Doublelift and Bjergsen: LCS teammates and rivals through the years

You can’t tell the story of North America’s League Championship Series without talking about Yiliang (Peter) "Doublelift" Peng and Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg. They are LCS legends and arguably the greatest players to have competed in the North American league since its inception in 2013. At least one of them has been active as a player or coach since the start of the league.

The two have mostly been rivals from different teams, but they have played together at times. Combined, the two have won 11 LCS spring and summer championships, including three together in summer 2016, summer 2017 and summer 2020 -- all with TSM.

The two are in the news again because they are teaming up again for the 2023 season with 100 Thieves. Here’s a look back at some of their career highlights over the past decade in the LCS.

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2013

Doublelift was starting in the bot lane for Counter Logic Gaming in the LCS’ first year. In the offseason, Bjergsen arrived in North America to be TSM's new mid laner after the Denmark native began his career in Europe.

Photo credit: Riot Games

2014

TSM and Bjergsen were runners-up during the spring season and spring playoffs. TSM won the summer playoffs to qualify for Worlds where they finished second in their group but lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champions Samsung Galaxy White.

2015

TSM were spring champions and went to the inaugural Mid-Season Invitational where they finished fifth out of six teams. In the summer, CLG beat TSM in the summer playoffs final. Both TSM and CLG qualified for Worlds. It was Doublelift’s first trip to Worlds and Bjergsen’s second consecutive appearance.

Read more: Deft’s first world championship in his decade-long career ‘felt like a dream’

2016

Doublelift joined TSM following the 2015 offseason, and he and Bjergsen played together on the same team for the first time. TSM had a slow start in spring going 9-9 but they ended runners-up in the spring playoffs, losing to Doublelift’s old team CLG. TSM were the best team in the summer and won the summer playoffs to go to Worlds as NA’s top seed.

Photo credit: Riot Games

2017

Doublelift was loaned out to Team Liquid in the spring. While Team Liquid struggled, TSM won their third consecutive LCS championship and went to MSI again. Doublelift returned to TSM in the summer and the team won the summer championship to once again go to Worlds. For the second consecutive year though, Bjergsen, Doublelift and TSM couldn’t make it out of the group stage.

Read more: A legendary career: Faker's results at Worlds and MSI

2018

After a couple years as teammates, Doublelift joined Team Liquid where he would win four straight LCS championships. The first championship came in the spring 2018 playoffs which sent Team Liquid to MSI. In the summer, Doublelift won another championship. Team Liquid qualified for the world championship for the first time, while TSM and Bjergsen missed out on Worlds for the first time.

Photo credit: Riot Games

2019

For the second straight year, TL and Doublelift won the LCS spring championship -- against TSM and Bjergsen -- and went to MSI. This time, Team Liquid reached the playoffs of the international tournament where they pulled off one of the biggest upsets in League of Legends history in beating defending world champions Invictus Gaming. TL would lose the final, however, to G2 Esports. In the summer, Liquid were champions once again and Worlds bound, while TSM missed out on another international tournament.

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2020

Doublelift got benched in the spring, and neither Team Liquid nor TSM had a good spring season. In the summer, Doublelift rejoined TSM where he and Bjergsen led the team to the summer championship and another Worlds appearance. Like in previous world championship appearances, TSM didn’t make it out of groups, but this time was particularly bad as the team went 0-6.

Photo credit: Riot Games via ESPAT

2021

This year appeared to mark a transition in the history of the LCS as both Doublelift and Bjergsen retired. Doublelift turned to content creation and streaming, while Bjergsen became TSM’s coach. TSM ended the summer as the best team in the league, but the team would just miss out on going to Worlds.

2022

After nearly eight years with TSM, Bjergsen left the organization and came out of retirement to join Team Liquid as a player. They won the preseason Lock In tournament and were the top team in the spring but lost in the spring playoffs and missed out on MSI. In the summer the team also missed out on Worlds.

Read more: The top 10 esports orgs in the world in 2022

2023

Following the 2022 offseason, Doublelift came out of retirement and Bjergsen joined his second new org in two years as the two LCS legends reunited with 100 Thieves. It remains to be seen how the two will fare this upcoming season.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games