During the latest episode of The Crackdown podcast with IWillDominate and Thorin, G2 Esports head coach GrabbZ said he wouldn’t want to work as a coach with Doublelift based on how he left Team Liquid. He thinks the way Doublelift departed from Liquid and went public about it after his trade to TSM wasn’t professional.
Doublelift spent the past two years with Liquid’s League of Legends team, winning four LCS championships. But Liquid struggled in the 2020 LCS Spring Split, finishing the regular season in ninth place with a 7-11 record.
Liquid decided to move on from the veteran ADC this offseason and Doublelift returned to TSM on April 26 ahead of the 2020 LCS Summer Split. But this move, combined with the fact that he’s dating TSM president Leena Xu, has caused some controversy in the League community.
The 26-year-old veteran recorded a vlog last month explaining what led to the trade. He addressed his time with Liquid and brought up his benching in March. At the time, he said he was feeling unmotivated at the beginning of the season.
In the video, Doublelift also said his teammates gave negative feedback about his play and behavior to the coaches, but he only received the feedback after his benching. The veteran felt that part of his bad play was because the coaches didn’t guide him at the right time during the season.
As a coach, GrabbZ thought this behavior of Doublelift blaming his coaches wasn’t professional. “It’s fine, we all feel down at some points,” GrabbZ said. “Then he’s benched for a week and suddenly says ‘oh, I feel motivated again.’ Then continue talking bullshit, that’s not how it works.”
This whole situation is quite suspicious with many vocal members of the community suspecting that Doublelift intentionally sandbagged this split to be traded to Team Solo Mid. While no one knows what goes behind the scenes, there are a lot of rumors regarding the current situation. North American’s LCS has been involved in multiple drama this off-season, starting from solo queue players to professional players. Hopefully it all sorts itself out before the Summer Split begins and we get some action.
GrabbZ and G2 most recently won the LEC Spring Split again by sweeping Fnatic in the finals on April 19. The LEC returns for its 2020 Summer Split on June 12. NA fans can watch Doublelift’s official return to TSM when the 2020 LCS Summer Split kicks off on June 13.
