On May 4th, Bilibili Gaming (BLG) secured the first ticket to advance past the Play-In stage of MSI 2023. This achievement came from BLG defeating Golden Guardians (GG) with a score of 2-1 in the Winners’ Finals of Group A.
However, for the LPL audience, they were still not satisfied with BLG’s performance. The reason stems from the fact that this team did not showcase the dominance expected of an LPL representative against an opponent from the LCS. In fact, they suffered a bitter defeat in Game 2 when they were overwhelmed by GG’s K’Sante and Yasuo.
“Although they won and advanced past the Play-In stage, I think BLG shouldn’t celebrate too much after that match. They had many advantages in Game 2 but kept failing in crucial team fights. BLG seemed to have no countermeasures when the opponent played unfamiliar strategies. The only bright spot for BLG in this match was Bin’s choice to play a tanky champion,” shared an LPL viewer.
Indeed, the LPL representative seemed not to have researched their opponent and allowed GG too much comfort in picking champions that countered them. Notably, in the second match, Bin with Gnar was completely outclassed by Licorice in the Top Lane. As a result, BLG found it impossible to counter GG in the mid-game when the opponent had an overwhelmingly strong K’Sante.
Fortunately, BLG made timely adjustments by allowing Bin to use a tank champion in Game 3. This effectively restrained GG’s Licorice and helped the LPL representative secure a decisive victory. This is undoubtedly a very valuable lesson for this team before moving on to the next round. Perhaps, Bin should play tank champions more often to help BLG execute their strategies more effectively.
