The first day of the VCT China 2025 Stage 1 playoffs is over, with both Wolves Esports Wolves Esports China Rank #19 glacier Liang Zhekai (梁哲恺) SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) jowa Jordan Wang yosemite Wang Lei (王磊) Spring Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆) and Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #1 WsLeo Huang Pinwei (黄品维) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) earning sweeps to move up the upper bracket. With these wins, the upper semifinals and first matches of the lower bracket are set.

Wolves Esports fights past Titan Esports Club

Of the two playoff series today, the fight between Wolves and Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Rank #15 Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) lucas Yunkun Lu (路昀昆) Spitfires Xin Mingyan (辛明阳) Dynamite Zhao Zihao (赵梓浩) Coco Ding Dajian (丁达建) was the more competitive matchup. This two-map series was fought on Haven and Icebox, and both maps were close.

For Haven, the biggest difference in the two teams' compositions was that Wolves opted for Breach and Neon without a Tejo, while TEC chose to run Jett with Tejo and Breach. Both duelists had a tough time executing sites against the opposing Cypher, and while Coco on Tejo had a great performance, Wolves pulled through thanks to an amazing six-round win streak in the second half of the map, winning it 13-11.

The star of Haven for Wolves was SiuFatBB , who had star moments, 22 kills, and a rating of 1.35.

SiuFatBB clutches to complete a 4k against TEC.

Then, when Icebox came along, TEC opted for the rare Reyna pick, but it failed to gain traction against the more standard Jett pick from Wolves. Where the duelists stumbled on map one, Juicy was on fire on Icebox, helping his team secure an 8-4 half, which turned into a 13-10. He ended Icebox with 26 kills, a 1.56 map rating, and an outstanding 10-3 first kill/first death ratio.

With this win, Wolves will face Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #3 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) in the upper bracket semifinal with the chance to secure a spot at Masters Toronto. TEC remains alive in the lower bracket and will face Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #8 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Akeman Zhang Haoran (张浩然) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) .

Xi Lai Gaming stomp over Nova Esports

In what looked like a close matchup on paper, the Ascension winners XLG proved themselves over Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #18 qiutiaN Bijan Moeinzadeh (慕英毕强) OBONE Chen Yijie (陈怡洁) Ezeir Zhao Zejun (赵泽骏) GREEN Qiu Jianzhi (邱建智) GuanG Guang Honglin (光洪霖) swagzor Mikhail Vaniushin in this series win. Where the Wolves and TEC series showed signs of life for both teams, this was a one-sided series on both Lotus and Ascent.

Nova chose to run a unique comp on Lotus, with Astra, Vyse, Raze, Breach, and Deadlock, while XLG decided to stick to Yoru, Omen, Viper, Breach and Tejo. The lack of a Sentinel from XLG was not a problem, as both smokes players coconut and happywei had a field day. On Viper, happywei effectively played the role of a Sentinel and stopped any attacking attempts he could, while coconut was the star on their attack side. Both ended the map at 19 kills, which was impressive considering the map only reached 13-6.

As for compositions on Ascent, Nova took the Breach/Tejo pairing while XLG opted for double Sentinel with Deadlock and Cypher. Nova won the pistol round on Ascent, and converted their anti-eco. Those were the only two rounds they won on Ascent.

Rarga was useful on Lotus as the scout, but on Ascent, he was the hammer. A 1.94 map rating, 21 kills, and 216 ADR solidified Rarga as the driving force in a dominant 13-2 map that closed out the series quickly.

Rarga and XLG prevent a Nova bonus round win flawlessly.

With this win, XLG will face EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #2 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Jieni7 Zhang Juntai (张君泰) in the upper bracket semifinals. Nova Esports still remain in the tournament, as they will face Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #9 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) Xlele Zhao Yanbo (赵炎博) Abo Han Bohao (韩博皓) Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) deLb Delbert Tanoto in the lower bracket to keep their Masters Toronto hopes alive.