The second match of the day was a third straight EMEA vs. China duel in the opening rounds of Champions 2024. After 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) and 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) fell to Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius and FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #6 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , 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) was looking to secure China's first win, up against Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #5 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso .

A back and forth battle led to a massive upset that knocked out over 95% of pickems as Trace finally got China their first win of the event.

What an international debut.

Trace were happy to be able to select Ascent, a map on which they were undefeated all year long. With their comfort pick in hand, they put the pressure on Vitality early. Kai found openings in Vitality's defense round after round to help Trace out to a 6-1 lead.

Even once Vitality started to get rounds on the board, it didn't look clean. Sayf was stuck in a rut, and it took a round-eight clutch to start to snap him out of it. Even after losing a few rounds, Trace kept Vitality's economy on the brink. Their next round win immediately put Vitality down to an eco to give Trace a big chance to pull away with a 9-3 attacking half.

Vitality did their best to make the map difficult to convert. Winning the round 11 eco round allowed them to salvage five rounds in the half. Even after losing the second pistol to a FengF clutch, they kept hanging in the map.

The proactivity fell heavily in Trace's favor, even on defense. Tiles crunches found kills in multiple rounds, but Vitality adapted to the pressure well. Trace's site anchors were unable to hold firm against Vitality's measured site executes. Slowly but surely, Vitality clawed their way back to force overtime, winning six of the final seven rounds.

After letting regulation slip through their fingers, Trace recovered their momentum in overtime. Their 15-13 victory was fueled by a great team effort across the board. A +6 advantage in first bloods and +15 advantage in kills was finally converted into a win.

Even though Trace are newcomers to the international stage, Vitality pointed out that they are still trying to learn as well.

“We still have a long way [to go] in terms of experience we have on the international stage,” Sayf said after the match.

“I think they've played some of the best attack macro on Ascent that we've seen,” Vitality's head coach Gorilla noted. He compared Trace's excellence to Vitality's beatdown at the hands of FUT on Ascent during the regular season.

Vitality picked their most played and won map, Sunset, but that also happened to be a similar story for Trace. Both teams had been tested thoroughly on the map heading into Champions.

Keeping the pattern from Ascent, Trace won the pistol and looked like they were going to pull away with a big lead again. This time however, Vitality stabilized earlier. An eco win in round 5 turned the tides, and Vitality never looked back.

My classic doesn't do that.

Vitality mounted a stalwart defense towards the B site. Despite clearing runneR 's Cypher trips every round, Trace could not figure out how to take and hold the site. Their repeated attempts to challenge that side of the map cost them an 8-4 disadvantage at the half.

Finally, Vitality won a pistol with a shock dart double kill from trexx , and they ran away with the second half. Unlike Trace, they had no trouble attacking the B site and steamrolled it repeatedly.

Trace didn't go down without a few heroics. Biank found a nasty 1v3 clutch to try to ignite the comeback. Unfortunately, it only inspired incredibly overambitious individual play, and Trace threw away the following anti-eco to lose the map 13-7.

Always a threat.

After being Vitality's sole shining light on Ascent, trexx was even better on Sunset. His 24-8 statline was built on eight multikills that stifled Trace at every turn.

Unlike Sunset, both teams came into Champs with questionable records on Bind. Both had a 33% win rate, and Trace were trying to rebound from a five-map losing streak. Most teams don't run a sentinel on Bind, but Trace went for both Cypher and Deadlock.

Vitality knew how to shift gears against Trace's unconventional composition. Starting on the attack, they patiently waited out Trace's limited utility and understood how to diligently clear out the trips without rushing into them. They slowly marched out to a 5-1 lead.

Trace looked to apply early-round pressure to punish Vitality's default spreads. Trap plays being set up B Long started to find value and opening picks. In the end, winning gunfights allowed Trace to pull back a 6-6 half.

With two Sentinels, Trace lacked the utility to play an extensive give-and-go around the map. Instead, they leaned into the strengths of their composition, quickly executing onto a site and then using their Sentinels to hold. Vitality had absolutely no answer, and the map spiraled out of their control.

“On Bind I think they just ran at us,” Gorilla said after the match.

Across all three maps LuoK1ng was a standout performer, putting up 64 kills to 44 deaths. On the other side, trexx tried to hold on with a +22 kill differential, but he got far more sporadic help from the rest of his team.

Trace moved into the winners match of group C to face LEV for a spot in the playoffs. Vitality were dropped to the losers match where they will have to get past Talon to stay alive.

Trace offered their expectations for their upcoming match.

“We [just] want to learn from the experience against Leviatán,” Luok1ng remarked.

Trace's international debut may end up being more than just a learning experience at this rate.

Banner image by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games