The lower bracket of the VCT China 2025 Stage 1 playoffs is coming to a close, with both EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 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) and Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #3 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) defeating their first opponents after getting knocked down to lowers. Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #10 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Cangshu Zheng Yujun (手郑宇峻) Akeman Zhang Haoran (张浩然) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) put up a fight, while Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #4 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Midi Zhang Jiajun (手张嘉俊) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) Xlele Zhao Yanbo (赵炎博) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) heybay Ho Shun Hei Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞) struggled mightily against the form of BLG.

Bilibili Gaming sweeps Trace Esports

Both these teams earned previous international slots representing China and earned upset victories, but they had to fight each other to see who would keep their hopes alive to do so again at Masters Toronto. The last time BLG defeated Trace was back in 2023, but this BLG roster looked to change history, starting on Fracture and Lotus.

Both teams opted for Breach, Tejo, and Brimstone on Fracture, but the key differences were the Neon and Cypher from BLG and the Yoru and Vyse from Trace. Each team stuck to its strengths, but the play from whzy was significantly better in the close-quarter areas of Fracture. A close 7-5 half where Trace ended with the lead quickly spiraled into a dominant second half from BLG to take map one 13-8.

While whzy ended the map with 27 kills and 206 ADR, it was a Breach masterclass from nephh , ending with a 1.80 map rating and only eight deaths across 21 rounds.

nephh and whzy defend a retake well against Trace.

Lotus allowed BLG to keep whzy on Neon as well as the Breach/Tejo intact. Trace kept Kai on Yoru as well, but the impact from the rival Duelists fully tilted in favor of whzy on map two. The first half ended 9-3, but the curse failed to affect BLG as they cleaned up the map 13-4 and swept Trace.

This win secures the matchup against EDward Gaming, with the victor officially earning their spot at Masters Toronto. As for Trace, they will have to regroup in Stage 2 to hope to return to an international event after their appearance at Masters Bangkok earlier this year.

EDward Gaming rebounds in tight win over Dragon Ranger Gaming

After a rough time out in the series against Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #2 Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) , all eyes were on EDG to see if they could make another lower bracket run to qualify for an international event. As for DRG, they looked like the better of the two teams that started in the lower bracket, which showed in this series.

The maps were Lotus, Split, and Ascent. ZmjjKK remained on Iso for Lotus, even after his disappointing performance in his last series. EDG opted for the double Duelist with Jieni7 on Neon, and as it turns out, that worry was unfounded as an 8-4 half turned into a 13-8 map win for EDG. This was a good way to start the series, especially for ZmjjKK, who ended the map with 29 kills, a 1.71 map rating, and 223 ADR.

Split was an attempt to equalize for DRG, and they took advantage. While the double Duelist from EDG returned and ZmjjKK kept up his form, Jieni7 struggled. vo0kashu and Cangshu , on Cypher and Tejo respectively, fought to keep their hopes for Masters Toronto alive. The map was close, as the 6-6 half showed, but DRG were able to pull away just enough on the attack half to prevent an overtime scenario. The 13-11 map win tied the series and took it to Ascent.

For Ascent, EDG swapped from double Duelist to double Sentinel, while DRG opted for the double smokes with Omen and Viper. Double Sentinel has slowly become a valid option on Ascent due to its defense-sided nature, and the defense from EDG was too tough for DRG to figure out. Jieni7 was the standout on Deadlock to close the series, ending Ascent with a 1.76 map rating, 20 kills, and 156 ADR.

Jieni7 secures a round with his ultimate on Ascent defense.

With this win, EDward Gaming will face Bilibili Gaming in the lower bracket semifinal, with the winner earning their spot at Masters Toronto. As for DRG, they are eliminated from the playoffs, and by extension, Masters Toronto, and will return in Stage 2.