Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #5 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) rolled over 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) 2-0 in the first round of the VCT China: Stage 2 playoffs, locking in their spot at this year's Valorant Champions.

More than keeping Bilibili alive in the China playoffs, this win also locked the standings leaderboard for the region. 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) , FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix China Rank #8 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) , 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) , and Bilibili Gaming will all represent China in South Korea next month.

BLG's clean sweep is deceiving, as the team went into the final stretches of regulation on both Sunset and Icebox. The former boiled down to a more consistent effort from Bilibili who, despite not accruing huge round streaks, slowly inched their way to a 13-9 win.

Despite the similar 13-7 scoreline, Icebox played out differently as the scoreline was tied at 7-7 shortly after switching sides. Two rounds later, an ace from yosemite at the back of the A site unlocked the game for his side, allowing Bilibili to chain six rounds on their way to victory.

Yosemite's ace was far from the only stat making him stand out, as the flex player capped at 328 ACS on Icebox, the highest of the match and the highest of the map by over 100. Teammate whzy had a similar performance on Sunset, albeit while accruing two more kills at 23 and far fewer assists, scoring four on Sunset to Yosemite's 10 on Icebox.

Who cares if it's against an eco?

With this win, Bilibili maintain their flawless record of Champions attendance, and are the only team to do so alongside EDward Gaming.

BLG can finally breathe a sigh of relief this year. After Champions and reaching the VCT last year, the team's road has been full of bumps, as the squad was unable to reach playoffs in both Kickoff and Stage 1. In Stage 2, the team has gone on a near-flawless run.

The only pebble in their shoe in the second half of the season is EDward Gaming, who bested them 2-0 in a tight-knit affair. And that's exactly who Bilibili are facing tomorrow in the upper semifinals.

Historically, BLG have always been Robin to EDG's Batman. Only twice in seven encounters — three Bo5s — have the former managed to win a map against the latter, and never have they secured a full victory. But there's always been something on the line: elimination, Champions qualification, a VCT slot.

Now that they're only fighting for regional gold, who knows what could happen.