The first round of the China Kickoff middle bracket concluded today with 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 defeating JDG Esports JDG Esports China Rank #7 stew Park Young-chan (박영찬) jkuro Yong Haochong (杨浩聪) zhe Niu Zhe (牛哲) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) 2-1 and Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #1 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) bud Yang Renyu (杨韧余) finding a 2-0 win 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) .

Trace sends JDG down to lower bracket in 2-1 bout

Trace and JDG each found themselves in the middle bracket after losses to 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) and 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) , with JDG set as the higher seed thanks to their opening win over Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Rank #17 Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) lucas Yunkun Lu (路昀昆) Dynamite Zhao Zihao (赵梓浩) Abo Han Bohao (韩博皓) Coco Ding Dajian (丁达建) . However, Trace were the ones who found their footing, staying afloat in the middle bracket while JDG descended to the lower bracket.

The first map was Split, a first for both teams in this event. Both teams opted into double-Duelist compositions, with Trace going for Waylay and Neon and JDG going for a more standard Raze and Yoru.

Trace opened with a 4-0 start on their attack side, with Kai on Neon leaning into Judge purchases for his entry kills. JDG recovered, stringing together three rounds in a row to get back to 4-3, eventually taking the half to 7-5 in favor of Trace off the back of a low buy win in round 10.

JDG won the second pistol, but Trace won the eco round immediately after and utilized the economic advantage to extend their lead to 9-6 and then 12-6. JDG swung back in with overwhelmingly fast site hits, bringing the score all the way back to 12-11, but Trace managed to close out the map in regulation and took Split 13-11.

Pearl, another first-time showing for both teams, was a blowout. Trace could find no answers to the pace behind JDG's Yoru-Neon composition and the multikills their players racked up, finding their first round win only after losing nine. Their only other rounds on the map came from the second pistol round as JDG won 13-3. jkuro and Yuicaw stood out statistically, with the former going 17/4/11 with a 2.01 rating on Astra and the latter going 16/5/4 with a 1.64 rating on Killjoy.

The decider of Corrode was equally one-sided, but in the opposite direction. FengF won a 1v1 to earn his side a bonus round for another 4-0 start and, unlike Split, JDG were unable to find a way back in as the individuals from Trace came out on top in almost every round, resulting in a 10-2 first half.

A desperate Stinger force buy after losing the pistol netted JDG a couple more rounds, but Trace ultimately made the map a simple 13-4. FengF dominated on KAY/O, going 19/9/4 with 280 ACS and a 1.62 rating.

Bilibili cement 2-0 victory over FunPlus Phoenix after extended overtime

Two previous regional powerhouses in Bilibili and FPX found themselves facing each other after being swept by 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) and 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) , with the loser set to be threatened with an early elimination in the lower bracket.

Bilibili picked Pearl as the first map, where both teams demonstrated double-Initiator looks that used Tejo. FPX won a pistol and a bonus, but Bilibili responded with a full Sheriff thrifty that led to eight unanswered round wins, ending the half 8-4 in their favor.

Bilibili held fast to their lead in the second half, winning the second pistol round and responding to FPX's attempts to get back into the game. rushia , who excelled on Astra with a 20/14/12 KDA and 180 ADR, found a 3K in the find round to close the map out 13-9.

The second map was FPX's pick of Bind, where they fielded Raze and Yoru against Bilibili's Fade and KAY/O. Things started similarly to Pearl as FPX won the first bonus round but lost the round four anti-eco to allow Bilibili back into the game. This time, however, FPX stabilized, taking a narrow 7-5 lead at halftime.

The rest of the map was a tense back-and-forth, with Bilibili having two chances to close out in regulation at 12-10 but losing both to take the game into overtime.

Overtime went on for several rounds, with both sides struggling more on defense, but the key difference-maker for Bilibili was two separate 3v5 wins at 15-15 and then 17-15 to close out the game. whzy went above and beyond on Raze, recording a monumental 40 kills, 13 of which came in overtime, also earning himself the accolade of 2,000 lifetime kills in VCT CN.

Trace and Bilibili move on in the middle bracket and will clash tomorrow for the right to remain in the middle bracket. Meanwhile, JDG and FPX will face off on Sunday, Feb. 1, with one of the two teams destined for an early elimination.

China Kickoff continues tomorrow with the following matches:

• TYLOO vs. Titan Esports Club (Middle Round 2)
• Trace Esports vs. Bilibili Gaming (Middle Round 2)