China Kickoff began today in Guangzhou, China to lead off the 2026 VCT China season. Wolves Esports Wolves Esports China Rank #12 SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) jowa Jordan Wang yosemite Wang Lei (王磊) Spring Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆) qiutiaN Bijan Moeinzadeh (慕英毕强) delivered a 2-1 win over Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #8 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) deLb Delbert Tanoto , while TYLOO TYLOO China Rank #6 splash Moses Christophe Jonathan Scales Zhang Zhen (张震) Erv Shen Zhiwei sword9 Li Wei (李卫) slowly Kelun Sun (孙科伦) impressed with a decisive sweep over FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix China Rank #11 BerLIN Zhang Bolin (張柏霖) Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) AAAAY Zhang Yang (张杨) sScary Nutchapon Matarat Setrod Ou Taigeng (欧泰赓) .

Wolves Esports prevails 2-1 over Trace Esports

Wolves and Trace both constructed new lineups centered around their cores in the offseason after neither squad finished last season in the top half of the region. Trace opted for more established names in Viva from 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) and deLb from All Gamers All Gamers China Rank #14 Shr1mp Yang Yong (杨勇) K1ra Huang Zhihao (黄志豪) Au1 Zhu Yihao (朱逸豪) f4ngeer Roman Smirnov iamgrq Gao Ruiqi (高锐琦) , while Wolves picked up fresher faces jowa and qiutiaN alongside yosemite from FPX.

The series started on Trace's pick of Abyss, where they picked Sova and Breach to set up their Waylay-Yoru combination. Wolves went for a more utility-heavy double-Initiator double-Controller composition, with Spring returning to the primary Duelist role that he played back in 2024.

Trace won the first pistol round, but Wolves immediately seized the momentum for themselves with a successful Stinger force buy, riding that momentum to a 5-1 lead after SiuFatBB pulled off a 1v3 to secure the first ace of the China season.

Trace flipped the momentum back in round eight after they successfully retook B on a Sheriff buy, stringing together four consecutive rounds for a 6-5 lead that resolved into an even 6-6 half. The second half was all Trace; a 3v4 bonus round conversion put them up 10-6, allowing them to close out the map 13-7 with repeated B site hits. Kai topped the scoreboard as Yoru with 21 kills and 283 ACS.

Haven kicked off with a similar pattern to Abyss. Wolves dropped the pistol but won another Stinger force buy, carrying them to an early 5-1 lead, while Trace again responded with a mid-half Thrifty to wrest back control. Wolves ended the half just ahead at 7-5 after a 3K from Spring.

In the second half, Wolves worked up to an 11-6 lead after losing the second round eco but immediately winning their own eco in the round following. Trace made the score close, but a 3K from jowa in the final round staved them off for a 13-11 win. The rookie from North America led the server with 22 kills and 274 ACS as Omen.

Bind was the most one-sided map of the three. Trace struggled to respond to Wolves' proactive pushes and reclears around the map, taking their second timeout two rounds after the first. Despite the attempt, they were unable to find an effective adjustment and the half ended 8-4 in favor of Wolves. A third successful Stinger force at 9-5 made things simple for Wolves as they won out 13-5.

Wolves will face Xi Lai Gaming next as they progress in the upper bracket. Trace, down to the middle bracket, will play the loser of JDG Esports vs. Titan Esports.

TYLOO dominates FPX in statement opener

The second match of the day featured two more teams that chose to reinforce their established cores with fresh talent. FPX had a solid offseason showing after bringing in Thai veteran sScary and Taiwanese rookie Setrod , while TYLOO signed splash from RRQ Academy and Chinese rookie Erv .

TYLOO's pick of Pearl was a mirror match as both sides went for a Neon-Yoru frontline. TYLOO dominated out of the gate as they brought a 2-2 scoreline to 8-2, outfragging and outwitting FPX individually and as a team in nearly every round.

FPX managed to scrounge an eco win in the next round, but that would be their last in the map as TYLOO ran away with it to a resounding 13-3 victory. Statistically, splash ran rings around the opposition with 21 kills and 345 ACS as Neon.

Haven was similarly one-sided. TYLOO continued to respond comfortably to FPX's movements around the map on their defense, and when rounds came down to 1v1s, TYLOO's members won them more often than not. A second double pistol for TYLOO ensured that the score was almost as dominant as Pearl as Haven concluded 13-4.

While every member of TYLOO collected more kills than every member of FPX on Haven, slowly was the star on Killjoy, going 21/8 with 327 ACS.

TYLOO is now set to challenge 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) cb Wang Qingchuan (王庆川) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) on Saturday, with Santiago qualification potentially three more wins away. FPX descends to the middle bracket early and will face off against the loser of All Gamers vs. Nova Esports.

China Kickoff will continue tomorrow with the following matches:

• All Gamers vs. Nova Esports (Upper Round 1)
• JDG Esports vs. Titan Esports (Upper Round 1)