Valorant's 2025 esports season is just around the corner as the four top flight divisions, including EMEA, America, Pacific, and China will start this month.
In this article we will have a look at the region of the current world champions: China. The VCT 2025 China Kickoff will allow two teams to represent the country at the VCT 2025 Masters Bangkok, the first international top-flight competition of the year.
Here's everything you need to know about the competition!
Format
The VCT 2025 China Kickoff will consist of a double-elimination bracket with BO3 matches. This means that teams will be able to lose one game before being officially knocked out of the competition. Only the bracket's grand final and the Lower Bracket Final will be BO5 games.
The top two seeds at the VCT 2025 China Kickoff will qualify for the VCT 2025 Masters Bangkok. The first and second seeds will get three and two VCT 2025 China Points, respectively. Meanwhile, the third and fourth-best seeds will get one VCT 2025 China Points.
Dates and schedule
The VCT 2025 China Kickoff will begin on January 11 and will conclude on January 25. Here's a look at all of the matches that will be played and the times:
Upper Bracket
Upper Bracket Round 1
- Match 1: TYLOO vs. Titan Esports Club (January 11, 9 AM UTC)
- Match 2: XLG Esports vs. Wolves Esports (January 11, 12 PM UTC)
- Match 3: JD Gaming vs. Dragon Ranger (January 12, 9 AM UTC)
- Match 4: All Gamers vs. Nova Esports (January 12, 12 PM UTC)
Upper Bracket Round 2
- Match 5: FunPlus Phoenix vs. Winner Match 1 (January 16, 9 AM UTC)
- Match 6: Bilibili Gaming vs. Winner Match 2 (January 16, 12 PM UTC)
- Match 7: Trace Esports vs. Winner Match 3 (January 17, 9 AM UTC)
- Match 8: EDward Gaming vs. Winner Match 4 (January 17, 12 PM UTC)
Upper Bracket Semifinals
- Match 13: Winner Match 5 vs. Winner Match 6 (January 20, 9 AM UTC)
- Match 14: Winner Match 7 vs. Winner Match 8 (January 20, 12 PM UTC)
Upper Bracket Final
- Match 19: Winner Match 8 vs. Winner Match 9 (January 23, 9 AM UTC)
Lower Bracket
Lower Bracket Round 1
- Match 9: Loser Match 3 vs. Loser Match 5 (January 18, 9 AM UTC)
- Match 10: Loser Match 4 vs. Loser Match 6 (January 18, 12 PM UTC)
- Match 11: Loser Match 1 vs. Loser Match 7 (January 19, 9 AM UTC)
- Match 12: Loser Match 2 vs. Loser Match 8 (January 19, 12 PM UTC)
Lower Bracket Round 2
- Match 15: Winner Match 12 vs. Winner Match 11 (January 21, 9 AM UTC)
- Match 16: Winner Match 9 vs. Winner Match 10 (January 21, 12 AM UTC)
Lower Bracket Quarterfinals
- Match 17: Loser Match 13 vs. Winner Match 15 (January 21, 9 AM UTC)
- Match 18: Loser Match 14 vs. Winner Match 16 (January 21, 12 AM UTC)
Lower Bracket Semifinal
- Match 20: Winner Match 17 vs. Winner Match 18 (January 23, 12 PM UTC)
Lower Bracket Final
- Match 21: Loser Match 19 vs. Winner Match 20 (January 24, 9 AM UTC)
Grand Final
The VCT 2025 China Kickoff grand final will be played on January 25 at 9 AM UTC. While both teams will automatically qualify for the VCT 2025 Masters Shanghai after reaging the grand final, the match will give the winner a better seeding position and one extra VCT 2025 China Point.
Teams
Here's a look at all of the teams that will take part in the VCT 2025 China Kickoff:
EDward Gaming
The Valorant Champions 2024 winners are the favorites to take China's first seed at the VCT 2025 Masters Bangkok. Before that, EDward Gaming had finished in 5th - 6th and 7th - 8th place in Madrid and Shanghai, respectively.
The team's international results combined with the roster's consistency in China are too much to consider any other roster when talking about the region's top seed.
FunPlus Phoenix
Overall, FunPlus Phoenix's 2024 was a year of consistency both in China and on the international stage. However, while the players' results in their home region were great, with back-to-back second-place finishes only behing the eventual world champions EDward Gaming, the performances were negative abroad as they were groupped staged in both Madrid, Shanghai, and Seoul.
While a change was needed, FunPlus Phoenix has only made one roster move as the team has added the former Bilibili Gaming player Wang "yosemite" Lei to replace Liang "Lyosar" Youhao, who signed for Wolves Esports.
Trace Esports
It's fair to say Trace Esports was one of the most positive surprises in the Chinese Valorant competitive scene. After being extremely close to qualify for Madrid and Shanghai, the Chinese side finally reached international status after qualifying for Seoul. There, they surprisingly topped the standings of Group C after wins against Team Vitality and Leviatán.
Unfortunately for the Chinese roster, they were sent home after back-to-back 0-2 playoff defeats against the eventual champions EDward Gaming and the South Korean side of DRX. Given the team's surprising performances throughout the 2024 season, Trace Esports decided to not make any changes ahead of the start of the 2025 season.
Bilibili Gaming
After missing out on the VCT 2024 Masters Madrid and the VCT 2024 Masters Shanghai, Bilibili Gaming surprisingly qualified for the Valorant Champions 2024 after a fourth-place finish in the VCT 2024 China Stage 2. Eventually, Bilibili Gaming was knocked out after back-to-back 0-2 defeats against Fnatic and KRÜ Esports.
Throughout October 2024, the Chinese side announced a couple of roster changes as the team parted ways with Wang "yosemite" Lei after he signed for FunPlus Phoenix and dropped Luo "Flex1bn" Rui to add the former substitute Lu "Levius" Yingzhong to the team's starting lineup.
All Gamers
All Gamers had an underwhelming start to the 2024 season as the Chinese team finished at the bottom of the standings of the VCT 2024 China Kickoff. However, the roster quickly experienced an improvement, which was still not enough to qualify for neither of Madrid, Shanghai, or Seoul.
Surprisingly, All Gamers' have made a total of six player additions to the team's Valorant roster since October 2024, sticking with a seven-men roster.
JD Gaming
JD Gaming's first full Valorant season wasn't great at all as the team couldn't qualify for any international competition. In an attempt to improve the roster's chances of making it internationally, the team added Geng "babyblue" Haoran and Chen "MrCANI" Ting-hsun who will make their top-flight debuts later this month.
Nova Esports
Nova Esports has always been seen as a mid-table roster in China's Valorant top flight. However, the Chinese-majority squad surprised everyone at the Asian off-season tournament Superb Cup with a 3-1 win against EDward Gaming.
TYLOO
TYLOO's 2024 season was discrete as the Chinese roster finished the season in eighth place. In an attempt to improve the team's results, TYLOO added the VCT 2024 China Ascension players Ding "5CM" Yipeng and Sun "slowly" Kelun to the roster.
Wolves Esports
In 2024, Wolves Esports was far away from making it internationally as the English Premier League side finished in ninth place. However, the team's signings during the off-season combined with the team's most-recent results certainly give Wolves Esports some hope.
In October 2024, Wolves Esports announced the signing of Liang "Lysoar" Youhao, who played for FunPlus Phoenix in multiple international competitions, including the past two Valorant Champions editions and the past two VCT Masters. His experience should automatically improve the squad.
Only one month later, Wolves Esports added Tayler "juicy" Aeria, a highly-experienced Valorant player who competed for Bleed Esports as he helped the team to win the VCT 2023 Ascension Pacific. After partying ways with Bleed Esports, the Singaporean joined Disguised for the 2024 season.
Dragon Ranger Gaming
After qualifying for China's top flight following the team's VCT 2023 Ascension China win, Dragon Ranger Gaming has been through multiple ups and downs.
The team was one match away from qualifying for the VCT 2024 Masters Madrid and qualified for the VCT 2024 Masters Shanghai after a third-place finish in China's first stage. However, Dragon Ranger Gaming finished in tenth place in China's second stage, which meant the roster would miss out on the Valorant Champions 2024.
Since then, Dragon Ranger Gaming has made three signings as the team added the Taiwanese players Lin "SpiritZ1" Ding-yu and Cheng "Cangshu" Yu-chun, as well as the Chinese player Luo "Flex1n" Rui, who comes from Bilibili Gaming.
Titan Esports Club
After a season where Titan Esports Club finished at the bottom of the standings of the VCT 2024 China, the team decided to make deep roster changes starting with the addition of the former EDward Gaming player Guo "Haodong" Haodong. The Chinese player won the Valorant Champions 2024 as a coach and now is back to the server as he will play for Titan Esports Club.
Titan Esports Club's roster was completed with the addition of Zhao "dynamite" Zihao, who will make his professional debut this season.
XLG Esports
After winning the VCT 2024 Ascension China XLG Esports earned the right to compete in China's top-flight in the 2025 season. However, the roster experienced three departures as Chen "MrCANI" Ting-hsun, Savva "Kr1stal" Fedorov joined JD Gaming and Global Esports, while Zhuo "Mart1n" Zhengjie was benched. Instead, XLG Esports signed Yip "YoU" Man-ho, Zhong "coconut" Hong-zu, and Ran "Viva" Lifan.