Doublelift: Leena ‘has nothing to do’ with me joining Team SoloMid
Doublelift has responded to rumors surrounding his trade to Team SoloMid, stating that he simply “just wanted out” from Team Liquid.
News that the star ADC player was being traded was first reported by Jacob Wolf of ESPN last week. Team SoloMid confirmed the report on Sunday, April 26, announcing that Yiliang “Peter” Peng would be returning to TSM.
Many people were quick to speak out against the trade for a variety of reasons, but mostly due to Doublelift’s relationship with the president of Team SoloMid, Leena Xu.
In particular, Cloud9 content creator Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles stated on April 22 that the “trade should be denied by the league for competitive integrity reasons.”
This trade should be denied by the league for competitive integrity reasons.
According to the article, DL has other offers and can pick a team without a massive conflict of interest. https://t.co/WJ4cM3OqMW
— MonteCristo (@MonteCristo) April 21, 2020
After the trade was approved on Sunday, LCS Commissioner Chris Greeley released a statement stating that the league “found no evidence of prohibited behavior.”
A statement from LCS Commissioner, Chris Greeley #LCS https://t.co/2ZZlQKeB0l pic.twitter.com/AqghcN3Uwr
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) April 26, 2020
Not long after the trade had passed, Doublelift opened up about his time at Team Liquid and the reasons why he was traded to Team SoloMid in a YouTube video titled “Joining TSM and what really happened.”
The renowned LCS star also hit back at the idea that he returned to Team SoloMid because of his relationship with Leena.
“Yeah, me and Leena are in a relationship,” Doublelift said. “No, she didn’t poach me. I didn’t intentionally ruin my reputation; I didn’t intentionally sabotage my team and my own performance, and literally not even make playoffs because I wanted out of the team. No, that didn’t happen.
“Everyone who knows me at all knows that I’m extremely competitive and I have a ton of pride and I felt awful about my performances. I just think that conspiracy is absolutely ridiculous.
“If Leena was on Dignitas, no I would not join Dignitas. If Leena was on CLG, I would not join CLG right now. If Leena was not on TSM, would I join TSM? Absolutely, yes. That has nothing to do with it.
During the video, Doublelift explained that he “felt blindsided” by all teammates besides newly-signed Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen. Doublelift also felt like he was owed a sense of forgiveness for his disappointing start to LCS 2020 Spring.
Team SoloMid represents a new opportunity for Doublelift in 2020 and it’s a situation that he views as “do or die,” as the team is now expected to at least qualify for Worlds.
“I joined because I think the roster is really good, because the org is super hyped, and because of my past relationships with Bjergsen and Bio,” Doublelift explained. “If you remove her from the equation my decision making would be the exact same.
“Hopefully, that makes you guys a little more east about it because I understand from the outside it can look super sketch. But to me, like that whole idea of it… There’s nothing there. It is really awesome that I can work on the same org. That’s not a conflict of interest, that’s an alignment of interest.”