Headlines Of Legends: Multiple Teams Decline IEM Oakland Invite, One Team Rejoins
Published: Nov 15, 2016 - Last Updated: Jun 24, 2022
Let’s catch up with what’s been going on in the world of esports betting.
TSM’s Doublelift steps away from game
Following a heartbreaking loss in the group stage at the 2016 League of Legends World Championship, Team SoloMid’s star ADC, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, has decided to take a split off.
Said Doublelift in a video released by TSM:
“There’s been a lot of talk about whether or not I’m gonna retire, whether my plans are to retire or continue playing.
And especially, most notably in Worlds I said I didn’t have much left in the tank, sort of alluding to retirement. And yeah, so, I’m here today to announce I will be taking a break, but it won’t be a retirement.”
Doublelift joined TSM in November 2015 after his unexpected release from Counter Logic Gaming.
Since joining the team, Doublelift has helped TSM secure third and fourth place at the most recent IEM tournaments, second place in the 2016 Spring Playoffs, and first place in the Summer Split (including a 17-1 record) and Summer Split Playoffs.
Despite their moderate success in North America, TSM has struggled to make it out of group stage in the most important tournament of the year, Worlds.
The loss this year was especially difficult for Doublelift, as his poor performance in the bottom lane was of particular concern.
“I’ve never been a weak link of any roster I’ve been on until this moment,” Doublelift wrote on TwitLonger after his loss at Worlds.
He continued:
“Everyone has felt embarrassment and shame, but have you felt it in this magnitude? I let down my teammates, friends, and millions of fans. It’s a crippling feeling of unworthiness that has kept me off social media.”
TSM has actively looked to replace their star ADC for at least one split. The team recently held open tryouts, not limiting themselves to just a rental ADC. Should Doublelift return, he will have to compete for a roster spot.
“In the event that he decides to come back, we would require him to compete for his old position,” said team owner Andy “Reginald” Dinh.
“At the end of the day, we don’t recruit based on popularity, what’s important to TSM is for us to take the best person for the position and win.”
Doublelift has stated he wishes to use this hiatus to spend more time with family and friends. He will also focus heavily on his streaming platform, including live Twitch streams and uploaded content to YouTube.
Immortals, Splyce drop out of IEM Oakland
After IEM unveiled formatting changes in how teams are chosen for its tournament, including the removal of fan voting, the tournament organizers have come upon another problem — invited teams are hesitant to join.
North America’s Immortals and Europe’s Splyce have announced they will not be competing at the upcoming IEM Oakland that starts Nov. 19.
Splyce’s head coach, Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi, announced the team’s decision on its website:
After a long year of grinding and pushing ourselves, with only a break in summer from the bye-round for playoffs, we must now reflect upon the past and the future.
The event’s scheduled dates (Nov 19th-20th) would not allow us to put in enough time and work that would satisfy the standard we held for ourselves throughout the season’s practice regimen.
We are very happy that we got to play playoffs, gauntlet, bootcamp in Korea, and then participate at the World Championship. It was a new and exciting experience for every single one of us involved that pushed us to the brink.
We shed a lot of blood, sweat and tears and some of us ran into injuries. Now is the time for reflection and rest. We will come back swinging harder than before.
Immortals’ CEO Noah Whinston also released a statement via video, explaining that the organization will decline its invite to attend IEM Oakland so it can concentrate on long term goals.
Counter Logic Gaming likely to skip IEM
While no official announcement has been made, indications are that Counter Logic Gaming will also decline an invitation to attend IEM Oakland.
The news comes from the team’s current ADC, Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes.
“I think we’re not going to IEM,” said Stixxay on-stream. “As far as I know, we’ve decided [not to]. I don’t think anyone’s mind changed on that. Everyone wants a break.”
TSM rejoins IEM Oakland
After first announcing Team SoloMid’s League of Legends team would not compete at IEM Oakland, directly revolving around the announcement of Doublelift taking the split off, the team has decided to rejoin.
It appears TSM is now set to move forward with a new ADC, with tryouts already coming to a close. There are plenty of hints in TSM’s announcement that a veteran ADC will be joining the team:
In our earlier announcement, we expected the process to find suitable candidates for the AD carry position to take far longer than what actually happened. Originally, we expected that a lengthy tryout process would be required to find a player who would fit with Biofrost and the team.
A vast majority of the applicants were unvetted and untested, and we were unprepared to commit to the tournament within those circumstances.
What changed within the last week was that an unexpected number of high profile veterans have reached out to the organization to indicate their desire to play with us. As a result of this, we were able to bypass a good deal of the tryout process we originally foresaw.
While the final roster for IEM Oakland has yet to be determined, the process has been sped up significantly enough for us to fully commit to the tournament. We will release a separate announcement with more details on the roster once it has been confirmed.
With just a week remaining until the start of IEM Oakland, six teams are confirmed for eight spots. TSM, Unicorns of Love (replacing Splyce), I May, Flash Wolves, INTZ e-Sports and Chiefs will be competing, as well as one additional North American team and one from Korea (both to be determined).
