VALORANT: Invictus Gaming returns with BLG Academy core

Invictus Gaming officially announced its return to VALORANT on Monday, November 3, 2025, through a post on Weibo. The Chinese organization, best known for its 2018 League of Legends World Championship title, had already explored Riot Games’ FPS between late 2021 and the end of 2023. However, that first stint yielded little success — according to VLR, only 24 matches were played during that time, with a modest total of five victories.

For this new chapter, IG is opting for a different approach by signing an already established roster: five players from Bilibili Gaming’s academy team. This lineup is partially built around a familiar core that previously competed together under Temperature X, a mix formed for the Chinese National Championship — VALORANT’s equivalent of the Challengers circuit in other regions. During that event, the roster notably faced Rare Atom, who would go on to lose the Ascension final and narrowly miss a spot in VCT China. It is at this level of competition that Invictus Gaming is expected to begin its 2026 season, with clear ambitions of securing promotion to the top tier by 2027.

The squad will be coached by DK, a former teammate from the Temperature X days, joined by “superbigguo”, the most recent addition to BLG Academy. Under Bilibili’s banner, the players only took part in one notable match — a stand-in appearance during the China Evolution Series Act 3, while the BLG main team rested ahead of Champions Paris 2025. Facing Wolves Esports’ full lineup, BLG Academy came surprisingly close to an upset, pushing Pong "SiuFatBB" Ka-hei and his teammates to a tight best-of-three before ultimately falling short.