LCS Veteran Doublelift To Reunite With Bjergsen in His Return to Pro-Play on 100 Thieves

Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg will once again play together in a new roster that mixes experience with young talent.

Doublelift is regarded as perhaps the greatest player ever in the North American League of Legends esports scene. With his closest competition being his former teammate, Bjergsen. After a legendary career with 8x LCS Championships and an MVP Award (2018 Summer), Doublelift had retired from competitive play in November 2020 and has been spending the last two years as a content creator and an LCS co-streamer. But just like the Danish mid laner, it looks like Doublelift also decided it is time to get back in the Rift once again, as he is reportedly signing with 100 Thieves.

It was well-known that Doublelift was looking for a team during the 2022 season, but decided not to play after his potential team-up with Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen didn’t become a reality. After Worlds, rumors once again surfaced that the MSI-finalist bot laner was once again on the lookout for a roster up to his aspirations. The leading candidate this time was 100 Thieves, as Brieuc “LEC Wooloo” Seeger had previously reported that Bjergsen would be joining their 2023 LCS roster. And in another tweet yesterday, Wooloo said both parties had reached a verbal agreement.

Unforgiven was one of the best LEC ads and now they take DL over him lol kek?

— Николай Акатов (@Zanzarahlol) November 19, 2022

100 Thieves are building another contender

The previous 100 Thieves roster was not lacking success. They made three consecutive LCS Finals, even winning one of them (2021 Summer) for the first-ever LCS trophy in the organization’s history. But it was obvious that some changes were over the horizon, especially after the team parted ways with their General Manager Christopher “PapaSmithy” Smith, and inducted their long-time top laner Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho to the organization’s Hall of Fame, an unusual move for an active player on the roster.

The new management still decided to keep some piece of their championship roster, as they re-signed their star jungler Can “Closer” Çelik. But they also decided to supplement the experienced core of the team with two young prospects from their Academy system, which is known for the amount of talent they produce. To round out their LCS team, 100 Thieves will reportedly promote both the support Alan “Busio” Cwalina and top laner Milan “Tenacity” Oleksij. Both players are highly anticipated Academy players, especially Tenacity who has been waiting for a call-up for a long time. He even declined LCS offers at the start of 2022, to have the chance to make his first full-time LCS split debut on 100 Thieves. And Busio is nicknamed “LCS Keria” for his lane dominance and creative champion pool.

With this reported five-man roster, it will also mean that the other 100 Thieves signing of the off-season, William “UNF0RGIVEN” Nieminen will be part of the organization’s NACL team. This can be seen as insurance in 100 Thieves’ part, in case Doublelift struggles in his return to pro League.