With the recent announcement of Doublelift’ s competitive hiatus, the League community seemed to do a double take as one of North America’ s most experienced and acclaimed veterans took a vacation leave to recharge and focus on his mental health and refreshing his competitive mindset.
This came as a surprise to many people, due to Doublelift showing arguably his best performances in his career, with CLG dominating both the 2015 Summer Split and Doublelift proving his worth for TSM, being one of the most threatening forces on the team during the convincing 2016 Summer Split. It’ s clear that Doublelift has had a relatively successful career, especially in the past year. But that’ s the key word, relatively.
From a fan’ s perspective, winning the regional title can be one of the biggest accomplishments a fan and player can hope for. But does a player like Doublelift feel the same? As stated in his Yahoo! eSports interviews and TSM: LEGENDS interviews, whether these are successes in the eyes of his organization, his fans or even his family, Doublelift isn’ t satisfied with just winning NA Championships. Doublelift wants it all; the World Championship title.
It’ s not uncharacteristic for a longtime professional in any field to feel discouraged or straight up take a hiatus after not reaching a career goal after years of hard work. Alternatively, some eSports pros retire after meeting their goals. This phenomenon isn’ t new to eSports either, with early retirements from icons such as CJ Entus’ Madlife, Starcraft legend Artosis and Counterstrike pioneer HeatoN. All of these players retired at different points in their career, facing community backlash, chagrin or even bittersweet support.
Under such a high-pressure, intense training environment, it’ s not unexpected for a player to retire after a few years of competitive play. What is unexpected is for players to take extended breaks from competitive play to“ recharge”, which Doublelift is currently doing, and what Super Smash Bros. Melee professional PPMD did. PPMD is one of the few cases in eSports where we have to reflect on whether mental health is being adequately addressed and recognized in the scene, where PPMD was unable to attend tournaments, practice and then eventually extended his hiatus to be indefinite as he felt his play plateaued and would never be what it once was. While
Doublelift isn’ t to our knowledge battling any mental health disorders, it’ s obvious his mental health as a competitive player and as a person was in dire need of rest after again not being able to attain his ultimate goal, even in the best of situations.
These hiatuses, or extended vacations are still rare, but give us an interesting insight on how dangerous burnout really can be for a player. An extended leave from such a high-pressure environment could do wonders for a player’ s wellbeing and career in the long run.
This begs the question, how will organisations deal with their players going on a month leave? From a MOBA perspective, what if Bjergsen wanted to take a split off to recuperate from a disappointing performance on the Worlds stage and streamed full-time, what would that mean for TSM? Although this all seems worrying, a lot of teams are already providing the solution to this problem with extended rosters. SKT developing Easyhoon and then Blank, Team Liquid’ s 10-man roster and Qiao Gu Reaper’ s 7-player team, these LoL teams, or any MOBA professional squad, can not only develop talent to diversify team compositions but avoid player burnout and allow players to take leaves if need without worry of finding a quick replacement. Bigger rosters have to become standard practice within the Western regions also, especially when more and more players are facing wrist issues as well.
Obviously, this means that teams need to spend even more on their rosters, and even without players on the bench being on a payroll, money is a huge factor for players taking breaks or even retiring: When players can make more money streaming, whilst also leading a more healthy lifestyle, why would they even become professional players in the first place? There needs to be a better system in place, that rewards professional play over fun streaming. Without a change in the way things work, the next Doublelift won’ t even make it to the big stage, because he’ ll just make more money while streaming comfortably from his home.
To say the least, as a community we should be more understanding and aware of mental health in the eSports scene and aim to be more accommodating as a fanbase, and make sure organizations follow in our footsteps. With a Best of 3 format being standard worldwide in competitive LoL, now’ s a better time than ever to sport larger rosters, invest in better player support infrastructure and insure that as regions we develop talent, and not fizzle it.