China Kickoff carried on today with JDG Esports JDG Esports China Unranked 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) and Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Unranked 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) fighting for survival in the lower bracket, while familiar rivals and past titans Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Unranked 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) and EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Unranked 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) faced off in the middle bracket. JDG and BLG were the victors of the day, each winning their matches in 2-1 fashion.

JDG continues lower bracket run with win over Titan Esports Club

Coming into this match, JDG had won their past six encounters in a row against TEC over the course of the past two years, including both teams' opening game in this tournament. JDG came out on top 2-1, keeping themselves alive in the lower bracket and extending that win streak to seven.

JDG chose to open on Bind, but TEC made it look like their own map pick as Abo completely took over the game on Chamber. On their attack side, he constantly found opening picks by himself around the map, racking up 17 kills in a 10-2 half.

Abo was a nightmare for JDG on Bind.

JDG attempted to mount a comeback off of a bonus round win, but Abo shut it down immediately with a hero rifle in the eco round, allowing TEC to close out the map 13-5. Abo finished with 23 kills, and 1.85 rating, and an unbelievable 9-0 FK/FD record.

The next map was Haven. The first half was back-and-forth as both teams traded rounds, with a pistol round making the difference for JDG as they ended up 7-5 at halftime. From there, TEC stayed hot on JDG's heels but were never able to take the lead for themselves; two 3Ks from stew at the end secured a 13-10 JDG victory.

JDG breaks through the Viper's Pit to close out Haven.

On Split, JDG immediately took the reins, winning ten rounds in a row off of the starting line. TEC tried breaking through on all parts of the map, but nothing seemed to go right for them as they ran headfirst into JDG's defensive setups.

TEC began to put together rounds in the second after a pistol and a bonus, closing the gap to 11-8 largely thanks to an impressive 16/3 defense side performance by Dynamite on Yoru. However, JDG eventually found the gap on the B site and exploited it with fast hits to win 13-8, eliminating TEC from Kickoff.

BLG secures 2-1 victory over EDG

After losses in the upper bracket, two of the region's most frequent top dogs and international representatives in BLG and EDG found each other in the middle bracket for their fifteenth all-time match-up. Historically, the record went 10-4 in favor of EDG, but BLG came out better in the 2025 season with three wins out of four encounters.

The match started on BLG's pick of Abyss, where they brought out a Breach-Tejo composition against EDG's Jett and Yoru. BLG started up 4-1, but a Blade Storm entry in an eco round from ZmjjKK gave EDG a way back in, with the half ending in a 6-6 deadlock.

nephh ran rings around EDG in the second half both individually and as an IGL, going 12/3 in the half on Omen and opening up rounds with creative Mid splits. BLG's postplant utility caused even more headaches for EDG, with Knight on Tejo acing in the penultimate round in a 2v5 to win BLG the map 13-7.

Knight puts the nail in the coffin on Abyss with an ace.

On Haven, both teams leaned into comfort with more traditional compositions. EDG ran the Yoru-Iso composition that first appeared back in 2024, while BLG went with an even more vintage lineup with Breach and Sova.

Starting on defense, EDG demonstrated a proactive gameplan, fighting Mid successfully three times over the course of a 9-3 half. Between EDG's aggression and cb " target="_blank">cb's Operator holding deep lines, BLG had their hands full and only found success when they managed to break through the C site.

BLG briefly got the momentum back on their side after winning the second round eco, but a 1v3 from nobody in round 18 broke that momentum and spurred EDG on to a 13-9 win.

nobody shuts down BLG in the 1v3.

Breeze was the decider. BLG utterly dominated the first half, with nephh, Knight, and rushia all ending the 10-2 attack with more than 180 ADR. Despite running Jett and Yoru, EDG struggled to find information around the map, as BLG punished the enemy Duelists' pushes and manipulated the rotates to ensure that they consistently hit weak sites. BLG went on to win 13-5 after a successful low buy got them up to 12.

The former world champions, now four consecutive wins away from Masters Santiago, will have to face a rising JDG in the lower bracket tomorrow, February 5. Up in the middle bracket, BLG and DRG will contend for a coveted spot in the middle final on Friday.

China Kickoff will return tomorrow with do-or-die lower bracket games: