Today's China Kickoff matches saw a middle bracket matchup between two Champions attendees in 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) and Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #6 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Akeman Zhang Haoran (张浩然) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) and a lower bracket rematch between EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #2 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) and TYLOO TYLOO China Rank #7 splash Moses Christophe Jonathan Scales Zhang Zhen (张震) Erv Shen Zhiwei sword9 Li Wei (李卫) slowly Kelun Sun (孙科伦) . BLG dominated DRG 2-0 to secure their place in the middle final, while EDG defeated TYLOO once again to break into the top five.

BLG decimates DRG to make it to middle final

In a contest to earn the first middle bracket slot, BLG completely shut DRG out of the match, winning 2-0 and putting themselves one win away from Masters Santiago.

DRG picked Split for the first map. BLG took the lead to start, finding major success in the clutch department with a 2v5 from whzy and nephh in round four and a 1v4 from bud in round 9.

Akeman was the key player to keep DRG in the game, as the Neon player went 16/8 in the half despite his team trailing 7-5. The second half was all BLG as they ran away to a 13-6 win; DRG's attack looked disjointed, with the Duelists Akeman and SpiritZ1 frequently getting caught out alone and picked off.

BLG continued where they left off on Abyss, shutting down DRG's unconventional Reyna and Veto composition with relative ease in a 13-2 showing. Nearly everything went BLG's way, including both pistols, a bonus round, multiple close clutches, and an ace apiece from rushia and nephh. While nephh had the most kills by a slim margin with 18, rushia was a first pick machine on Astra as the B site anchor with a 6-0 FK/FD differential.

BLG now have two chances at Santiago qualification. Their first opportunity will be in the middle final on Sunday, February 8 against the loser of All Gamers versus Xi Lai Gaming.

EDG sends TYLOO home in 2-1 rematch

EDG and TYLOO already met once before this event in an encounter that went 2-0 the way of EDG. With the stakes higher than ever, EDG reaffirmed their caliber with a 2-1 victory, extending their flawless all-time head-to-head against TYLOO and knocking them out of Kickoff.

EDG played multiple unusual compositions throughout the series, starting off with Phoenix and Harbor on Bind. The plan ultimately fell flat for them as TYLOO dominated the map 13-3. First kills were the name of the game for the winning side on their defense as TYLOO racked up an overwhelming 11 first kills out of 12 rounds in the first half.

sword9 and Scales both had stellar performances, the former going 20/6/6 with 231 ADR on Fade and the latter going 17/6/4 with 176 ADR on Viper. The pair shared eight of the team's 13 first kills between them.

On Haven, EDG swapped off the Yoru and Iso they had been playing in favor of cb on Neon and ZmjjKK on Chamber. At first, the map seemed to go similarly to Bind. Although ZmjjKK managed to get five first kills, Erv led TYLOO to an 8-4 half with an unreal 19/6/7 KDA, 267 ADR performance with major multikills and clutches.

Round 13 was the start of a complete reversal. EDG won a full eco round after losing the pistol and took that momentum to win every single remaining round in the map to take Haven 13-9. ZmjjKK had unmatched confidence with his signature attack Operator, picking up five first kills in the half for 10 total over the course of the map and topping the server with 22 kills.

EDG stayed in control on Corrode, where they started by winning yet another eco in round two. From there, the execute power of their Yoru, Phoenix, and Sage picks overwhelmed TYLOO's defenses, earning EDG purchase onto the sites and an 8-4 score at the half. Even with another pistol round, TYLOO couldn't find their way back in as EDG closed out 13-7.

Up next

Only three more days remain in China Kickoff. Tomorrow, EDG and DRG will battle it out for a spot in the lower final, while All Gamers and Xi Lai Gaming will determine who will be the first team to qualify to Santiago in the first best-of-five of the season.