Back-to-back LPL champions and MSI runners-up, Bilibili Gaming come into the 2024 World Championship as one of the Eastern heavyweights tipped to make a title charge. Ahead of their opening series against Europe’s MAD Lions KOI in the Swiss Stage, we were able to speak to BLG’s mid laner Zhuo “Knight” Ding.
Esports.net: Last year you entered Worlds as a favorite. This yeah you similarly enter amongst the favorites, but on a completely different team.
What’s the difference in atmosphere heading into Worlds 2024 compared to 2023?
Knight: So for me, for BLG, this Worlds will be a good performance in my opinion because our training form, our communication – all of these things are in very good form.
Image credit: Riot Games
Lee Jones: After losing the MSI final to Gen.G, BLG’s performances LPL performances have gotten better while Gen.G failed to win LCK summer.
Do you think BLG are the favorites for Worlds now?
Knight: So regarding MSI, I’d just joined BLG for about half the year, so we didn’t have very good synergy at that time and it seemed like we were the weak side facing them.
But for now, we just won the Summer title and we are definitely not afraid of them.
It’s hard to say who will win Worlds, who is the favourite. But in my opinion, I think both of us are very good teams and the key point is how we adjust on form during the tournament.
Lee Jones: Despite the earlier scare, it’s now confirmed that Scout can attend Worlds with LNG, however at one stage, it looked like your friend and rival Yagao was going to substitute in for him.
What was your reaction to that whole situation, and are you disappointed not to see Yagao at Worlds after all?
Knight: For me, I do not know the whole page of this thing, so I don’t want to comment much. But for Yagao, I have very good relationship with him and I saw he was just very close to competing at Worlds. I was a little bit sorry for him not qualifying for Worlds, but I believe he will perform better if he can qualify.
Image credit: Riot Games
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Lee Jones: You’re drawn against MAD Lions KOI first…
Have you been watching them in Play-Ins? What do you think about them?
Knight: Yes, I watched the Play-Ins matches of MDK. MDK is a team that really likes to do lane-swapping, and they are in very good form when their AD picks Jinx and the mid laner picks Syndra.
What are your thoughts on the LEC mid laners at Worlds; Caps, Humanoid and Fresskowy?
So for me, Caps is definitely the European mid laner that impressed me a lot.
For the MDK mid laner, this is the first time I’ll face him so it’s hard to evaluate him before I’ve played against him.
Lee Jones: Before the tournament, many were theorizing about how the Worlds patch could be good for some teams and bad for others.
How do you think it suits BLG?
So I think the patch changes for BLG has pros and cons. For me, some of the champs I’m very good at it are nerfed, some of them are buffed. For BLG, not too many changes.
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