In the lower bracket semifinal of the VCT 2025 China Kickoff, 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) defeated 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 SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) and kept their Masters Bangkok hopes alive. EDG looked refreshed after their recent win over 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 and DRG struggled to keep up with the teamwork and pace of the champs.

DRG picked Haven to start the series, but that proved to be a mistake. EDG was fresh off a 13-0 win on Haven, and history repeated itself when EDG won the pistol and converted the bonus round. It was clear as the rounds continued that EDG had fast-tracked their way to a second consecutive 13-0 on Haven. ZmjjKK was frying, while both Smoggy and CHICHOO provided that secondary fragging to win EDG their 26th consecutive round.

CHICHOO ended the map with only one death, while both Smoggy and ZmjjKK ended the map with 17 kills in 13 rounds.

Map two was Pearl, with DRG opting for Jett and Fade while EDG stuck to Neon and Sova. EDG won the pistol round, but DRG won the bonus to get their first round of the series on the board. The half had more parity than all of Haven, but EDG remained on top at the half with a 7-5 lead.

ZmjjKK gets a quick 3k on Pearl attack.

A DRG pistol win tied the game at 7-7, and the map continued as a back-and-forth contest. TvirusLuke was the driving force for DRG on the Jett, contesting the EDG retakes on the A site. Just as it looked like DRG could steal the map away and extend the series, multiple 4K rounds from nobody sealed the map 13-9 and the series 2-0.

With this win, EDG will face Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #4 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 lower bracket finals, while DRG are eliminated from both the China Kickoff and Masters Bangkok.