Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #2 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) heybay Ho Shun Hei Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞) secured a victory to advance to the VCT China Kickoff play-ins by defeating Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #6 o0o0o Ye Xiaodong (叶晓东) SWERL Ali Kobraee CB Wang Qingchuan (王庆川) Ezeir Zhao Zejun (赵泽骏) GuanG Guang Honglin (光洪霖) 2-0. They became the first team to qualify for the Champions Tour 2024: China Kickoff play-ins. In a decisive match, Trace Esports outclassed Nova, clinching map wins of 13-5 and 13-4 in the Group A decider.

The second match of the day ended with a result similar to the first. JDG Esports JDG Esports China Rank #11 stew Park Young-chan (박영찬) jkuro Yong Haochong (杨浩聪) MrCANI Chen Tingxun (陈廷训) Babyblue Geng Haoran (耿浩然) Z1yan Liu Zihan (刘紫涵) was defeated by Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Rank #19 Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) Dynamite Zhao Zihao (赵梓浩) B1ack Li Songtai (李松泰) Abo Han Bohao (韩博皓) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) in a rematch of the opening match of Group B, won by TEC 2-0. After losing the opening match against TEC in heartbreaking fashion, TEC overcame a very poor start to win the match 2-1.

BLG BLG Inactive won 2-0 over Wolves Esports Wolves Esports China Rank #4 SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) Spring Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) Juicy Tyler James Aeria in dominating fashion to secure the third and final spot in the VCT China Kickoff play-ins. After a strong showing against 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) , Wolves looked primed to claim the final play-in spot in the Group C decider. However, they were unable to find their top formagainst BLG, and their hopes for Masters: Madrid ended in two maps.

Trace Esports defeat Nova to secure the first spot in play-ins

FengF spearheaded Trace's performance with 42 kills, while Kai contributed 37 playing sentinel. CB led Nova with 26 kills, albeit in a losing effort. In the opening pistol round on Split, Trace Esports, playing defensively, swiftly overwhelmed Nova in less than 20 seconds, marking one of the quickest pistol rounds in VCT history.

The quick victory in the pistol round foreshadowed Trace's dominance throughout the match. Despite a competitive first half resulting in a 7-5 scoreline favoring Trace, they secured five consecutive rounds on the attacking side, sealing the first map with a resounding 13-5 win. FengF led Trace with 22 kills, while YOU contributed 19.

Transitioning to Lotus, Nova initially kept pace but eventually succumbed. Trailing 2-0 after the opening rounds, Nova looked to get back into the map. Despite tying the game at 3-3, Nova fell behind 8-4 at the end of the opening half. Trace would maintain their momentum on the attacking side, securing five consecutive rounds for a commanding 13-4 victory.

Trace's dominance was evident as they dropped only nine rounds across both maps. FengF continued to lead the way, securing 20 kills on the second map.

With this victory, Trace qualifies for the play-ins, where they will compete in two best-of-three matches to secure a spot in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Nova's journey in the kickoff tournament ends, and they will aim to bounce back in Split 1.

Titan Esports Club to clinch second spot in play-ins

Rb , the former star player from DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) and the most experienced player on the roster, led his team with 50 kills to a 2-1 come-from-behind win to qualify for the play-ins. For JDG, it was stew who was top in kills with a game-high 61 .

On Bind, TEC won the opening two rounds and got out to an early lead. However, JDG won 8 of the next 10 rounds and took an 8-4 lead into the half. TEC had many chances to close out rounds over the first half, but several misplays led to their four-round deficit.

In the second half, JD Gaming was able to dominate with relative ease, winning five out of six rounds to take the opening map 13-5. The map was finished off by Stew winning a 1v2 to clinch the map for JD.

TEC came into Icebox facing elimination, and they were able to get off to a much better start, taking a 7-5 lead after the opening half. After six straight round wins in the second half, TEC found themselves one round away from elimination. TEC won the next two rounds, and now found themselves down 12-11. In the final round of regulation, Stew had a chance to clinch the match, but a missed shot let kawaii stick the defuse just in the nick of time, sending the game into overtime.

In the third and final map, a close first half saw the score knotted up at 6-6. After a back-and-forth second half, TEC secured seven more rounds to win a hard-fought match 13-10. QiuYe led the way for TEC on map 3 with 24 kills of his own after switching over to the sentinel role played on the first two maps by Rb. Stew had his weakest performance of the match on Lotus, finishing 15-18 and not having the same impact as he did in the first two maps.

Titan Esports Club advances to the play-ins tomorrow to take part in a round-robin to decide the fourth and final playoff spot. JD Gaming is out of the tournament after losing twice to TEC and will look to regroup for the opening league split.

BLG defeat Wolves 2-0 to clinch final play-in spot

On sunset, BLG fell behind early after three quick round wins from Wolves. After losing the pistol and eco rounds, Wolves won their bonus and found themselves with a decently sized lead. Five straight round wins for BLG later, and they had a 5-3 lead. After a back-and-forth half, Wolves finished with a slight lead of 7-5.

In their attacking half, Wolves did not find the same success, and BLG used a dominating performance to take the map 13-9. Eight round wins on their defensive side proved to be the difference for BLG as they finally started to get comfortable on their map pick. BLG were led by their star player, whzy , who contributed 23 kills while playing as Raze. He consistently found impactful frags in this game and helped BLG secure a map one victory. pl1xx and coldfish were the top performers for Wolves with 17 kills apiece.

Moving to Icebox, Wolves looked to rebound on their own map pick. After winning the first two rounds, Wolves lost the next eight rounds, putting themselves into a big hole that proved difficult to dig out of. After securing one more round, they found themselves down 9-3 at the half.

In the second half, BLG quickly found themselves up 12-6 with six chances to put the match away. After a couple of misplays, they were only up 12-10, and suddenly the map seemed within reach for Wolves. In round 23, however, BLG were able to close out the map 13-10 and take the match. Coldfish led the way for Wolves with 21 kills on the map, while yosemite led a balanced attack for BLG with 20 kills.

BLG claim the third and final spot in the play-ins tomorrow and will participate in the three-team round-robin. They will look to claim the final playoff spot. Wolves are out of the kickoff tournament despite a promising showing against two of China's top teams.