Heading into Champions 2023, Chinese VALORANT teams had a bit more respect shown their way thanks to the Masters Tokyo performance of EDward Gaming, finally getting the region’s first international win and earning a top-six placing. Now, exactly one year after Chinese teams made their international debuts as a region, the squads are starting to look like championship contenders.
With Bilibili Gaming upsetting NRG on Aug. 13 to secure their playoff spot in Champions 2023, there are two Chinese teams in the playoff stage of the tournament. Considering how it was only in Masters Tokyo two months ago that a Chinese team got their first international win, two teams going far prove that this region is no longer in development. It is here and ready to compete for titles both at the end of 2023 and into 2024.
To start, let’s look over the first Chinese team to play international VALORANT, EDG. They made it through the East Asia LCQ in 2022, earning their region’s first spot on a stage against the best talent in the world. The team was notably only one player off from its 2023 roster, with the one swap being Qu “Life” Donghao to Zhang “Smoggy” Zhao. Even with the momentum from their LCQ run, they got seeded into a tough group, losing to Paper Rex and Team Liquid to get eliminated without their first win.
Their first international performance was a bit of a dud, but it was also understandable for a region where the game hadn’t been officially released yet, as its official launch came in July 2023. They were scrim partners with either other Chinese teams or some of the best talent in the Pacific region, who all talked about the skills of players like Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang. This year provided them a second chance to prove those rumors right, and LOCK//IN showed both their issues, but also a taste of what was to come.
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For a single-elimination preseason tournament, they took 100 Thieves to the brink, taking the series to map three before losing 14-12 on Pearl to get eliminated. Looking back, there were signs of what was coming down the pipeline as players like ZmjjKK and Wan “CHICHOO” Shunzhi showed their skills against a popular and talented 100T roster. But then, when EDG qualified for Masters Tokyo as the second seed for China, they surprised everyone by not only winning the region’s first series but going on a run.
Now, EDG are respected as a talented team, but the perspective on the region went from “in development” to “one team region,” with none of the other Chinese teams making a mark internationally. Well, tell that to NRG, who couldn’t win a map in two series against Bilibili Gaming, leading to a second Chinese team in the playoff stage of Champions 2023. These LAN rookies from Bilibili got round wins off of solo plays from Wang “whz” Haozhe and Zhong “Biank” Jian Fei and took advantage of an unprepared, confused NRG roster to become one of the few teams to beat the core of NRG in a tournament rematch.
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EDG used to be a wild card, but now they’re a true contender. Funnily enough, the true wild card left in Champions 2023 is now BLG, the other Chinese roster that made it into the playoffs.
Now, looking at all the teams left competing in the Champions 2023 playoffs, we have an equal split of two teams from each region. And considering how recently the Chinese region was added to international play, that alone speaks volumes to their growth, from each individual player to the region as a whole.
With the draw, EDG will face Evil Geniuses while BLG faces DRX, both on Aug. 17. They’ll each have one loss to give, but no matter what happens in this tournament, 2023 was the year that China needed to prove themselves in competitive VALORANT.
