Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of competitive League of Legends. He is one of the few players that remain active from the early days of season one, and one could argue that he is the best player North America has ever seen from their region.

The superstar AD Carry has won everything from regional titles to MVP of the NALCS. Over the weekend though, Doublelift went from a very good AD Carry to resident god.

Currently a starter for North American powerhouse Team Liquid, Doublelift easily smashed through the playoffs to make his way to the finals of the NALCS Spring Split where he did not have a single death against Cloud9, and only two against second-seed Echo Fox.

Liquid easily swept both series with a big thanks to their superstar’s performance in the bot lane and they were on their way to their first NALCS Finals appearance after eight years of competing in the league and just one year removed from near relegation.

While he was dominant on stage regionally, Doublelift had always struggled internationally.

He has failed to make it out of group stage every year despite being on a TSM roster for the past three seasons that was consistently ranked as a top-ten team in the world and got high praises from Korean powerhouses, including the best team to ever exist in competitive League of Legends in SK Telecom T1.

Disaster then struck for one of the best players North America had ever seen. On April 1, Peng went to Twitter to post an update on a personal tragedy that was certainly no April Fool’s joke.

His older brother, a man he had looked up to for years, attacked both of his parents with a knife. His mother was killed and his dad was seriously injured in the attack.

Many people replied with heartfelt messages. In that moment people forgot about Doublelift’s past failures on the international stage.

They forgot about the trash talk that the superstar was always known for. All of League of Legends rallied around him for something larger than the game.

With the personally tragedy recent in his mind, fans wondered about Doublelift’s ability to start in the finals match against newcomer 100 Thieves. Just two days later, Steve Arhancet, Team Liquid’s co-CEO and owner, tweeted out that after talking with their superstar AD Carry, Doublelift was determined to play.

“We support him,” Arhancet said. He was not alone.

When the time for the finals came around, the two teams were announced by each player and their position. When Doublelift’s name was called, the crowd in Miami let out an ear-deafening cheer for one of the most beloved players in North America.

With that behind him, Doublelift and his teammates hopped into their chairs and got ready for game one. Winner of this series would not only win the Spring Split title for North America, but it would get them the regional seat at the Mid-Season Invitational against the winners of the other major regions.

Liquid’s foot did not come off the pedal.

In game one, Doublelift and his bot lane partner Olleh proceeded to build quite the lead on the bot side of the map over his opponents Cody Sun and Spring Split MVP and former teammate Aphromoo.

Despite this, 100 Thieves was winning through the top and mid parts of the map thanks to a sneaky rotation that got them first blood and first tower gold.

After getting two picks, 100 Thieves went towards baron, an objective that empowers minions in the game and stats of all the player-controlled champions. A baron usually means a huge swing in gold for the team that secures it.

While the Thieves did secure two kills giving them pressure for the objective, they did not manage to pick off Team Liquid’s jungler Xmithie, who possesses an ability to smite monsters both neutral and hostile.

Xmithie leaped over the wall for a heroic steal, outsmiting Meteos, the veteran jungler for 100 Thieves.

With the game now swung back in Liquid’s control, the team proceeded to siege down the 100 Thieves base especially thanks to the range difference on Doublelift’s champion Caitlyn, and the team took home game one.

In game two, 100 Thieves banned out Caitlyn to keep Doublelift off the lane-dominant ADC. Instead, the veteran picked up Tristana, a late-game scaling hyper carry that gets much stronger the later the game goes. Late game was not needed.

Liquid crushed the Thieves thanks largely to the performance from Doublelift who once again won bot side and their mid laner Pobelter. On one of his signature champions in Azir, hit a huge combo with a move known as a Shurima Shuffle to push four members of 100 Thieves back into the baron pit.

Aphromoo and co. were almost instantly deleted by the damage dealers of Liquid.

After taking both mid and bot lane inhibitors, an objective that when destroyed, spawns super minions that will continue to push and keep pressure on the enemy base, Liquid reset and looked to capture their third mountain dragon.

There are four elemental dragons in League of Legends: Ocean, Mountain, Cloud, and Infernal and before 35 minutes, these can spawn in any order. Team Liquid’s luck was with them as mountain drakes help do extra damage to objectives and structures such as towers and inhibitors.

A third one basically gives them the power to melt them in seconds.

Liquid would take the objective and then focus on the top side of the map. 100 Thieves attempted to set up a death brush, which is when multiple members sit in a brush waiting for somebody to come by to get a pick. The fight went wrong for the opposing side and Doublelift proceeded to pick off Meteos.

The team then focused on the top side of the map, using their formidable pressure from the dragons and their team composition which heavily favored sieging objectives.

Just 25 minutes into the game, Liquid managed to secure their third and final inhibitor in 100 Thieves’ base and a minute later thanks to another good shuffle from Pobelter and Doublelift’s damage output, Liquid won another fight and the game.

The team was now just one game away from their first regional title as an organization.

In game three, 100 Thieves switched up their playstyle and focused on top-side pressure early on. Thieves’ top laner Ssumday was on his most-played champion throughout the split in Gnar while Liquid had former world champion Impact on a pocket pick in Maokai, a tank champion that he has quite the history with in competitive play.

Thanks to immense top-side pressure from Meteos, Ssumday’s Gnar jumped out to a massive farm and gold lead.

Unfortunately, it was not enough to hold down the other lanes on Liquid. Pobelter was back on Azir, which was surprisingly not banned out, and dominated his opponent Ryu.

With the strong push from Azir, Pobelter roamed bot side, where they picked up a double kill on both Cody Sun and Aphromoo and took the nearby tower.

Liquid then stormed the base at 23 minutes thanks to a great initiation from Xmithie’s Skarner and Doublelift picked up an easy triple kill and take the mid lane inhibitor.

Just three minutes later, and another double kill to the legendary AD Carry’s name, Team Liquid ended the game and took home the NALCS Spring Split title.

This title was his fourth and Liquid was his third team that he was on to win it. Previously, he had won with CLG and TSM, but this one was different.

Not only had he overcome a personal hardship that he very easily could have taken time off to deal with, he had one of the best playoff runs in the history of the game.

Team Liquid dropped only one map the entire run, and finished 9-1 and Doublelift’s stats during the nine games were god tier. The AD Carry finished the entire playoff run with 114 kills and 98 assists compared to just six total deaths for a KDA (Kill/Death/Assist) ratio of 35.33.

To put that in perspective on how good that is, I play League of Legends and have six deaths in a single game sometimes. Doublelift played 10 games against some of the best teams and players in North America and died six times TOTAL.

Doublelift has been a highly-criticized figure in League of Legends because of his inability to play on the international stage, and his performance this season was not up to his usual standards from years prior where he was an MVP candidate.

However, during this playoff run he overcame the murder of his mother and smashed all those who stood in his way with the support of all of North America on his back.

With the title now under Team Liquid’s belt, the team looks forward toward the Mid-Season Invitational where they will play against the regional winners of the LCK (Korea), LPL (China), EULCS (Europe), LMS (Taiwan), and a wild-card team from a minor region.

With all of North America on his back once again, Doublelift will look to prove his doubters wrong and take home an international title for North America.