Only One Regret: Bilibili Gaming stumble at Champions 2023 Playoffs Stage after incredible international debut

Despite falling to domestic rivals EDward Gaming (EDG) in a fight for survival in the VCT Champions 2023 Lower Bracket Quarterfinals, Bilibili Gaming (BLG) will etch their names into Valorant history as the slayers of NA. In perhaps the most incredible debut for a team of near zero international notoriety, BLG managed to take down the kings of NA (NRG), not once, but twice.

The China 2nd seed powered their way through a troubling bracket that included Fnatic, NRG, and Zeta Division. All three of these rosters had made deep runs at previous international events, and their members had the experience to back it up. Bilibili Gaming had none of these, having qualified for Champions 2023 from the China Qualifier. They challenged Fnatic next, however, that proved too much for this young squad, as the heralded two-time champions quickly asserted their own place on the stage.

BLG’s second victory over NRG secured themselves a slot in the Playoffs. There, they faced off against a determined DRX, who sent them down to an elimination series against fellow China representative, EDG. There, they fell to their higher seeded rivals, falling out of Champions 2023 in 7th-8th place.

Sounding the Horns of Their Arrival

Despite being a powerhouse in their own right domestically, this was a team of rookies that managed to define their debut with strong performances out of the gate, taking down NRG in their first international series. In the aftermath of their elimination series against EDG, the members attended the post-match press conference, where they were asked on their reflections of their journey.

“To stand on the stage of Champions, this is the first time we get to play on the big, international stage.”

Liu “Knight” Yuxiang had this to say: ‘Definitely, we can feel for the whole team, we really had some improvements throughout this whole journey, and we’re quite happy to be here. To stand on the stage of Champions, this is the first time we get to play on the big, international stage. To be honest, we didn’t have much time to play outside, and for the in-game parts, for the individual strengths and abilities, we can definitely feel all of us have some individual improvements.’

Coach Wang “JeXeN” Linxiao echoed the sentiment, stating that: ‘It certainly feels like we have a very huge improvement, especially with so many rookies on my team. They had no offline tournament experience, and this was their first international tournament. Their first international journey, their first time playing in such a huge arena. We can also feel on the mental side, all my players had immense mental.’

Consuming each Other

It is never a pleasant experience in an international event, where domestic pride and representation carries so much weight, to have to face one of your own. And yet, this is precisely what Bilibili Gaming and EDward Gaming faced in the VCT Champions Lower Bracket Quarterfinals. Faced with the reality of only one of them surviving, after both lost to DRX and Evil Geniuses respectively.

“Definitely we left some regrets on-stage.”

When asked after the series on the unpredictable nature of domestic matchups at international events, Zhong “Biank” Jianfei spoke on how they actually had no expectations to ‘have a domestic game here.’ The reason for that, he said, was that they ‘played against EDG locally, and here in LA, we still play against each other.’ ‘Definitely we left some regrets on-stage, so hopefully, EDG, they can go further in this tournament,’ he said.

A powerful performance in Game 1 from EDG was not replicable as BLG stepped up in a big way for Games 2 and 3. When asked after the series, what were the main adjustments the team had made to put up stronger performances in the following games, coach “JeXeN” had this to say. ‘For Map 1, [EDG] was able to get so many points because they made very good use of the smokes, so [BLG] was not able to have a very good adaptation to the game tempo.’

“We just tried to perform normally and focus on our own performance.”

He said that, in terms of their biggest adjustments for the following games, ‘after that, we just tried to perform normally, and focus on our own performance. In-game on Map 3, it feels like we just missed some details, some details that we didn’t manage to do so well. So, that’s the reason why we didn’t manage to get the win.’

Just Here to Learn

For a team that has emphatically stated since the beginning of their run that they were there to learn from more experienced teams and gain that valuable international experience through facing other strong teams, they still made top 8. That is a frightening prospect for any team that looks to face them in the future. If raw potential was an attribute, BLG certainly demonstrated that in spades. They showed no fear to take fights to more experienced teams and make decisive decisions.

However, a team that BLG would have liked to face at Champions, and never got a chance to, was LOUD. IGL “Biank” spoke on how he would ‘really like to face against LOUD. I learned a lot from them, so I would pick LOUD.’

“Our only regret is that we can’t go any further through this tournament.”

Moreover, when asked on their most impressive moment in their opinion, Li “rin” Lewei mentioned their second victory over NRG as being that. ‘For the most impressive moment, we would like to choose maybe the moment we got the second victory against NRG.’ Lewei also spoke on his personal regrets, stating: ‘I feel like the regrets are for today and yesterday. In many of the clutches, I didn’t manage to have very good performances or have a good lineup.’ He was quickly corrected on that statement, by fellow teammate “Knight”, who firmly stated that: ‘No, we don’t think this is a regret. Our only regret is that we can’t go any further through this tournament.’

Bilibili Gaming exited Champions 2023 in 7th-8th place after falling to EDG 2-1 in the Lower Bracket Quarterfinals. Champions 2023 has now concluded, with Evil Geniuses crowned as the victors.

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Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games