After tons of speculation in the League of Legends community, it’s finally official that bot laner Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao will return to professional play in 2022.
The legendary bot laner will be playing for Bilibili Gaming in the upcoming LPL season, which will be his first return to the professional stage after shockingly retiring back in 2020 due to health issues.
Uzi will be the biggest name joining Bilibili Gaming for this season and will play alongside other prominent players who were announced at the same time as him. These players include former Team WE top laner Chen “Breathe” Chen, mid laner Chu “FoFo” Chun-Lan, former FPX and world champion support Liu “Crisp” Qing-Song, and lastly jungler Wei “Weiwei” Bo-Han who has extended his contract with the team.
Who is on Bilibili Gaming roster for 2022?
Bilibili Gaming has also signed the young bot laner Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan who recently played for Beyond Gaming in the PCS, which participated in the 2021 World Championship. Doggo was also participating at the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational, where he was on loan at PSG Talon.
The young bot laner has proven himself as a big talent and will now be playing on the same team as possibly the best of all time. Playing alongside Uzi could develop Doggo into a world-class bot laner and potentially step in for Uzi if necessary.
For Uzi, this upcoming split will act as his first professional game since the 2019 World Championship which was followed by his retirement. Since then, Uzi has been streaming avidly and even launched his own esports organization which is operating in the Wild Rift esports scene.
Uzi himself seemingly couldn’t withstand the urge to get back on the big stage to play himself, which will be interesting to follow after being away from the scene for that long. With practice from solo queue and streaming, only time will tell if Uzi can return to his old form and dominance in the LPL.
Uzi has won several LPL trophies and the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational but is yet to win a Worlds title. He will be back when the 2022 LPL Spring Split kicks off in January to chase that trophy.
