As is standard in international tournaments in VALORANT, there is always a team who surprises their foes, making a run that few expected. In VCT Masters Tokyo, China had yet to win a game at an international tournament. Yet, thanks to two otherworldly performances from star duelist Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang, EDward Gaming won back-to-back games and are going to the playoff stage of Masters Tokyo.
It all came to a head with a clean 2-0 win over T1. ZmjjKK led the way, but the entire team stepped up, from Wan “CHICHOO” Shunzhi’s clutches to Zhang “Smoggy” Zhao’s consistent fragging.
EDward Gaming started out strong but couldn’t manage to close out maps until the NAVI series. Both maps went the distance, 17-15 on map one and 14-12 on map two. They not only sent NAVI packing, but they finally got that regional win that the region had two previous tournaments to try and earn.
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But now that they won, they were only one win away from making it to the playoff stage, so why not go for it? Their next opponents, T1, just barely lost to NRG in a familiar 2-1 loss. The rematch quickly turned into a revenge match for the Chinese squad, quickly showing how much the team improved since their last match on June 11.
With a little bit of confidence and a tournament-wide ACS-leading Jett with the Operator, EDG ran away with map one of Fracture, winning 13-4 for their most dominant map performance internationally so far. Map two of Haven was more of the same, after a 10-2 lead at halftime, with ZmjjKK getting plenty of highlight plays along the way.
China wasn’t only doing well internationally, they were running away with it. A big step up considering their previous results at their last three international performances, always getting bounced out first in groups.
With only three rounds needed to win, ZmjjKK and EDG ended T1’s comeback as he stood up, stared at the crowd, and mimicked firing the Operator that he eliminated two teams with. The confidence in their star player was clear for everyone to see, just showing how these miracle runs can reinvigorate the players just as much as their fans.
The final score was 13-6, the series 2-0, seemingly nothing could stop the momentum that EDG had created out of almost nothing in this tournament. CHICHOO was gleaming in the post-match interview, talking about what their goal was from the beginning.
“Shoutout to our three-man coaching team, they revealed our problems and helped us improve us a lot as a team,” CHICHOO said post-match. “We are very, very clear that we are not here just for one victory, we want to continue and get more.”
EDG are set to continue in the VCT Masters Tokyo, with the playoff stage starting on June 16.
