Bilibili Gaming have signed Flandre as a permanent top-lane option after weeks of uncertainty around Bin’s LPL roster status.
After weeks of speculation and rumours, Bilibili Gaming announced the signing of top laner Li “Flandre” Xuan-jun as a permanent replacement for Chen “Bin” Ze-bin.
The League of Legends Pro League champions have had quite a turbulent start to the split, announcing the benching of their star top laner, Bin, ahead of the first match of LPL Split 3.
The decision to bench Bin came after the 2026 Esports World Cup, when the top laner, following an alleged dispute between the players, posted on social media that he would be stepping away from the active roster.
In his place, Bilibili Gaming brought in academy top laner Yang “Wenbo” Wen-bo, who was initially supposed to fill in for Bin until the internal dispute was resolved.
At that time, Anyone’s Legend informed their top laner, Flandre, that his contract would be terminated and that he would be replaced by Chen “Breathe” Chen from Invictus Gaming.
This put the wheels in motion for one of the biggest roster changes of the season, with Bilibili Gaming starting talks with Flandre as well as Ninjas in Pyjamas’ Yoon “HOYA” Yong-ho as potential permanent replacements for Bin.
The initial transfer talks stalled due to visa issues, making Bin’s return to BLG a real possibility.
However, ultimately, Bilibili Gaming decided to continue pursuing Flandre, whose contract termination with AL was finalised on July 28 following the league’s approval.
Now, just under two weeks later, Flandre has officially signed for Bilibili Gaming, thus ending the saga of Bin’s potential return to the Chinese LoL roster as the sole starting top laner.
Flandre’s arrival, however, opens the door to the possibility of Bilibili Gaming fielding a six- or seven-man roster that would include two world-class top laners.
Flandre is expected to debut for Bilibili Gaming at the start of LPL 2026 Split 3 Week 4, when BLG clash with JD Gaming.
The defending champions will enter the fourth week of play with a 7-1 record, having dropped just one game, against Top Esports on August 7.
With seven wins, BLG remain seated atop Group Ascend, one victory above Top Esports and Flandre’s former team, Anyone’s Legend, who already debuted top laner Breathe in their 2-0 sweep of LGD Gaming on Saturday.
Mark Prezelj
Esports Betting Analyst
Mark Prezelj is a Slovenian esports betting analyst with over 3,500 articles at EsportBet and the founder of Lines64.com — someone who has been reading odds longer than most readers have been watching esports.
