The second day of the VCT China Kickoff gave way to the first wins of the 2025 season for Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #9 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) Verse Zhou Zijun (周子钧) SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) and Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #1 qiutiaN Bijan Moeinzadeh (慕英毕强) cb Wang Qingchuan (王庆川) Ezeir Zhao Zejun (赵泽骏) GuanG Guang Honglin (光洪霖) swagzor Mikhail Vaniushin , who have moved on to the quarterfinals of the tournament.

JDG Esports vs. Dragon Ranger Gaming

Both teams came into 2025 after undergoing thorough restructurings. While DRG stood out by picking up Flex1n, a former Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #8 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan yilai Gu Yiming (顾依铭) Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) bud Yang Renyu (杨韧余) FT Yan Shuaibo (闫帅博) talent that starred in the team's journey at Champions 2024, JD Gaming JD Gaming China Rank #7 jkuro Yong Haochong (杨浩聪) zhe Niu Zhe (牛哲) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) crownfisher Li Ao (李翱) BerLIN Zhang Bolin (張柏霖) made headlines due to their numerous moves in the closing months of the year.

The opening bout of the second day started on JDG's pick of Abyss. That choice quickly backfired as the map was over before they could even make a dent, DRG letting up just five rounds — four of which while attacking — on their way to a 13-5 opener.

The match then moved to Haven and Bind, which were much closer throughout. The teams fought to push Haven into overtime, where a 2v4 slipup from DRG gave their opponents the margin for a 15-13 win. Z1yan and stew put JDG on their back as they tied up the series, combining for 57 kills across 28 rounds.

DRG brought it home on Bind with a 13-7 victory that pushed them into their quarterfinals match, where Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #13 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) FKEY Ke Chen deLb Delbert Tanoto is expecting them for a rematch. Early last year, Trace was the final hurdle DRG crossed before qualifying for Masters Shanghai in May.

Flex1n, DRG's sacrificial lamb.

All Gamers vs. Nova Esports

All Gamers All Gamers China Rank #6 Shr1mp Yang Yong (杨勇) K1ra Huang Zhihao (黄志豪) f4ngeer Roman Smirnov iamgrq Gao Ruiqi (高锐琦) and Nova Esports were antonyms of each other in the offseason: while AG expanded their roster to a total of 10 players, three of them substitutes, Nova haven't touched their lineup since the break between Stage 1 and Stage 2 last year.

The lack of changes seemed to bear fruits in their debut, which Nova kicked off with a 13-8 victory on Abyss that was more lopsided than the score shows. o0o0o and Ezeir 's assists were the most standout statline on the first map, coming in at 15 and 16 respectively.

All Gamers struggled to put up a better performance on their Bind pick, where they amassed just three rounds before succumbing to Nova Esports in quick 2-0 fashion.

The first knife kill of 2025!

VCT China Kickoff will now go on a break for a few days, returning on January 16 for the final leg of competition. China will play 10 straight days of competition on the path to determine who will represent the region at Masters Bangkok, starting from the upper quarterfinals.

The next matches of VCT China Kickoff are: