BLG usher in the League of Legends return of Uzi

Bilibili Gaming have tried, again and again, to create a competitive team in the LPL. Is this finally the roster to bring success to the organization? In 2019 they brought over Lee “Kuro” Seo-haeng, fresh from a World Championship run with the Afreeca Freecs, and paired him with rookie jungler Zeng “Meteor” Guo-Hao.

Despite this, the highest they placed was a fourth place finish in the summer playoffs, which at the time was not enough for them to net a regional qualifier spot. 2020 saw them take in Chu “FoFo” Chun-Lan, previously from LMS organization J-Team. However, FoFo and Meteor as a pair did not function as well as the previous iteration of the mid-jungle duo.

Missing out on success

2021 was not successful as well– they brought in Kim “Aiming” Ha-ram into the team, with Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo, but they only managed to secure an 11th place finish. The spring was not at all noteworthy, and in the summer they brought in Yu “Biubiu” Le-xin, Wei “Weiwei” Bo-Han, and Guo “ppgod” Peng all from V5. With these improvements to the team they reached 6th in the regular season, but ended up in 7th/8th place due to a surging Team WE.

For the 2021 season, though, it seems like the organization is determined to get it right this time. Weiwei stayed with the squad, while everything else changed. They brought in superstar top laner Chen “Breathe” Chen from Team WE, who was deemed the most consistent top laner in the LPL last year. For the mid lane, FoFo returns from his brief stint with Rare Atom.

The new roster

As the team’s support, the team hired former world champion Liu “Crisp” Qing-Song who was recently let go from FunPlus Phoenix. The team also had two bottom lane signings– Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan from Beyond Gaming, and Jian “Uzi” Zi-hao. Yes, you heard that right, Uzi, regarded by many as the best bottom laner to ever play the game, is back in professional play after two years.

 

While it is understandable that there are some doubts around Uzi’s performance, he has still been performing well in solo queue as seen in his streams, and is still mechanically proficient. It is only a matter of whether he would gel well with this roster in particular. Due to his injuries and some illnesses, he may still opt to take most of the split off, hence the Doggo signing. But Doggo is no slouch either.

He is known as the best bottom laner in the PCS, and everyone saw how he performed in the Mid-Season Invitational when he was loaned to PSG Talon. With Crisp as the support, both bottom laners can expect a smooth laning phase. Which bottom laner BLG fields does not actually matter all that much: they are expected to dominate with both Doggo and Uzi.

Breathe and FoFo are some of the strongest and most stable solo laners in the LPL as of last year, and it was such a shame that they were not able to make it to Worlds. As Weiwei was a jungler that often liked to visit the top side, and Breathe is an excellent carry, they will surely work well. FoFo is often self-sufficient, but when given a lead he is often lethal. This can be expected to be a good starting point, as a strong mid-jungle duo opens up great possibilities for any team.

This team could possibly take a while to get going, but when they do, the expectation surely will be to be a major title contender in the LPL, and in the world as well. After all, bringing back one of the best to ever play the game, after he has gotten some rest and treatment, puts everyone’s eyes on this team. Will BLG be where Uzi finally wins his long-overdue world championship? Only time will tell.