Zhao "Shad0w" Zhi-Qiang joins Bilibili Gaming in the LPL as a free agent and will be part of a six-man roster, sharing the jungle role with Yang "Beichuan" Ling, who joined earlier last split. Shad0w arrives after parting ways with FunPlus Phoenix, where he had a fairly strong Split 2. Rumors of internal conflicts within the roster and with the coaching staff reportedly led to the team’s collapse.

This marks the third jungler BLG has used this year, following Yan "Wei" Yang-Wei, who played during Winter Split and part of Spring before being benched—he has since joined Invictus Gaming. Shad0w is a Chinese-Italian jungler who began his career in Europe through the Italian circuit before moving to MOUZ NXT in Germany, where he stood out with a semifinal appearance at the 2019 EU Masters Summer Main Event.

A career between Europe and China

He then joined MAD Lions in the LEC in 2020, playing his first and only international event: Worlds. Afterward, he transitioned to the LPL with LGD Gaming, though that year didn’t go particularly well. He later signed with Ninjas in Pyjamas and reached playoffs for the first time in Summer 2023. In 2024, Shad0w was inactive competitively and only returned in 2025 with FunPlus Phoenix.

While Spring was underwhelming, Summer showed much more promise—he formed a strong duo with support Sun "Jwei" Jun-Wei, helping carry the team to playoffs and securing a 7th–8th place finish. His solid performances caught the attention of BLG, a team consistently competing at the top level both domestically and internationally, as recently seen at MSI and the Esports World Cup, despite some recent struggles.

Shad0w will be starting over Beichuan for the team's series against Anyone's Legend, their first match of the LPL split. His performance there against the reigning LPL champions will give BLG fans a good idea of how the team will look going forward.