Doublelift sheds light on his return to LCS—and it’s not about the money

Doublelift officially joined 100 Thieves on Dec. 8, finally making a return to pro League of Legends ahead of the 2023 LCS season. But why now?

The AD carry spoke about the reasons behind his dramatic return to the LCS on his Twitch stream yesterday. Doublelift underlined that it wasn’t for the money. He explained streaming earns him much more than playing professionally and that he simply wanted to compete again with the best lineup possible.

Doublelift revealed he received multiple offers from LCS teams this season but chose 100 Thieves thanks to its star-studded roster. “I did the opposite of chasing bag, actually, I just wanted to be on the best possible roster. The money that I’m making is not important because I’ve been streaming for two years,” he said.

The 29-year-old said over the past several years, he made much more money streaming than he would if he played professionally. “The money that you make streaming is like multiple times more than you’d make playing pro,” he said.

Related: Together again: Doublelift, Bjergsen reunite in new-look 100 Thieves roster for 2023 LCS season

He added that following the 2020 season, he wanted to keep playing and was looking for opportunities outside TSM. All the top-tier teams, however, had already signed an AD carry at the time, and he didn’t want to switch to a bottom-tier squad. TSM owner Andy “Reginald” Dinh was apparently “pissed off” Doublelift wasn’t committed to TSM, and decided to lock in Lawrence “Lost” Sze Yuy Hui to the roster instead.

At this point, Doublelift took a year-long break from pro play. But streaming turned out to be so profitable that he made the “financially responsible decision” to continue streaming for another year.

Doublelift will reunite with Bjergsen with 100 Thieves for the 2023 LCS season. They’ll join Tenacity, Closer, and Busio.