Today's China Stage 2 playoff matchups were do-or-die elimination matches, the first being between Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #2 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 and Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Rank #12 Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) lucas Yunkun Lu (路昀昆) Dynamite Zhao Zihao (赵梓浩) ra1ny Chen Baohuan (陈葆桓) Coco Ding Dajian (丁达建) and the second being between All Gamers All Gamers China Rank #6 Shr1mp Yang Yong (杨勇) K1ra Huang Zhihao (黄志豪) Bai Zhang Zeyang (张泽洋) f4ngeer Roman Smirnov iamgrq Gao Ruiqi (高锐琦) and Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #13 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) FKEY Ke Chen deLb Delbert Tanoto . Nova and AG came out on top, ending the 2026 seasons of their respective opponents and forging ahead in the lower bracket.

Nova dispatches TEC in 2-0 series

Despite a statement 5-0 group stage, Nova suddenly found themselves with one life remaining against TEC following an upper bracket loss to JD Gaming JD Gaming China Rank #8 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) .

Starting on TEC's pick of Summit, Nova made a compositional swap from the JDG match, shifting their Duelist duo from Yoru and Raze to Waylay and Phoenix. TEC landed the first blow on their attack, winning the pistol and abusing the B site to take a 5-1 lead. Nova punished that trend with an eco win on B, but the half still ended 8-4 in favor of TEC.

The beginning of the second half was volatile as both teams won eco rounds early on. TEC held onto the lead to the point of 11-8, but after a successful 4v5 A split in the next round, Nova wrested control of the game out of their opponent's hands, winning the last five rounds in a row to take Summit 13-11. Ezeir and swagzor collected an impressive 25 kills apiece, with swagzor in particular shining with five first bloods and 292 ACS.

Sunset was the next map. This time, Nova were the ones with the strong start, going 6-1 after winning the first pistol. However, a full defuse stick from ra1ny spurred TEC on to close the gap, drawing the game to an even 6-6 at halftime.

The second half was less suspenseful; a second pistol win allowed Nova to hold the lead until the very end, winning out close retakes to take it home 13-8. Ezeir had another unreal performance, ending the series with a standout 47/22/21 KDA and 1.57 rating as the Controller continues to put up some of the best numbers in the region.

With only total three championship points, TEC's season has officially come to an end. Nova moves on and will face the loser of Xi Lai Gaming versus Bilibili Gaming in the next round of the lower bracket.

All Gamers eliminate Trace Esports in overtime nailbiter

AG versus Trace was a match between two teams looking to bounce back after respective losses to 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) and Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #1 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) just yesterday. The match went the distance, with maps one and two both going to multiple overtimes, but AG ultimately emerged victorious to stay alive in the bracket and send Trace home.

The first map was AG's home pick of Split. The map was neck-and-neck all the way through—after Trace nullified AG's bonus win with a full Sheriff eco to make it 3-1, the two teams stayed within a margin of two rounds of each other all the way until round 21, where Trace pulled off two successful B postplants in a row to make it 12-9. AG came back to force overtime, but Trace still came out better with a 15-13 win. deLb topped the board for Trace with 23 kills and 245 ACS on Viper.

Lotus was a similar story with a different ending. The first half once again ended tied 6-6 after AG won the bonus round and Trace responded with solid site holds in the buy rounds. This time, AG came back from an even steeper late game deficit of 12-8, with f4ngeer and Shr1mp both collecting vital 3Ks, and actually went on to convert in overtime with their own 15-13 victory. Statistically, AG's Duelist duo took them over the line, with f4ngeer dropping 30 kills on Waylay and K1ra following up with 26 on Raze.

Everything came down to Ascent. At first, the map seemed like another close one as Trace strung together two B splits to take a 3-2 lead. Instead, thanks to f4ngeer's Operator and K1ra fragging out on Omen, AG's defense held strong for an 8-4 half.

Trace had opportunities to bring it back; they won the pistol and at one point held a 5v2 advantage in the bonus, but failed to convert the round after Shr1mp and Bai pulled off a miraculous postplant to maintain a 9-6 lead for AG. From there, AG held the lead to the end, winning out 13-9 and putting an end to Trace's season.

AG stays alive in the lower bracket and will await the loser of TYLOO versus JDG as their next opponent on Thursday, Aug. 20.