After stomping TSW, G2 faced their first real test at First Stand 2026 against BLG, one of the tournament favorites and arguably the most complete roster in the field outside of Gen.G. It was always going to be a tough ask — and it showed. Bilibili Gaming needed nothing more than three games to qualify for the next stage.
Ran through BrokenBlade in games one and two — without him, both of those games could have been far messier for BLG as he completely took over the map with his lead. Game three was slightly more understated, with a bit of happy gaming in the mid game and a lower profile overall, but his team was so far ahead it simply didn't matter. MVP of the series.
Excellent reads and tremendous map rhythm throughout, very much in his usual style. A few overplays in the mid game take the edge off slightly, but he was a major reason BLG were able to snowball their leads so efficiently. His proactivity set the tempo of the series.
Very clean across all three games, responding well to Caps' occasional flashes of inspiration and keeping him in check throughout. Always ahead in lane. Capped it all off with a massive Akali performance to close out the series. Two or three overplays here and there, but never enough to cast any doubt over his match.
Right at home since joining BLG, visibly relieved of the immense pressure he carried at HLE. Without forcing anything, he leads damage in games one and three and closes out the series with clean, controlled performances rather than spectacular ones. Game three in particular, he and ON obliterated the laning phase, reading their windows of aggression perfectly.
Monstrous throughout. Extremely proactive on the map, consistently making Caps' life difficult in the mid lane with relentless roaming. A few overly deep ward attempts on Shen and Alistar in the early game are the only real criticisms — moments that are very on-brand for him — but he was rarely punished severely enough for it to matter. As if two dominant games weren't enough, he topped it off with a massive performance on... Lulu.
A decent first game on Poppy especially in midgame — two solo kills conceded aside. Things went downhill from there: completely shut down and rendered useless on Sion in game two, and while game three was ironically his best lane of the series — in yet another negative matchup — his entire team had already imploded within the first five minutes.
There wasn't much more he could have done across the series. One notable criticism is a general lack of his trademark early aggression, particularly in games one and two where his bot side was in a relatively comfortable spot. He did his best to limit the damage in game three, but could only watch as his team was dismantled around him.
Game one on Annie was rough, going 0/2/0 at 15min. Game two on Aurora, however, was awful, mechanically very poor — then solo killed in game three on Ahri before the five-minute mark, sending Knight into orbit in the process. To his credit, Caps was the main instigator of G2's mid-game fightback in game three, but the wake-up call arrived FAR too late. A severe rating, given the key role he has played in G2’s successes this year, and the higher expectations placed on him than the rest of his team.
Somewhat surprisingly, the bot lane held up reasonably well through the first two games — Hans was actually one of the few G2 players in the lead for a stretch, particularly on Varus. However, too many mechanical errors crept in and undermined his performance. Game three was a different story entirely, getting completely dismantled in lane by Viper. Pretty sure a Caitlyn lane is not supposed to go like that.
Fairly anonymous compared to his opposite number, who was far more decisive throughout. That said, going into game three, Labrov had been clean by his own standards — no glaring int moments of the kind he's shown before. His Nautilus game was handled reasonably well despite the difficult setup. However, he bears significant responsibility for the collapse in game 3.
The mechanical gap was always going to be a concern given G2's recent performances, and it showed. While G2 used to rely on their early game since the start of the year, they never even had a gold lead at 15 min in all three games. Caps, arguably the Samurai's most stable piece since the start of the year, had his first match to forget against China's best. Bin in particular was a cut above. Individually, BLG were simply better across the board and become the first team to advance to the semi-finals as Group A's top seed. They remain the one team that looks capable of standing between Gen.G and the title.
