After two years of retirement, we finally got to see Jian “Uzi” Zi-hao back on the Rift! In games 2 and 3 of his team Bilibili Gaming's series against Invictus Gaming, Uzi returned to show them who's boss.
895 days have passed since Uzi's last professional game, but he still showed impeccable prowess when he played the two games. His mechanical skill showed no signs of fading, and his aggression was rewarded most of the time.
Let's check out both of Uzi's games.
BLG vs IG – Game 2
At this point, Bilibili Gaming were already down one game in the series, as Invictus Gaming took the W last game. After the loss, BLG decided to field Uzi in exchange for their starter bot laner Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan. Of course, this quickly generated hype.
Uzi's first kill since his return was a very LPL kill. A fight broke out in bot lane, involving both members of BLG's bot lane and their jungler, while IG had their mid laner, jungler, and support. Uzi started the fight fairly chunked out, and with almost 0 mana. During the play, members of the Invictus Gaming squad looked separated, and didn't seem to know who to focus in the fight. The superstar AD carry on Jinx quickly makes the most out of this confusion, and gets away with a kill.
The revelry didn't last long for BLG fans however, as Invictus Gaming applied even more pressure on Bilibili Gaming as the game progressed. The constant fights and chaos almost always went in IG's favor, resulting in them breaking open the BLG base. In what many thought was IG's victory push, Uzi stood his ground.
In defending his team's base, Uzi successfully repelled the victory march from IG and grabbed a triple kill in the process. Due to the long respawn timers on IG's side, Uzi and the rest of the BLG squad turn the tables and swiftly conclude the game to even out the series. This game ended with a total of 62 kills, the bloodiest game of LPL Spring 2022 Season so far. Uzi finished the game with an 11/4/7 KDA.
BLG vs IG – Game 3
BLG once again locks Jinx for their superstar bot laner. This game was more calculated than Game 2, and had less kills and fights overall. On IG's side, their mid laner Zhang “Yuekai” Yue-Kai on Akali slowly but surely took over the game.
IG now has their sights set on Uzi, and focused him in fights. Being on an immobile champion like Jinx, even his support on Thresh could not use Dark Passage to lantern him away from safety. IG plays spoiler on Uzi's return and take the win off of Yuekai's strong performance.
Yuekai was MVP for this game, finishing 6/1/11. Uzi's Jinx was 5/3/5 by the end of the game, which is still pretty impressive given that he was the recipient of much of IG's crowd control. Nevertheless, Uzi now sits at a 1-1 win-loss ratio since his return from retirement.
What's Next for Uzi?
Bilibili Gaming's next match is against Anyone's Legend, on February 19. It is currently unknown whether Uzi will play in this match, or if BLG will return to Doggo. All LPL matches are streamed on the official LPL Twitch channel and YouTube channel. VODs can be found on these channels as well. Full schedule for the LPL can be found on lolesports.com.