Most of the headlines leading into today’s finals between a storied TSM franchise and the new-age legacy of Team Liquid were focused in on the Bjergsen versus Doublelift debate.
The two players entered the arena in St. Louis on Saturday with 5 LCS Championship trophies on their shelf, but only one would leave with their 6th. Some (including us) called in a “Battle of the LCS GOATs” and boy were we right. Fireworks spewed from a 5-game series in the Grand Finals.
The leadership brought to his young squad by Bjergsen nearly nabbed him his 6th Championship, but it was Doublelift putting his team on his back and marching them through a reverse sweep that would take it in the end.
Though there were moments where Doublelift’s team did a lot of the heavy lifting, it was on the wave of his stellar performances on Varus, and Kai’Sa that this Championship Title was won. Which is what earned him the 2019 LCS Spring Finals MVP award mere hours after teammate CoreJJ won the MVP of the entire Spring Split.
This is Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng’s 6th LCS Championship, and his third in a row with Team Liquid. Prior to this modern Liquid Dynasty, Doublelift won the LCS Title twice alongside contested GOAT Bjergsen as a member of TSM, and with Counter-Logic Gaming back in the Summer of 2015.
Doublelift was the first player in the LCS to reach 1000 kills league play and the first to reach 50,000 total CS. With statistics and wins dating back as far as the World Championship Season 1 with Epik Gamer, Doublelift has been a featured player in competitive League of Legends since the summer of 2011.
His cocky attitude seems to have calmed down a bit on the flaming front in this stage of his career, but there’s no telling if the “I’m the greatest. Everyone else is trash” Doublelift is gone forever.
Right now, his focus (as it seems to have been all season long so far) is on the bigger stages. His team will now compete in the Mid-Season Invitational where he will have another shot to prove his skills on a global scale.
While we wait for things on the MSI front to continue shaping up, we have to take the time to congratulate Doublelift on not only his 6th LCS Championship Title but finally putting to bed that conversation about who is the GOAT in North American League of Legends.
