All Gamers claim first Santiago slot with 3-2 win over Xi Lai Gaming

All Gamers All Gamers China Rank #4 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) defeated 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) 3-2 in the upper final of China Kickoff.

It's a victory of firsts for All Gamers: their first win over XLG, their first regional finish above fifth place, and their first qualification to an international event as they lock in the first slot at Masters Santiago.

The five-map slugfest played out on Pearl, Split, Bind, Abyss, and Haven. AG won Pearl 13-5 and Split 13-11, XLG won Bind 13-7 and Abyss 13-6, and AG took it home on Haven 13-10.

The series began on XLG's first pick of Pearl, where both teams opted into a Waylay-Yoru mirror matchup. AG came out swinging, stunning XLG with proactive defense side pushes to start rounds and outfragging their counterparts when it came to the retakes. Shr1mp in particular was practically unstoppable, going 20/5/6 with 437 ACS in the first half as Fade.

Going into the second half, Rarga and happywei started firing individually after quiet starts to win a pistol and a bonus, but the damage was already done as AG brought the map to a 13-5 conclusion. Shr1mp led the pack by a wide margin with a final KDA of 24/10/6 and 216 ADR.

The second map was Split. Both teams continued to prioritize double-Duelist, with XLG keeping Waylay and Yoru and AG going for Waylay and Raze. An initial 3-0 lead for AG was quickly reversed after XLG won a low buy and dominated the buy rounds, with an 18-kill half from NoMan on Waylay leading XLG forward to an 8-4 defense.

XLG seemed primed to take the map after winning the round 14 eco. But much like their opponents in the first half, AG dominated the buy rounds on their defense, winning five rounds in a row with a combination of stalwart site holds and economic momentum to take the map 13-11 and a 2-0 lead in the series. K1ra had a standout performance as Raze, finishing the map with a 31/16/1 KDA and 211 ADR.

XLG began to mount their comeback on Bind. Starting on attack, they overwhelmed AG with site executes for an 8-1 start. A 1v2 and a 3K from Au1 at the end of the half helped AG do damage control, but both pistols and bonuses going XLG's way was too much for AG to handle as XLG eventually won out 13-7. XLG's stars happywei and Rarga were the major fraggers after a relatively quiet Split, putting together 21 and 20 kills respectively.

XLG continued to build up momentum on Abyss. The first half was a tight race between XLG's postplants and AG's retakes, with a 1v2 from Lysoar in round 10 propelling XLG to a slight 7-5 edge at the half.

The second half, however, was all XLG. While AG often gave up the sites to play retake, voluntarily or otherwise, XLG went for shutouts off the back of Lysoar's Omen utility and often won rounds before the Spike could be planted at all. AG only managed one round on the attack, leading to a 13-6 victory for XLG.

Haven was the ultimate decider—would XLG secure the reverse sweep or would AG take the crown?

The cards seemed stacked in XLG's favor. With Rarga opening up sites and happywei's Viper utility securing postplants, the Ascension squad got off to a 7-3 start. AG won the last couple rounds of the half, but an XLG pistol and bonus round opened up the lead even further to 10-5.

Against the odds, AG began to claw things back, starting with a B postplant decided by milliseconds in round 16 and a K1ra 1v2 in round 17. The true turning point, however, was round 21; Shr1mp and Au1 pulled off an unlikely 2v4 to earn the lead at 11-10, spurring AG on to a 13-10 comeback victory via eight consecutive round wins.

f4ngeer led the charge for the comeback with 14 kills in the half and 21 in the map, tying for first with Shr1mp. The two were neck-and-neck on kills for the series as a whole, with Shr1mp ending with 83 and f4ngeer ending with 82. K1ra was crowned the Kickoff MVP on the broadcast for his leadership and impact over the course of the team's tournament run.

With this win, all five AG players, three being rookies in VCT, will have the chance to make their mark on the world stage for the first time, reaping the rewards of a steady rise in Stage 2 last season and a well-planned offseason rebuild.

XLG has two more chances to make it to Santiago. The first will be the middle final against Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #3 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan yilai Gu Yiming (顾依铭) Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) bud Yang Renyu (杨韧余) tomorrow, February 8. Meanwhile, All Gamers have ample time to prepare for their debut on the global stage as the beginning of Santiago is three weeks away.