In the second round of the lower bracket at the VCT China 2026 Stage 2 playoffs, Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #1 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 TYLOO TYLOO China Rank #5 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) stayed alive by eliminating 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 All Gamers All Gamers China Rank #8 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) .

Aside from the normal tournament stakes, this day was an important one for XLG, who entered the day with a shot at a guaranteed slot at Champions or at risk of losing it. Despite losing to Nova, AG's loss to TYLOO secured XLG a spot at Shanghai through points.

TYLOO sweeps and eliminates All Gamers

TYLOO and All Gamers are effectively two sides of a coin we see regionally across a season: a team that starts in form versus a team that ends in form. AG surprised everyone by winning Kickoff and reaching Santiago, but have struggled since. TYLOO looks reinvigorated after signing SiuFatBB , but has lost to the true underdog story of the playoffs so far, JD Gaming JD Gaming China Rank #7 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) .

Both squads now need to rebound, but AG specifically can take advantage of a potential XLG loss and a win of their own to place the team in near-automatic Champions qualification.

The series began with a banger map one on Split, as TYLOO ran double-Duelist with Jett and Raze against a near-mirror comp from AG. TYLOO earned the first pistol win, but the loss on the bonus allowed AG to take advantage of the gun rounds and jump to a 5-2 lead. Only splash managed to finish the attack side positive, as AG entered the half with a 9-3 lead.

Moving to defense, TYLOO immediately flipped the script with a pistol and bonus conversion. Even as AG pulled ahead to an 11-6 lead, splash and TYLOO fought back to force the map to OT. Those extra rounds didn't last long, as splash and Erv ended map one 14-12 for TYLOO.

Sunset was next, and AG had to fight back off a double-Initiator comp with Neon against the double-Sentinel of Chamber and Sage from TYLOO. Continuing how the team ended map one, TYLOO took the first pistol and bonus to fly forward to a 5-1 lead. However, adaptations from AG and a step up in performance from K1ra on Omen earned AG a small 7-5 lead at the half.

AG won the second pistol, but splash and SiuFatBB sniped some clean pistol shots to convert the eco and shift momentum entirely in their favor. Jumping ahead to a 9-8 lead, AG crumbled as TYLOO took advantage and completed the sweep with a 13-9 map win. Across both maps, splash was the catalyst, ending the series with 51 kills, a 1.39 map rating, and 279 ACS.

With this win, TYLOO will move on in the lower bracket to face the victor of the Nova and XLG match, and will officially need two more series wins to make it to Champs.

Nova Esports stomps on two of three maps to stay alive

The second match of this playoff day was pure firepower: two squads that nobody expected to see facing each other in the lower rounds this early in the playoffs. Both teams played zero matches in the play-ins, but while XLG has scraped to 2-1 results in its two series, Nova came off a strong sweep over a hot TEC squad.

Map one of Split was utter domination from XLG, running Rarga on Neon and NoMan on Waylay to counter the solo Raze from swagzor . After winning the first pistol and converting the bonus, XLG continued to press thanks to an amazing performance from WsLeo on Skye. Reaching the half up 8-4, WsLeo finished his attack side with 13 kills. The second pistol fell to XLG, and NoMan helped finish the map 13-6.

Lotus was next, and Nova was officially in dire straits. The start needed to be strong, with double-Controller on attack against more double-Duelist from XLG (funnily enough, running Neon and Waylay but swapping the agents between Rarga and NoMan). Yet, that needed run happened, as Nova took the pistol and converted the bonus to roll into an 8-0 lead. The trio of GuanG on Viper, swagzor on Raze, and cb on Vyse was nearly impossible to stop as Nova took a 10-2 lead into the half. The map conclusion was only slightly delayed with an XLG pistol win, as Nova took Lotus 13-5 and forced the series to map three.

Nova's qualification hopes came down to Breeze, finally running double-Duelist alongside Harbor against a double-Controller comp from XLG without the water-based agent. That choice paid dividends for Nova, who stormed ahead to an even stronger first half than Lotus. This time, while GuanG stayed consistently impressive, Ezeir shone brightest on that Harbor and comfortably converted an 11-1 half into a 13-3 map and series victory. Ezeir ended the game with style on Breeze, boasting a 1.73 map rating, 310 ACS, 19 kills, and a 40% headshot rate.

With this victory, Nova moves on in the lower bracket and will face TYLOO in the third round of lowers, with a chance to fight in the lower finals. Both teams can only qualify through continued success in these playoffs and can make it official with a top-two finish.