Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #4 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Akeman Zhang Haoran (张浩然) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) has emerged victorious at China Ascension 2025, securing themselves a third year of competition in VCT CN with a 3-0 win over Rare Atom Rare Atom China Rank #5 Guran Zhou Minyan (周铭言) nnono Midnight Wang Yingjie (王英杰) in the grand final.

DRG lifting the China Ascension 2025 trophy DRG lifts a second Ascension trophy two years after their first. (Photo by Riot Games)

Eight teams qualified to compete in China Ascension. After nine days of competition, the final standings were as follows:

Group Stage Results

After having to play in Ascension despite qualifying for Champions Paris due to Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #3 WsLeo Huang Pinwei (黄品维) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) placing higher than them at the event, DRG entered the tournament as favorites with a target on their backs. Primed to challenge them were Rare Atom, who led the circuit point standings by a wide margin, and Any Questions Gaming, who featured 2024 world champion S1Mon on their roster.

The group stage divided the eight teams into two double-elimination groups. Placed into opposite groups, the two grand finalists of DRG and Rare Atom stormed through their respective upper brackets in 2-0 fashion, neither dropping a map in the process.

The last two playoff spots were filled by Octagonal Disposition Gaming, who won a rematch against Zhu Chao Gaming in the group decider after losing to them in their opening game, and AQG, who defeated Ambitious Legend Gaming to qualify.

Playoffs: Dragon Ranger Gaming dominates the final to cap off lower bracket run

Playoffs kicked off with Rare Atom comfortably defeating ODG to progress to the upper final and continue their undefeated run. The next match was a major upset, with AQG defeating DRG in a close 13-11, 14-12 series to send them down to the lower bracket. iamgrq and Dannyy each had an impressive series, both going +18.

In the upper final, Rare Atom swept AQG in yet another 2-0, not dropping a single map all the way to their third consecutive Ascension grand final. Their primary Duelist zhe , who was the statistical star for his team all event, put up a tremendous performance, going 21/6/2 in the first map of Sunset to lead his team to a 13-3 win. He ended the series +23, with a 43/20/5 KDA and 306 ACS.

Down in the lower bracket, DRG's experience shone through with a straightforward 13-3, 13-7 stomp over ODG to eliminate them from the tournament and set themselves up for a rematch against AQG in the lower final.

It seemed like exacting revenge would be a simple task for DRG as they opened the best-of-five series with 13-6 and 13-5 map wins, but AQG refused to give up easily, threatening a reverse sweep with a 13-11 on Haven and an impressive 13-5 showing on Abyss. The last map came down to Lotus, where DRG won 13-7 to deny the reverse sweep and book their tickets to a decisive grand final against Rare Atom.

The last time DRG and Rare Atom had faced off was the grand final of China Ascension 2023, where DRG won 3-1 to ascend to VCT for the first time, albeit with very different rosters on both sides. This time, DRG displayed their caliber as a team, trouncing Rare Atom in a 3-0 that included a 13-1 win on their permaban of Bind, where they fielded SpiritZ1 on Reyna and Akeman on Jett.

SpiritZ1 cleans up Rare Atom as Reyna with a smooth 4K.

With this win, DRG has obtained another Ascension trophy, earned the right to return to VCT, and delivered Rare Atom a third second-place finish in China Ascension. Statistically, SpiritZ1 led the event by a sizable margin with 261 ACS, 0.94 KPR, and a 1.29 K:D and was awarded the title of tournament MVP.