UPDATE: Former TSM player Doublelift opens up on Peter Zhang’s case

Former TSM player and streamer Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng has opened up on the firing of former TSM head coach Zhang “Peter Zhang” Yi who was freed of all duties on March 19 by the organization due to “financial irregularities”, with the allegations charged against him being having an agent-like agreement with Chinese and Taiwanese players that he helped sign the organization with.

Doublelift said Zhang had “asked me to loan him $70,000”, adding that, “he said his grandma had cancer, and she’s dying in the hospital”.

“He needs to pay the hospital bill, which is $70,000, and he doesn’t have the money yet, but he will have the money at the end of the month and then he’ll pay me back,” Doublelift said.

Doublelift added that Peter Zhang did not only try to borrow a huge amount of money from him but also “literally asked everyone for money”.

“The story was different every single time,” Doublelift continued. “So he told me he needed 70K, he told someone else he needed 200K, he told someone else he only needed 10K.

“For me, he told me his grandma needed an operation, for someone else he told them his grandma needed stem cell therapy […] for somebody else he told ’em medicine.”

Returning to China

Earlier on March 19, the day he was fired, Zhang opened up on his firing from TSM via Discord. He said he was not fired for in-game factors such as match-fixing, which he also had allegedly done. He thanked TSM and the players he worked with. He said he would go back to China while waiting for the results of the investigation. He then left the TSM Discord.

“I won’t do any post and comment about this news,” Zhang started. “This has nothing to be fone with in-game,match-fixing. It’s a very tough lesson that i had to learn. I would like to thank TSM for having me for the past 3 years and I really appreciate them. My last call is with [vice president] Walter [Wang] and he’s nothing but helpful and kind to me.

“I appreciated everyone who worked with me in this org, and hope everyone can move forward with it and keep supporting TSM. My personal plan is back to China and take care of my family while waiting on TSM investigation. Again, I didn’t want to post on Twitter to drag more attention so I’m gonna post here. -since I know you guys care more. And after this, I’m gonna quit this discord.

“Thanks for support and have me #TSMWIN”

Denying allegations

It was also reported earlier that Zhang owed money to several players and former players of TSM. He denied all allegations, adding that he owed money only to former TSM support Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh, who played for the team in 2021 before joining Weibo Gaming prior to this season.

According to Zhang, after SwordArt returned to China to play for Weibo Gaming, he had sold an $80,000 car SwordArt purchased for use during his time in the US. Upon sale, however, he kept the money and refused to give it to SwordArt as he had to pay for his grandmother’s surgery.

“I recognize that keeping the money [from the sold car] was wrong,” Zhang said. “But I was working towards paying that debt and paid half before I was fired. My grandmother’s bill was due at the end of this month and so I wasn’t able to pay both debts.”