Week three of the VCT China 2026 Stage 2 competition is over, with all teams qualified and seeded for the playoffs. The four teams moving straight to the playoff bracket are TYLOO TYLOO China Rank #6 splash Moses Christophe Jonathan Scales Zhang Zhen (张震) Erv Shen Zhiwei slowly Kelun Sun (孙科伦) SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) xihe Peng Wenbo (彭文博) , Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #3 qiutiaN Bijan Moeinzadeh (慕英毕强) cb Wang Qingchuan (王庆川) Ezeir Zhao Zejun (赵泽骏) GuanG Guang Honglin (光洪霖) swagzor Mikhail Vaniushin , Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #2 WsLeo Huang Pinwei (黄品维) Sharks Qiu Ge (邱戈) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) , and Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #4 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) FT Yan Shuaibo (闫帅博) , with the rest of the Chinese teams competing in the play-ins.

Plus, with recent victories over JDG Esports JDG Esports China Rank #15 jkuro Yong Haochong (杨浩聪) zhe Niu Zhe (牛哲) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) crownfisher Li Ao (李翱) BerLIN Zhang Bolin (張柏霖) and FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix China Rank #10 AAAAY Zhang Yang (张杨) KovaQ Blendi Kovaci coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) Xlele Zhao Yanbo (赵炎博) Setrod Ou Taigeng (欧泰赓) , EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Jieni7 Zhang Juntai (张君泰) have already qualified for Champions 2026 from the points system.

The group stage matches played this week ended as follows:

Also, here is how the seeding matches concluded:

Nova Esports finished as the top team with a 5-0 record, while BLG ended 4-1 and topped the opposing Group Omega.

TYLOO is one of the best stories of the stage, but finished week three with two match losses. Both matches were closer than the sweep scorelines imply, especially the intense Group Alpha title series against Nova. Both maps were decided on round 24 or later against Nova, with a 1v2 Viper clutch from GuanG played perfectly to defeat TYLOO.

GuanG outplays TYLOO in a 1v2 clutch to win Split. (Clip via Project Horizon)

Trailing one win behind TYLOO are EDward Gaming, who clearly stumbled in Stage 2 after returning from Masters London and the EWC. Coach Autumn talked live in London after his team's third-place finish about the rough schedule ahead, though the team also was close to automatic qualification for Champs. EDG kept the maps tense but couldn't defeat the rising Nova squad to close out groups.

Nova closes out the series over EDG. (Clip via Project Horizon)

TYLOO and Nova were EDG's only losses, finishing third in Group Alpha and securing Champs from points alone. As is standard for EDG in regional competition, the team steps up for playoffs, and fans saw a hint of that in a clean 2-0 sweep over All Gamers in the seeding match. Moving Jieni7 onto Omen while Smoggy and ZmjjKK rotated to double-Duelist closed out the Haven in comfortable fashion.

BLG earned a win over XLG to finalize the top spot in Omega, though lost afterward to Nova in the seeding match. Compared to Group Alpha, Omega didn't have the same storylines or upsets, with only Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #8 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) Verse Zhou Zijun (周子钧) SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) arguably underperforming at 2-3. DRG concluded group play on a positive note with a close three-map seeding match victory over JDG, where vo0kashu dropped 34 kills on Ascent.

Some star performers on this final week of Stage 2 included swagzor , ZmjjKK, and zhe , all Duelists who rose to the challenge in preparation for the play-ins and playoffs.

Yet, the best performer of week three (and the seeding matches) is deLb from Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #17 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) FKEY deLb Delbert Tanoto . In two games playing Sentinel agents and Viper, deLb ended with 14 first kills and only one first death, giving him the comically large 14.00 FK:FD ratio. He also completed week three with 275 ACS, a 1.45 K:D, 1.04 KPR, and an absurd 46% headshot rate.

deLb holds down mid against JDG and secures a round for Trace. (Clip via Project Horizon)

Play-ins and playoff seeding and format explained

China, like all other regions, has two double-elimination tournaments heading toward Champions 2026. Play-ins include two tier-two Chinese teams competing against the lower regional seeds while the top seeds wait in the playoff tournament.

The final seeding matches at the end of week three fully seeded the entire league, determining each of the opening matchups. One key example of this in the play-ins was the game between Trace and Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Rank #18 Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) lucas Yunkun Lu (路昀昆) Spitfires Xin Mingyan (辛明阳) Dynamite Zhao Zihao (赵梓浩) ra1ny Chen Baohuan (陈葆桓) Coco Ding Dajian (丁达建) , with the victor facing the lower-ranked tier-two team that qualified.

Starting at the play-ins, here are the matches, starting on August 5th:

After the play-ins are sorted and four teams qualify for the playoff tournament, here are the matches, starting on August 14:

  • TYLOO vs. Play-ins #1 (Upper bracket quarterfinals)
  • Nova Esports vs. Play-ins #4 (Upper bracket quarterfinals)
  • Xi Lai Gaming vs. Play-ins #2 (Upper bracket quarterfinals)
  • Bilibili Gaming vs. Play-ins #3 (Upper bracket quarterfinals)

The top two teams from the playoff tournament will automatically qualify for Champions 2026, while the top two remaining teams in Champions points will also attend the local Shanghai tournament to try and bring another Champions title to China.