On December 15, during the LPL's winter transfer period, League of Legends esports pro Jane (ID: Uzi), who has been retired for a year and a half, announced her comeback and joined the BRG Ping An Bank team. Even though many people already know on the Internet that Uzi will comeback through "gossip", when the official announcement message was sent, it still detonated the network in an instant, occupying three Weibo hot searches, and domestic and foreign e-sports fans were hotly discussed: "Shunjing Jane proud, adversity crazy puppy, desperate Uzi, Uzi yyds!" ”
Born on March 29, 1997 in Yichang, Hubei Province, Jane is an AD (core output) player who reached the League of Legends Global Finals (S3) with the RNG team in 2013, and lost to the Korean SKT team in the championship and runner-up finals, creating the best result of the Chinese League of Legends team at that time.
In 2018, Uzi's team won the MSI Mid-Season World Championship honor - debuted at the age of 16 and won the world championship at the age of 21, which made him one of the most famous League of Legends professional players in China and even the world.
At the Jakarta Asian Games in the same year, Uzi represented China's e-sports team, defeating the Korean team in the final with her teammates and winning the precious Jakarta Asian Games League of Legends gold medal.
It can be said that Uzi accompanied Chinese e-sports out of the wilderness and into the prosperous world, and he was also the first e-sports player to go out of the circle.
After 560 days, the god who went down the road returned
On June 3, 2020, Uzi announced his retirement on personal social media. Uzi said at the time that his physical condition did not allow him to continue playing.
Years of training competitions have left Uzi's body tormented — his fingers, back, shoulders have fallen ill, and his arms are like a soldering iron." ”
"Because of perennial stress, obesity, irregular diet, staying up late and other reasons, I found type 2 diabetes during the physical examination last year, and the glycosylated hemoglobin index has reached 11%, which should be less than or equal to 6.5% normally." Uzi wrote at the time.
After retiring, Uzi's previous club RNG released a documentary called "Hero Restart", in which Uzi is making various efforts for rehabilitation, and the brand has also developed a comprehensive rehabilitation training plan for him, with professional training instructor Sun Peng as Uzi's coach. "I haven't left this arena yet." "From the moment I retired, I was already preparing for the effort." In this year and a half, although Uzi has never played a regular game, his competitive heart has never left the League of Legends arena.
"I was in relatively good physical condition during this time." A year and a half later, Uzi today gave her latest update in a comeback interview. "Being on my own workouts makes me feel more empowered every day. Exercising for a long time has helped me a lot in adjusting my body. "He also revealed that he has a new hobby, which is playing football." Now it's a hobby of mine, it's very interesting, and I can let myself run in a very relaxed state. ”
As for when he will return to the field for his first game after his comeback, Uzi also expressed his desire. "In fact, I am very much looking forward to the first game, but it is still based on my own training status and the arrangement with the coaching staff. I'm sure I'll catch my first race as soon as possible. ”
"When will I be able to go back?" "Can I still fight?" I don't know how many times I asked myself this question, but Uzi finally overcame the physical pain and returned to the field. Day after day, those seemingly inconspicuous one day will eventually make people see the meaning of persistence.
BLG. Uzi, looking forward to your grand appearance.
Bilibili's esports landscape
Uzi's status in League of Legends is not only reflected in the competitive level, but also in the commercial value. The increase in popularity and influence has allowed many traditional brands to focus on the "world's first ADC" for business expansion.
In October 2018, the well-known sports brand NIKE announced Uzi, James and Bai Jingting as brand spokespersons at its "More Than Just Athletes" campaign, and Uzi became the first esports player signed by NIKE worldwide. In recent years, Uzi has endorsed brands such as Harbin Beer and Roger Du Pi, and its popularity has gradually entered many business fields from the e-sports market. It can be seen that Uzi has huge commercial resources and fan traffic.
Of course, BLG introduced Uzi and wanted more than that.
In the period when Bilibili E-sports had not yet been established, aware of the advantages of user groups and community circles, Station B had begun to set its sights on the e-sports industry. In 2017, Station B, which was not yet listed at that time, acquired the IM team and established the BLG e-sports club as a team. Just a few months after its establishment, the BLG League of Legends division represented Station B in the LPL.
In October 2018, Shanghai Bilibili E-sports Information Technology Co., Ltd. was established, the company's legal representative is Chen Rui, chairman and CEO of Station B, and serves as the chairman of Bilibili E-sports, and Chen Youyou was appointed as the president of Bilibili E-sports.
After the establishment of Bilibili E-sports, it can penetrate into the e-sports industry chain with a more focused attitude. Since then, Bilibili e-sports has gradually developed four major businesses: club, event operation and broadcasting, artist agency and home operation.
In terms of club operation, Bilibili Esports has the League of Legends club brand "BLG" and the Overwatch Club brand "Hangzhou Lightning Team", as well as two top esports events. In terms of event production and operation, Bilibili E-sports has a professional event operation and broadcasting team, as well as a self-operated studio, with output content such as overwatch league Chinese localization, the league of legends exclusively opened by station B " high-energy viewing team "high-energy viewing team", league of legends e-sports carnival, etc.; in terms of artist agency, a number of well-known e-sports commentators, anchors and hosts have been signed around league of legends and overwatch.
Winning the copyright of the top event is a watershed for the layout of the e-sports map of Station B. In August 2020, the cooperation between Station B and Fist Games was officially announced, and the exclusive live broadcast rights of the League of Legends (LOL) Chinese mainland 2020-2022 for three consecutive years of global events were won.
Taking the LOL live broadcast rights has made the industry aware of more possibilities in the E-sports market of Station B. Today, BLG not only won the Uzi to return to the field, but also introduced the S9 champion auxiliary Crisp, forming a luxurious star lineup with other players, obviously the purpose is not just for the traffic so simple, training results are the first element of BLG's consideration. If this "Galaxy Battleship" can make BLG achieve good results in S12, the industry influence of Bilibili E-sports will be further enhanced, and at that time, both for Uzi personally and for Bilibili E-sports, it will be a win-win situation.
Source: Daily Economic News, Beijing News, Upstream News, Surging News