China Kickoff is underway, and began with the first pair of matches seeing the region's newest team debut and some of the offseason's busiest take the stage after a long wait.

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) vs. 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)

After finishing eighth in league play last year, TYLOO made significant roster changes, bringing in a brand-new coaching staff and replacing two players to add to their existing core. On the other hand, Titan finished last in the region. They secured just three wins in league play, and made changes in the offseason, bringing in a new head coach and two new players.

The first map of VCT in 2025 saw the return of Fracture, which Titan picked, and the reintroduction of the game's newest map Abyss, picked by TYLOO. Pearl was set to be the decider, but it was not necessary.

Fracture, which played out with a more defense-sided tilt in this match, finished tight. After going down 11-6, TYLOO brought the score to within one round, looking to force overtime, but a carefully executed rotate on attack saw Titan close the map 13-11.

Abyss played out similarly, beginning with Titan looking to take a big lead and ending with a tight finish. After falling down 5-0 early, TYLOO responded accordingly, winning six of the next seven rounds to enter halftime all squared. The match would stay tight the whole way through once again, and the final round played out on the map's B site, where players of both teams tight-roped the Astra Cosmic Divide to close things out in chaotic fashion.

slowly , one of TYLOO's offseason acquisitions, paced his team in kills in both maps, finishing with 43 while playing Sova and Astra. For Titan, recently signed Duelist player Dynamite led the team and matched slowly with 43 kills, while Korean Initiator Rb had 40 of his own.

TYLOO drops to the lower bracket, awaiting the loser of 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) and 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) . Titan moves on to the upper quarterfinals, set to take on FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix China Rank #9 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) .

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 vs. 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 long-awaited VCT debut of China Ascension winners Xi Lai Gaming came against Wolves Esports, a team that finished towards the bottom of the region last year. Both teams made changes on and off the stage, resulting in a handful of debuts that also saw a coach take on his former team.

After parting ways with former in-game leader Kr1stal and fellow Ascension winner MrCANI , XLG debuted a relatively new-look team. Returning just Rarga , the Ascension finals MVP, a team with fewer set roles and more interchangeability took the stage for Xi Lai. Wolves have had a busy offseason of their own, resulting in a lot of built-up intrigue. Perhaps their biggest signing of the offseason was Lysoar , who played at Masters Madrid and Champions 2024 with FPX last year. This match also saw new Wolves head coach Fayde go up against Xi Lai for the first time since parting ways.

Xi Lai Gaming won their debut match 2-0, the match played on Lotus and Split. Lotus was Xi Lai's pick and Split was Wolves's pick.

The three-site, traditionally attacker-sided map played into the hands of Xi Lai, who started on defense. They entered halftime with a 7-5 lead, and built upon that in their attacking half to squeeze past Wolves 13-11, winning five of the last six rounds. Wolves Duelist Spring led the map in kills with 29, but his efforts were not enough.

Split started out with Xi Lai setting the tone, too. A flawless pistol round to open the map saw them cruise to an 8-4 halftime advantage with their attack half left to play. Xi Lai ran a double Controller composition, while Wolves opted for a double Sentinel one with Cypher and Vyse.

The lead ballooned to 11-4 before Wolves got on a run of their own, but it was too late by then. Xi Lai Gaming closed out the map and the series 13-9.

Xi Lai starts their debut VCT season with a win and will move on to face 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) in the upper quarterfinals. Wolves fall to the lower bracket and face elimination, awaiting the loser of Nova Esports Nova Esports China Rank #6 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) and 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) .