Following a series of showmatches and year-end awards show, Riot revealed the results of the China Kickoff opening matchup draw. The event will have a 12 team, double-elimination bracket, with the best performing 2024 VCT teams earning a bye into the second round.

The top two teams will qualify to Masters Bangkok and earn Championship Points, while the teams that round out the top four will earn 1 Championship Point. This year, two teams will qualify to Champions Paris off of Championship Points, further rewarding year-long consistency.

Currently, specific times and dates are still to be announced, and the specific order of the matches is not final.

Kickoff 2025 will feature 12 teams in a double-elimation bracket (Picture by VALORANT Esports CN)

Xi Lai Gaming vs Wolves Esports

The region's newest team, Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #3 Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) YOU Yip Man Ho , will play against 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 , the most successful Chinese team in the off-season. Both teams went through roster moves after the 2024 circuit, with Wolves opting for a rebuild due to a 4-6 regular season and XLG needing to make changes due to the import rule and Wolves acquiring assistant coach Fayde.

After the roster changes, the teams faced off against each other three times in the off-season, twice in a best-of-five. Wolves came out on top with three wins, including a 3-0 in the Shanghai Esports Masters grand final.

The winner of this series will then play against Bilibili Gaming, who received a bye after qualifying to Champions 2024 on championship points.

TYLOO vs Titan Esports Club

The bracket will next pit two teams that failed to reach a playoff stage last year against each other. TYLOO TYLOO China Rank #24 5CM Ding Xuanpeng (丁宣鹏) Ninebody Ding Yi (丁毅) slowly Kelun Sun (孙科伦) hfmi0dzjc9z7 Zhang Juncheng (张峻程) Eren Yang Zhengwei (杨曾威) ended the 2024 regular season with a 4-6 record, while 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) remained at the bottom of the table, only winning three matches in the league and five total in an official series.

The teams used most of their off-season experimenting, playing with different lineups in an effort to identify their best approach for the upcoming season. They did not show results, however, as they ended towards the bottom in the off-season tournaments they played. In terms of roster changes, on paper, TEC had a more flashy pickup, however, signing former 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-game leader Haodong and coach AfteR .

The winner of the series will play against FunPlus Phoenix, the second best VCT CN team in 2024.

JDG Esports vs Dragon Ranger Gaming

Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #7 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Cangshu Zheng Yujun (手郑宇峻) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) TvirusLuke Chen Cheng-ching Ying Wang Chenxu (王晨旭) SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) will play against 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) in their opening series. The teams played against each other only once last year, but the cores are familiar with each other, having been protagonists (with JDG's stew and Viva then playing under Rare Atom Rare Atom China Rank #8 zhe Niu Zhe (牛哲) Satoshi Fei Zhixian (费郅贤) ZiXuan Liu Junwei (刘俊伟) Midnight Wang Yingjie (王英杰) ) of the final leg of the 2023 Ascension tournament and T2 circuit.

Both teams had middling success in 2024, with DRG reaching the top four in Kickoff and Stage 1, qualifying to Masters Shanghai, but JDG ending the year with a slightly better league record and attending the end-of-year playoffs. The teams had similar, if disappointing, results in the off-season, failing to make waves in the events they attended.

Trace Esports awaits them in the next round, a team that ended 2024 as a top three team in the region and reached third place in the Valorant Radiant Asia Invitational after defeating Gen.G and DRX.

All Gamers vs Nova Esports

Rounding out the opening matches, All Gamers All Gamers China Rank #20 nizhaoTZH Tang Zehao (唐哲昊) XiYiJi Luo Sen (罗森) Lsn Li Sinan (李思南) bunt Jiang He (姜河) monk Wang Haoyu (王浩宇) deLb Delbert Tanoto K1ra Huang Zhihao (黄志豪) will face off against Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #5 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) . The teams played each other recently in the off-season, with Nova Esports coming out on top twice.

In terms of results, Nova has had a better off-season than All Gamers, reaching two finals and defeating teams such as EDG, Wolves, and Trace, while AG has only taken wins against TYLOO and JDG. That said, All Gamers has played with a different lineup in each tournament, so those results will not necessarily reflect the actual performance of the team.

The team that comes out on top will need to play against EDward Gaming, the current world Champions, if they wish to remain in the upper bracket.

Kickoff China will begin on January 11 (Beijing time, exact schedule to be determined), with the event's finalist qualifying to Masters Bangkok.