Riot has announced the details for the Chinese Kickoff event shortly after revealing the dates and formats of the other three regional leagues. The event will run from February 22 to March 2 at the newly-built VCT CN venue as two teams look to snatch away spots at Masters: Madrid.
Format
Like all other regional leagues, three stages of play will thin out the competition. The group stage will see three teams advance straight to playoffs, while three more will qualify for the play-ins stage. One team will emerge victorious and join the other three at playoffs, where – like the group and play-ins stages – a Bo3 format will run all the way up to the grand final, which will be a Bo5.
The winner of the event will not only claim China's first seed at 2024's first Masters event, but will also be rewarded with three Championship points to assist their journey towards Champions.
Groups
In the information video put out by Riot, China's Kickoff will utilize points from the China Evolution Series to seed teams into three groups accordingly. The core of Rare Atom Rare Atom China Rank #32 UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Guran Zhou Minyan (周铭言) Banger An Hyung-gi (안형기) Yueluo Yi Zhiwei (尹志炜) sn0wFlake Pang Xuyang (庞煦洋) , now in JD Gaming JD Gaming China Rank #7 YHchen Chen Yuhan (陳昱瀚) stew Park Young-chan (박영찬) Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) jkuro Yong Haochong (杨浩聪) YiHao Chen Yihao (陈一豪) MarT1n Zhuo Zhengjie (卓政杰) , will inherit their previous organization's points.
To no surprise, EDward Gaming sit atop the regional standings. (Image: Riot Games)
The finalized groups can be seen below:
Group A:
- Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #3 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhan Peng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) cxyy Cui Xinyu (崔新宇) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) YOU Yip Man Ho heybay Ho Shun Hei
- TYLOO TYLOO China Rank #13 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) slowly Kelun Sun (孙克伦) Ninebody Ding Yi (丁毅) ICEKING Cheng Wanpeng (程万鹏) AAK Shi Yekai (施叶凯) hfmi0dzjc9z7 Zhang Juncheng (张峻程) Eren Yang Zhengwei (杨曾威)
- FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix China Rank #2 Autumn Kale Dunne Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) AAAAY Zhang Yang (张杨) BerLIN Zhang Bolin (張柏霖) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) ZiXuan Liu Junwei (刘俊伟)
- Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #19 PangH Song Wenhao (宋文浩) o0o0o Ye Xiaodong (叶晓东) OBONE Chen Yijie (陈怡洁) SWERL Ali Kobraee CB Wang Qingchuan (王庆川) GuanG Guang Honglin (光洪霖)
Group B:
- JD Gaming JD Gaming China Rank #7 YHchen Chen Yuhan (陳昱瀚) stew Park Young-chan (박영찬) Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) jkuro Yong Haochong (杨浩聪) YiHao Chen Yihao (陈一豪) MarT1n Zhuo Zhengjie (卓政杰)
- Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Rank #6 AC Wei Jiacong (韦家聪) LockM Xing Fuling (邢福凌) QiuYe Li Runtao (李润涛) shameless Wu Hongjie (吴洪杰) Abo Han Bohao (韩博皓) kawaii Piao Min (朴民) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민)
- Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #4 nizhaoTZH Tang Zehao (唐哲昊) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Shion7 Zhang Haozhe (张昊泽) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) TvirusLuke Chen Cheng-ching
- All Gamers All Gamers China Rank #8 bunt Jiang He (姜河) monk Wang Haoyu (王浩宇) deLb Delbert Tanoto Spitfires Xin Mingyan (辛明阳) sword9 Li Wei (李卫)
Group C:
- EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) Muggle Tang Shijun (唐时俊) CHICHOO Wan Shunji (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东)
- Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #5 B3ar Yang Zhanxiong (杨瞻雄) whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) Yosemite Wang Lei (王磊) Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞)
- Wolves Esports Wolves Esports China Rank #9 Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) Spring Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆) aluba Zhong Haojun (钟皓钧) coldfish Pengzhi Xiang (向鹏志) pl1xx Christopher Li
Schedule
The group stage of Kickoff will take place from February 22 to 26, with the play-ins continuing on February 27. After a short break, the competition will continue on March 1 as the playoffs begin, and the top-performing team of the Chinese League will be crowned the day after, March 2.
Riot have yet to release a schedule for the upcoming matches.
Coverage
VLR.gg will be covering all of the VCT Leagues in our event hub. Additional information (streams, pick'ems, etc.) will be updated upon release.