTV podcast, amid the drama surrounding her boyfriend Yiliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng resigning with TSM.

In April, drama swirled around Doublelift’s return to Team SoloMid, after critics accused the League of Legends pro of re-joining for his girlfriend who runs the popular organization.

However, on May 3, Leena opened up about the criticism on the Offline TV podcast, and revealed her thoughts on the publicized re-sign. During the segment, Twitch star Pokimane defended the couple, arguing the complaints don’t add up.

Pokimane defends TSM Leena

The TSM President sat down with OfflineTV crew members Pokimane, Fedmyster, and DisguisedToast to discuss a variety of topics, including the recent controversy surrounding her boyfriend Doublelift.

Pokimane questioned critics, stating, “The thing that bothers me the most is, as you said, people seem to have like a massive problem with it now, but they didn’t care at all for the last half of year.”

• Read More: Doublelift’s trade to TSM now official after LCS investigation concludes

The popular streamer argued that there would be less conflict of interest with the couple being on the same team. “Which I think is kind of odd, because if anything there would have been way more conflict of interest if he was on another team, as opposed to you being on the same team,” she continued.

(Timestamp 11:33 for mobile users.)

Leena and Peng have received criticism from various members of the League of Legends scene, such as Cloud9 content creator Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles. The former caster hit out at the TSM president for going on the OfflineTV podcast.

“Corporate executives recuse themselves from conflicts of interest, they don’t go on streamer house podcasts with their friends and throw a straw man pity party,” he tweeted out on May 4.

Despite the accusations, Doublelift vehemently denied them in a vlog uploaded on April 26. Explaining his decision, he exclaimed “If Leena wasn’t on TSM, would I join TSM? Absolutely, yes. I joined because the roster is really good, because the org is super hyped.”

Regardless of how one feels about the trade, one person in their corner is popular streamer Pokimane. The Twitch star boasts over 4.2 million followers to her channel, and is a major presence on the platform.

• Read More: League’s “overpowered” mid lane gets nerfed in Patch 10.10

Doublelift’s move comes fresh off the heels of four consecutive LCS titles with Team Liquid. The 26-year-old had previously been with TSM from 2015-2017, and will return to play with friends Soren ‘Bjergsen’ Bjerg and Vincent ‘Biofrost’ Wang.