Trace breeze past All Gamers to make Champions

The VCT China playoffs opened with a single-elimination game between Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #4 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) and All Gamers All Gamers China Rank #15 player Kevin Yang (杨凯文) bunt Jiang He (姜河) monk Wang Haoyu (王浩宇) deLb Delbert Tanoto Spitfires Xin Mingyan (辛明阳) K1ra Huang Zhihao (黄志豪) X3B Zhang Chongtian (张丛天) . Trace looked comfortable across both maps and took away AG's chances at Champions in a 2-0 series.

Aside from a slip-up against JDG Esports JDG Esports China Rank #9 YHchen Chen Yuhan (陳昱瀚) stew Park Young-chan (박영찬) Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) jkuro Yong Haochong (杨浩聪) Z1yan Liu Zihan (刘紫涵) sword9 Li Wei (李卫) , Trace had an otherwise stellar Stage 2 with a 4-1 record, including a win over FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix China Rank #5 Autumn Kale Dunne Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) AAAAY Zhang Yang (张杨) BerLIN Zhang Bolin (張柏霖) yosemite Wang Lei (王磊) . In contrast, All Gamers struggled to maintain form throughout the stage. AG ended with three straight losses to JDG, Trace, and FPX and narrowly squeaked into the playoffs as the eighth seed with a 5-5 record.

The map veto resulted in AG picking into Lotus, a map they had played just twice in 2024, despite it being Trace's second most played map with a 67% win rate, including an overtime victory over FPX. Trace picked into their comfort pick, Sunset, which they had played 12 times this year with a 58% win rate. Haven was left over as the decider.

AG picking into one of Trace's comforts proved a fatal mistake early on in the series as Trace looked dominant in the early stages of Lotus. A 9-3 first half on the attack was spearheaded by impactful lurks from Kai and heybay . Information from these lurks was capitalized upon by a slow control of the map that adapted well to AG's Deadlock and Cypher composition.

Oversteps in the anti-eco from Trace after winning the second pistol allowed AG to close the gap to just three rounds before Trace shut them down thanks to a high impact 3K from Biank to take the first map 13-7.

Kai displayed why he had been a top performer for his side in 2024 with the Sentinel dropping 23 kills and 175 ADR across the 20 rounds played. A +13 K/D combined with an 80% opening duel win rate was too much for AG as they struggled to compete with Trace's individuals in multiple pivotal moments.

Trace once again took the pistol to kick off Sunset but this time around AG looked much more composed. Trace operated on a game plan of taking aggressive map control throughout their defense with multiple set plays but strong performances from Spitfires and deLb allowed AG to take a slight lead at 7-5 before moving to the defense.

Trace took their fourth pistol in a row to start the second half and carried this momentum to an early close. Trace managed to take five straight to start the second half thanks to their fourth pistol in a row and back-to-back 2v4s that propelled their momentum. AG managed to take just three rounds before Trace took Sunset 13-10 and the series 2-0.

Another strong performance from former BLG player Biank with 18 kills and 149 ADR on Sova aided in his team's strong showing across the series. After relinquishing his role as an IGL and under the leadership of heybay, Biank has blossomed into a strong supportive element to complement the existing firepower of Kai and FengF.

Trace have guaranteed qualification for Champions 2024 with their win over All Gamers and will face off against FPX in the double-elimination bracket.

AG have been eliminated from Champions qualification contention.