Cristiano Ronaldo, Kobe Bryant, and Roger Federer are often mentioned in discussions about sports role models. But Team Liquid AD carry Peter “Doublelift” Peng had other idols on his path to esports stardom.
“When I was growing up I didn’t really have a role model or somebody I looked up to or celebrity that I liked,” Doublelift said. “But I remember I would watch probably how a basketball player would watch Kobe, or LeBron, or Michael Jordan. I watched fucking Reckful WoW highlights and I watched IdrA, StarCraft player.”
Byron “Reckful” Bernstein and Greg “IdrA” Fields are two of the pioneers of Twitch. Reckful is known for his legendary status in World of Warcraft, earning multiple rank one titles and being the first player in the world to achieve a 3,000 arena rating.
He later went on to create iconic videos featuring his dominance on multiple classes, including Rogue, Warrior, and Death Knight. In terms of competitive WoW, he never lived up to his expectations. But after being banned for account sharing, he’s seen success in Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics.
IdrA, however, is known for his career in StarCraft: Brood War and StarCraft 2. Playing for North American organization Evil Geniuses, he juggled streaming with tournaments. He won numerous titles and even moved to South Korea to hone his skills with the best in the world.
He played Terran in Brood War before switching over to Zerg in StarCraft 2, where he made a name for himself. His aggressive macro playstyle and his notorious early game cheeses, combined with his colorful streaming personality, made him one of the faces of the game on Twitch.
“I watched all their games, all their highlights, and I followed them and I thought it was so fucking cool that these guys worked so hard and they tried so hard at being good at games,” Doublelift said. “And they were really good and they were really entertaining to watch and they did shit no one else did.”
In terms of esports, Doublelift may have already surpassed both Reckful and IdrA. He hasn’t had international success, but domestically, he’s been one of the most prominent names in North American League of Legends.
