Partway through the VCT China 2026 Kickoff tournament, 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) defeated Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #18 OBONE Chen Yijie (陈怡洁) Ezeir Zhao Zejun (赵泽骏) GREEN Qiu Jianzhi (邱建智) heybay Ho Shun Hei GuanG Guang Honglin (光洪霖) in 2-1 fashion to stay alive in the lower bracket while 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) upset 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) to earn a spot in the upper finals.

Wolves reverse sweeps Nova in elimination match

The two games on this gameday covered two opposite ends of the tournament, starting with an elimination match between Wolves and Nova. Wolves Esports earned its first win of the tournament in the upper bracket first round, but lost two consecutive matches to end up in lowers. Nova was in a different position, having yet to win a map in Kickoff after losing its first two matches to AG and TYLOO in sweeps.

Abyss started with both teams running variations of a Waylay and Veto composition, but Wolves struck first by winning the pistol. Nova prevented the bonus conversion, fighting back to take a 3-2 lead. Nova was able to pull together some consecutive rounds after some determination from Wolves to end the half with a 7-5 lead, but the second half was all Nova. Nova won the second pistol, converted the bonus, and ended the second half perfectly. Abyss ended 13-5, and Wolves needed a reverse sweep to stay alive at Kickoff.

Wolves then played on Haven, running a standard Haven comp with Neon, Killjoy, and double-Controller. Nova ran double-Duelist with Neon and Yoru, starting on the attack side. Wolves won the first pistol, and despite losing the bonus round, the team was coordinated in the retakes to extend the lead. The first half was highlighted by one of the best half-map performances in VCT China 2026, with Spring on Neon frying his opponents, ending with 20 kills.

Just like how easily Nova ended Abyss, Wolves gave its opponents a taste of its own medicine with a second pistol win and bonus conversion to win Haven 13-3.

That left it all up to Pearl, with Wolves running a solo Yoru with double-Initiator while Nova ran Neon with double-Initiator instead. Wolves won the first pistol, but the first half was all Nova. OBONE was doing it all on the defense side, ending the first half with 373 ACS. Nova led 9-3 at the half, and a pistol win to start the second half should have been the death knell for Wolves.

That was, until a massive eco round win flipped the momentum entirely for Wolves, staring down an 11-5 deficit and coming all the way back to win 13-11. It was yosemite who was the star for the comeback win, securing the series 2-1 and eliminating Nova from Kickoff and Masters Santiago.

All Gamers fights back to upset Dragon Ranger Gaming

The second game moved the focus all the way to the upper semifinals, with All Gamers trying to keep up its form against DRG, who made it to Champions in 2025.

Starting on Corrode, DRG looked confident after winning the first pistol and converting the bonus round. It took until round seven for AG to win its first round, with vo0kashu stepping up on the attack side as his team reached the half up 8-4. When DRG won its second pistol and converted its second bonus round of the map, that was curtains for map one. In the battle of Russian import stars in VCT China, vo0kashu and DRG took map one 13-7.

Bind started with both teams running double-Duelist, but with DRG running the surprise Reyna pick. It was a close start for Bind, as a DRG pistol win was only able to scrounge together a 7-5 lead at the half. The Reyna pick struggled on the attack side, but flourished on defense, even as AG found its rhythm and took the map to overtime. After one traded set of overtime, AG secured the second to win Blind 15-13 and take the series to map three.

That put the series all on Abyss, and iamgrq moved to Waylay while SpiritZ1 stuck on Reyna for the second map in a row. AG won the first pistol on Abyss, but the lack of a bonus conversion pulled DRG back in the game. It was SpiritZ1 who was stepping up for DRG, ending the first half with 13 kills and at a 6-6 tie. In the final half of the series, with the game tied, someone had to step up, and it was imgrq on the Waylay.

That performance delivered the 13-10 win for AG. Not only did AG complete the 2-1 upset win, but the team earned its spot in the upper finals, giving the team three chances to qualify for Masters Santiago.