Sources: Doublelift headed back to Team SoloMid

Team Liquid will move AD carry Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng to Team SoloMid, marking the return of the seven-time League of Legends Championship Series champion to his former team ahead of the summer split, league sources told ESPN.

Liquid received additional interest from multiple teams within the league for Doublelift's contract rights, according to sources, but Doublelift chose TSM over other options. Doublelift was intimately involved in the process of choosing which team he wanted to go to.

Doublelift will reunite with mid laner Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg and support Vincent "Biofrost" Wang, both whom he played alongside during their championship runs on SoloMid.

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Both Team Liquid and Team SoloMid declined to comment.

Doublelift will replace Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup, who joined Team SoloMid in November after the end of his League of Legends World Championship run with Splyce. Kobbe's future in professional League of Legends has yet to be decided, with options limited due to many teams in North America having no remaining international player spots and the coronavirus pandemic shortening the mid-season period to accommodate for schedule changes.

Doublelift returns to Team SoloMid after a two-and-a-half-year stint with Liquid that amounted to four domestic championships and a runner-up finish at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational but ended with a ninth-place finish in this spring split. On April 16, independent esports journalist Travis Gafford and ESPN reported that Liquid had made Doublelift available for trade.

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During the spring split, Doublelift contracted laryngitis, forcing him to sit out from competition during Week 6 of the League Championship Series. Liquid used Academy AD carry Edward "Tactical" Ra in his place, who then retained the starter position with Liquid announcing they had benched Doublelift following his recovery. In a Twitter post in March, Doublelift said he lacked motivation prior to being sick. He would return to Liquid's starting lineup later in March, but the team would ultimately end the split with the worst finish in team history.

Liquid will evaluate their AD carry options over the next few weeks but as of now are expected to move forward with Tactical as the full-time starter, sources said.

As a member of Team SoloMid, Doublelift won two League Championship Series titles in 2016 and 2017. Following the end of the 2017 world championship, Doublelift and Biofrost's contracts with Team SoloMid were not renewed in favor of then-G2 Esports bottom lane duo Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen and Alfonso "mithy" Aguirre Rodríguez.

Doublelift then moved to Liquid, which rebuilt their entire roster and won four consecutive championships in 2018 and 2019.