After a smooth transition from in-person to remote games, competitive League of Legends has quickly moved into the offseason. One of the biggest roster moves this year is Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, a legendary North American player and former anchor of Team Liquid’s four consecutive NA titles, returning to TSM.

This move will undoubtedly spark discussions about Doublelift’s return, including his recent struggles and his relationship with TSM’s president. However, today, we focus on the corresponding move: Team Liquid betting on 19-year-old Edward “Tactical” Ra as his replacement.

This news was confirmed on CoreJJ’s stream, where he stated, “Yeah, he’s the new AD carry,” while duoing with Tactical. Although there was no official announcement at the time, it seemed like a likely outcome.

As a long-time Liquid fan, I had mixed reactions to this. Since the news broke that TL was shopping around Doublelift, I’ve discussed it with my brother and LCS-fan friends. Initially, I thought it was okay for TL to pursue offers for their players, but their recent success and significant investments have raised my expectations for the team.

During the “fourth place” meme era, TL was clearly outclassed by teams like TSM, Cloud9, and CLG. However, with recent investments and a willingness to spend, there’s no reason TL shouldn’t compete for domestic titles nearly every split.

Tactical is undoubtedly talented, having come up through the TSM and TL academies and performing well in place of Doublelift in three matches this past split. However, it gives me pause to hand the reins of one of the most important positions on what should be one of the top teams in North America to a mostly unproven teenager.

In his brief time on the Team Liquid roster, Tactical played two Miss Fortune games (a win against TSM and a loss against CLG) and one Kalista game (a win against 100 Thieves). His first two games were notable wins for a struggling TL team. After losing his third game, TL returned to Doublelift and went 1–4 to finish out the split, missing the playoffs for the first time since summer 2017.

Despite the small sample size, Tactical’s stats show promise. His 5.5 KDA ranked fourth among all players at the position, and his 561 damage per minute was second only to Bang. These numbers suggest Tactical could be the next in a trend of home-grown ADCs in North America, following in the footsteps of Cody Sun and Johnsun.

However, there’s an element of risk in starting a 19-year-old with limited top-flight pro experience. Even with positive examples like Cloud9’s young talent, there’s no getting around this risk. If TL wasn’t a team with championship expectations, I would be more willing to support this move. With such a disappointing spring, TL fans are hungry for a return to form in the summer, and maybe Tactical will deliver.

One other thing worthy of note: whenever I’ve discussed this with my brother and LCS-fan friends, a frequent question asked in response to my concerns is “Who would you sign, then?” I do not know, but I have enough faith in TL’s management to know they’d find someone who could reasonably challenge for the role.

As a TL fan, I’m willing to embrace Tactical as the undisputed starting ADC eventually. I’ll be paying attention to what the org and players are saying throughout the offseason, and it helps to know that CoreJJ has been duoing with him and they seem to get along. I’d still feel better about it if there was some meaningful competition for the job.