Doublelift Discusses LCS Walkout: Willing to Submit to Riot Amidst Unrealistic Demands

In his lengthy discussion of the LCS walkout, Doublelift referred to the LCSPA’s demands as “unrealistic” and said that, given the option of participating in the LCS Summer Split, he would be willing to submit to Riot. Peter ‘Doublelift‘ Peng is one of the LCS’s most seasoned and successful competitors. He has contributed significantly to some of the top North American companies throughout his career, including TSM, CLG, and Team Liquid.

Although TSM intends to leave NA shortly and CLG has sold their LCS slot, Doublelift has endured the test of time and is still active on 100 Thieves. He has been around for a long time, so people in the community and the professional environment take his views seriously. Doublelift has spoken out on the LCS walkout, stating that he is prepared to put competitiveness ahead of the LCSPA’s demands. The ADC player is ready to give up if it means he can still participate because, in Doublelift’s words, Riot is prepared to “go nuclear” about the LCS Summer split.

The LCS walkout as Doublelift prepared to “let go”

Over the past few weeks, the LCS walkout has dramatically intensified, with Riot Games going from total quiet on the issue to openly threaten to cancel the Summer split if the players decided not to compete. Additionally, there has been a lot of silence regarding the negotiations needed to start the LCS Summer split in a friendly way to all stakeholders. Even a podcast episode of The Dive intended to address these concerns was scrapped. As a result, Doublelift’s statement regarding the situation is the first to be made public since Riot effectively stopped the LCSPA’s demands. Furthermore, his assessment of the LCSPA’s assertion and the ecosystem of NA needs to augur better for future negotiations.

Doublelift claimed that the LCSPA’s list of demands was “unrealistic” in his more than 20-minute-long video discussing the LCS walkout. He asserted that the old Tier 2 ecosystem is just as bad as the new one and that a completely different system is required for any appreciably positive change. In contrast, players who could make it into the LCS were contract jailed by their organizations and forced to accept “ridiculous” buyouts. He talked about how players in the old NACL ecosystem could sit on a paycheck without pushing themselves further. Tyler1 agreed with Doublelift that this was true. While lamenting the loss of jobs, he also felt that moving away from teams required to field rosters wasn’t sustainable.