Only three teams had a chance at playoffs: 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) Zhao , Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Rank #20 AC Wei Jiacong (韦家聪) Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) Abo Han Bohao (韩博皓) kawaii Piao Min (朴民) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) , and 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) .

Unlike other regions where the format was a regular round-robin, VCT China had Trace and TEC play first. The loser would face Bilibili immediately while the winner would face BLG in the following match.

In the end, Trace triumphed as they handled Titan, trudged past Bilibili in two overtime maps, and moved on to the playoffs, keeping their hopes alive for a spot at Masters: Madrid.

Trace take down Titan after first map overtime loss

Titan Esports began the game on Breeze with four straight rounds until Trace stopped the momentum by winning five of their own. A timeout from Trace in round 10 allowed Trace to wrap the first half 7-5.

The second half started with a pistol and anti-eco win for TEC, but a series of back-and-forth rounds ensued where both teams tried to outdo one another with two very different styles. Trace's aggressive assault got the upper hand by round 22, but Titan's slow and methodical maneuvering got the map to overtime.

The quintuple overtime featured otherworldly plays and clutches, starting off with FengF 's 1v2 clutch to keep Trace alive at 13-13. Rb 's 16 hp clutch on round 28 once again left overtime going and gave Titan matchpoint after his 4k on round 29 defense. FengF replicated Rb's defense with a 3K of his own the round after, and Trace furthered along to 16-15 with a solid attack. In the end, Titan won the next three rounds with a strong B push, a 1v1 clutch defuse from LockM , and a mid crunch to A, securing the first map in a grueling 18-16.

Despite losing the overtime slugfest, Trace Esports outperformed their opponents, scoring 22 first kills, ten more than TEC. Unsurprisingly, FengF's 40 kills nearly gave TE a lead in the game, but Titan stood strong with kawaii 's 30-25 and Rb's 29-25 KDRs.

Trace moved on to Lotus, their pick but also a map that TEC had never lost until today. The odds were in favor of Trace as they started their attack side 8-0 and only lost rounds 9 and 12 due to a retake and a 1v1 clutch by LockM, thereby ending the half 10-2.

Despite losing the pistol, Titan clawed back with four straight rounds and were primed to win a fifth until LockM got a taste of his own play as YOU stuck the defuse, bringing Trace to matchpoint. In-game leader heybay 's C-hold stopped Titan in their tracks and tied the series 1-1.

Trace's solid teamplay earned them ten rounds on their attack half, and everyone but Kai had a positive KDA and had more kills than Rb in both statistics. FengF once again topped the charts with his 19-11 KD and 302 ACS.

The final map Split was another story of Trace starting out with a large advantage, this time by five rounds straight before conceding round six from TEC's three-man retake. Three more rounds for Trace had TEC pull through with two more retakes, save for losing round 11 – leaving Trace with a 9-3 lead.

Like on Lotus, Titan pulled through after losing the pistol and anti-eco with five more rounds of their own, thanks to Rb's aggression in A and mid ropes. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as Trace won the next two rounds flawlessly and ended the map 13-8.

Rb was a crucial element for TEC's success as he outperformed all Trace players, including his Raze counterpart FengF, with 24-14 KD and 322 ACS. As for Trace, Kai's impact and flexibility earned him the MVP for map 3.

Bilibili sweep tired Titan

Having faced a loss on their undefeated map, Titan opened the game by picking Lotus. However, even after winning the first two rounds, Bilibili fought back with five rounds of their own. TEC would only win one more round as BLG swept past with eight more rounds, including a 1v1 clutch amongst IGLs in the final round – in which B3ar came out on top to win 13-3.

As the pattern continued, all the BLG players outperformed their counterparts, with Rb being his team's only positive KDA player.

Even after losing the pistol and anti-eco rounds, Bilibili continued their thrashing on Ascent as they won six more rounds in a row, thanks to Knight and whzy stifling their opponents. However, Titan managed to stop the bleeding by winning three of the four rounds remaining and trail halftime 5-7.

BLG started the second half by ending all of Titan's momentum with a strong defense, leading to matchpoint in five rounds, with round 16 featuring a quick eco 4K for ace whzy. Titan came back with three consolation rounds from Rb and kawaii's post-plant holds, but BLG wrapped the map 13-8 the round after.

Titan Esports Club were completely stunned by BLG's whzy, who racked up 25 kills and 314 ACS to his tally. The next closest was once again Rb with 17 kills and 225 ACS. TEC are set to return in April.

Trace survive against Bilibili and qualify for playoffs

The third and final series was Trace Esports awaiting Bilibili Gaming and the final chance to qualify for playoffs.

Trace started the game with Lotus, as both teams had dominant wins over TEC on the map earlier today. However, Bilibili had the upper hand as they tallied up four straight rounds on defense. A chaotic round 5 post-plant gave TE their first round, but BLG never stood firm and gave Trace only three rounds to BLG's nine.

Trace entered the second half with wins on the pistol and anti-eco, but after losing the bonus, Flex1n clutched in a critical 1v3 4K to defuse, turning the momentum for TE. Following another win and two losses – in which BLG came to matchpoint at 12-7 – Trace fought tooth-and-nail to stay in the game, winning four more rounds to bring the game to round 24. With only one round left, Bilibili came out on top and took the first map.

Bilibili then moved to Sunset, one of TE's weaker maps. Once again, BLG started the game with four straight rounds, but after an early timeout by coach destroyeR , Trace managed to turn the tides by winning six of their own, leading 6-4. Bilibili tied up the half 6-6 thanks to two 1v1 clutch defuses from Biank and Knight, respectively.

The second half had Bilibili and Trace exchanging rounds after rounds, as both teams were down by one or two rounds. From round 21, TE moved to matchpoint after winning three rounds in a row, but B3Ar denied a defuse with his 4K and Bilibili won the final regulation round.

Overtime would only last two phases as both teams won their attacks, but Trace closed the map out with their defense in round 28. Bilibili had 19 first kills to Trace's 10, while FengF and yosemite both earned 28 kills, and the rest of Trace had a positive KDA and above 15 kills.

The final map was Bind, and unlike the first two in the series, Trace led their defensive half 8-4 from a flawless pistol. For the rounds that Bilibili won, yosemite and whzy played a big role as their fragging and shutdowns were crucial.

Despite the slow start in the first half, BLG came back strong with their defense, always leaving Trace at a loss with their solid retakes and stalwart holds. With the game at 11-10, TE fired back with two rounds, the first being a 2v3 postplant hold from YOU and Flex1n by using the latter's Viper pit. The second was a flawless fast B push that left two BLG players saving. Round 24 featured yet another B push. TE seemed poised to win the game with Flex1n's 3K, but whzy clutched the 2v2 and defused, moving the game to the day's third and final overtime.

Overtime went only for two rounds, but was a close affair. Bilibili's A push led Trace to attempt a 5v5 retake. Kills went back and forth, with Yosemite getting three, but Kai and heybay stopped the postplant and defused. The final round was yet another A push from TE but knight opened the round with two kills and FengF traded with two more. Int a 3v3 post-plant, Flex1n's molly delayed yosemite and B3Ar, but FengF and Flex1n whittled the clock down second by second. With the BLG players getting the final kills, it seemed that overtime would continue, but the game was decided by only 0.13 seconds left on the clock, leaving the spike to explode and Trace to victory.

Ex-BLG substitute Kai showed his former team why he should've been a starter, as he racked up 29 kills with only 15 deaths, the lowest from anyone on the server. The next closest was Yosemite, with 23 kills and 16 deaths.

Trace will face 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) in playoffs, with the match scheduled for March 1. Bilibili will return to competition in April for VCT China Split 1.