Bilibili Gaming Preview – Worlds 2023

Bilibili Gaming Preview gives a deeper look into a team that came a long way in a short time, looking to make a splash during their first Worlds.

The Main Event of the 2023 League of Legends World Championship is here! The 16 teams qualified are getting ready to play their hearts out in the first round of the Swiss Stage shortly in order to decide who can proceed to the Knockout Stage. Among them is a team that was talked about in the past years and even more frequently after this year’s MSI, but don’t have any Worlds experience as an organization.

Bilibili Gaming Preview

Bilibili Gaming Team History

BLG joined the LPL 5 years ago in 2018 after acquiring I May and their spot. They were not a top team at the start of their career, finishing the LPL in the top 6 in both the 2018 Spring and Summer splits. In 2019, they managed to get the 4^th place in the Summer Playoffs, but couldn’t best Top Esports and missed out on Worlds.

In the coming years, Bilibili Gaming struggled to make it into to the top 10 of the LPL in some seasons, and even during their better periods, they only made it as far as the bottom of the playoffs. They even signed legendary ADC Uzi for a season, but the former Mid-Season Invitational champion couldn’t help them rise.

After the 2022 MSI, they managed to acquire toplaner Bin from RNG, and while not immediately, they started their road to redemption. Their 2022 Summer Split ended with a 10^th place finish, but Demacia Cup 2022 was a huge success and a great debut of their current roster.

After the victory at the year-ending event, they returned to the LPL with a vendetta, making it to the Spring Finals where they played against JD Gaming. While they lost 1-3, they qualified for the MSI, their first international event, and made it to the finals, only to lose to JDG again. They won the Summer Regular Season, then came in 3^rd at the Playoffs, but due to Championship Points, they got the 2^nd seed of the Chinese region.

Bilibili Gaming Roster

• Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin
• Peng “Xun” Li-Xun
• Zeng “Yagao” Qi
• Zhao “ELK” Jia-Hao
• Luo “ON” Wen-Jun

Bilibili Gaming Playstyle

Bilibili Gaming has been the best early game team in the LPL, playing around the first Herald and taking heaps of Turret platings in order to get leads during the laning phase. They are also a stereotypical LPL squad that look for fights to generate leads outside of macro plays to close out games before their opponents can strike back. They rely on ELK and Bin to carry the team while Yagao is a more supportive midlaner. While the team didn’t play in an international event before Bin won the 2022 MSI with Royal Never Give Up and made it to the Worlds Finals with Suning in 2020, while Yagao played with JDG in the 2022 Worlds semifinal and made it to the quarters in 2020.

Bilibili Gaming is incredibly aggressive in the early game, and they are also very successful, spending very little time in a gold deficit. They focus down Heralds, getting the first one in almost 65% of their games, which they transform into a first turret in almost 70% of their matches. While they get lots of kills, they are not as clean as JD Gaming for example, as they die a lot. Their deaths are not holding them back, however, as they still manage to come out on top after the early game. Every player on the team gets their fair share except Yagao, who often gives up gold in favour of his teammates. ON is also an unusual support, as he spends very little time around botlane, roaming the map with Kanavi or by his own.

They don’t let their matches go into the lategame if they can, but if they are on the backfoot, they can hold out and turn games around. They also slow down in the later stages as they tend to not die as much, picking their fights more carefully. They also switch from teamfighting to catches and lategame skirmishes, trying to slowly inch away at their opponent’s leads.

They have a very capable botlane. ELK is their main carry as he deals a lot of damage and gets a high number of kills. However, he doesn’t get most of the resources on his team, but uses those resources as well. ON is a true roaming support, having a high GD@14 and an almost 3 K+A by the end of the early game.

There’s also Bin, who is one of the most experienced players on the roster and a true LPL toplaner, capable of whipping out picks such as Fiora any time the team requires a damage dealer instead of a tank.

While the roster of Bilibili Gaming doesn’t have a ton of experience together, they could surprise the teams at Worlds – and upset the whole competition. They just have to beat KT Rolster in their first match to get a good start!