In a matchup between the remaining two Chinese teams in Valorant Champions 2023, it was 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) coming out on top in a 2-1 victory over Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #3 B3ar Yang Zhanxiong (杨瞻雄) whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) . In their fifth matchup of 2023, the result was once against the same, a victory for EDG. This one, however, was much closer than the previous ones.

“I really didn't want to eliminate them,” ZmjjKK said after the match, “it was the last thing I wanted to do.” The respect from both teams was evident throughout the match, as the two Chinese teams battled it out to remain in the tournament.

With a tough road ahead in the lower bracket, EDG will have to dig deep to find their form. One of the hottest teams in the VCT this year, they are looking to take the next step at Champions 2023.

On the opening map of Bind, it was EDG showing their experience on the international stage with a dominating 10-2 opening half.

In the game's first round, CHICHOO clutched a 1v1 to win the round, and EDG never looked back.

Chichoo's 17 kills and multiple clutches powered EDG to a dominating 13-4 victory en route to a 1-0 series lead. With four players posting a rating of 1.20 or higher, this truly was an all-around team performance.

The second map would not go as planned for EDG though, as they fell behind 8-4 at half, and were dominated for much of the first half of play.

A furious comeback on Split would send the game to overtime, where the teams would trade rounds to tie the game at 13.

In the end, it was BLG who would send the game the distance with a 15-13 win on Split.

After a rough first map, whzy exploded for 31 kills on Split with an outrageous combat score that topped 300. Playing the Raze, whzy managed to find 10 first kills to only two first deaths.

whzy whzy with an incredible map 2 (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

With the series tied at 1, one team would be heading home after Haven, and the final map did not disappoint. After jumping out to a 4-0 lead, BLG would drop four consecutive rounds en route to a 6-6 half.

After a back and forth second half, EDG found themselves ahead 12-10 in round 23. Smoggy found himself in a 1v2 on the C site, and managed to find the first kill. He used his Breach Rolling Thunder, to draw out the final opponent, to clutch the 1v2 to win the match.

When asked about the clutches throughout the match, Chichoo's attention wasn't on the clutches they earned.

“There were definitely a lot of clutches out there today that we didn't convert, so we need to focus on that,” Chichoo said.

Going forward, EDG will need to be at their best if they are going to make it out of a lower bracket that already includes tournament favorite FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder .

EDG continue their lower bracket run and will play again on Sunday afternoon. BLG are out of Champions after showing a lot of promise in their international debut, and look to build on their success in 2024.