The final day of opening matches at Champions 2024 concluded with EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) handily taking down FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #8 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan qRaxs Doğukan Balaban in two maps. EDG came into Champions seeking redemption for a year full of results far below their own expectations and those of their fans. They took a steady step towards that redemption with this result.

Multiple high profile wins at international events in 2023 raised the hype around a young superteam coming from a new region and the upside their future might hold. However, after a year of disappointing results, leading to dropping their IGL and losing multiple games in China to weaker teams, EDG became an afterthought in the race for the Champions trophy. Only 17.4% of VLR pickems chose EDG to even make it out of Group D.

The first hurdle towards a triumphant return to grace was a consistent EMEA competitor in FUT. The Turkish squad had a slow start to the year but slowly rose to fight for EMEA's top seeds, heating up for a top-six placement at Shanghai.

That hurdle was cleared as EDG cleaned up both Lotus and Bind while starting to look like the team that was pulling off big wins in 2023. On both maps, they favored double Controller and Initiator compositions which powered them to dominant 8-4 attacking halves. Aside from some individual heroics, FUT had no answer for the onslaught.

Too little too late.

Historically, Smoggy and CHICHOO had played majority Duelists and Sentinels respectively, but as the Controller duo, they won the day. Their combined +28 kill differential outshone even EDG's usual star, ZmjjKK . The duo also combined for twice as many clutches as the entirety of FUT. They took turns notching 4Ks in back-to-back rounds to push EDG's lead to 7-1 on Lotus to set the tone for the match.

On the other side of the field, FUT's stars were held in check. After EDG jumped out to that 7-1 lead on Lotus, cNed tried to turn the tides, jumping out on defense with three straight opening picks. Unfortunately for the Turks, cNed only managed seven kills outside of opening duels all map, and very rarely did someone else step up in the midround to pick up the slack.

Converting openings into victories was an even bigger challenge on Bind. A 15-8 opening kill record is typically correlated with a convincing win, but it took a second half comeback to tie the game at 10 all. Once EDG got their economy stabilized, they rose to the occasion to win the map and series.

Even when FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #6 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder had popularized the half-armor meta, FUT were choosing to save for full armor almost every round possible. Favoring Sheriffs instead of Classics in the eco rounds and full armor in the full buy rounds gave them some of the highest eco rates of any team throughout 2023. The effects of the Outlaw on economic management has pushed the meta back towards them somewhat, but this game was a prime example of the differences that still exist between them and the meta.

Despite being sent to far more eco rounds than EDG, FUT also had more full buys beyond 20,000 credits spent. EDG were more willing to accept half armor or mixed buys to potentially avoid an extra eco round or two each game. When Outlaws did not make an appearance, EDG's strategy found considerable value.

EDG's victory secured regional parity during the opening rounds of the group stage. Every Americas team faced a Pacific team, every EMEA team faced a Chinese team, and each region sent two teams to the winners match and two teams to the losers match.

FUT can still make a deep run in Champions, but they will have to get past Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #6 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov , a team with the talent to run anyone over if they have a good day. It will take a significant bounce back if the Turks want to replicate their top-eight performance from last year's Champs.

The winners match of Group D will pit EDG against the favorite from the group. G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf was chosen by over 29,000 pickems to take the winners match while EDG made an appearance in just over 2,900.

This puts EDG back in the position that originally endeared them to fans around the world: plucky underdogs.