The VCT 2025 has officially begun, which means that there are many exciting tournaments and spectacular matches ahead. Just like last year, this year's edition will start with the regional qualifiers for the Masters Bangkok, which will be held in each of the four regions: EMEA, Americas, Pacific, and China. The tournament in China will be the first one, so today our editorial team has prepared an article that contains all the information about the upcoming VCT 2025: China Kickoff.
General information about the tournament
As mentioned above, VCT 2025: China Kickoff is a regional tournament held in China for the second year in a row, at the beginning of the new competitive season. The teams of the VCT affiliate program in China take part in it, and it is organized by Riot Games together with the well-known media company Tj Sports.
Date and format of the event
We will tell you about all Kickoff events, but VCT 2025: China Kickoff starts the fastest, so let's talk about it first. The event will take place from January 11 to 25 in LAN format in Shanghai at CT CN Arena. The format of this year's event has changed a lot compared to last year. In 2024, the organizers divided the tournament into 3 stages: group, play-in, and playoffs. However, this year, they decided to abandon the first two stages, and therefore VCT 2025: China Kickoff will be held only in the playoff format. Thus, the teams will compete with each other according to the Double-Elimination rules, where two defeats mean elimination from the tournament. All matches will be played up to 3 wins, and the lower bracket final and grand final up to 5 wins.
Participating teams
There are 12 teams from the VCT affiliate program participating in the event. It should be noted that last year there were 11 of them, but XLG Esports became the champions of Ascension 2024 and won another slot in the VCT. The list of participating teams is as follows:
Match schedule
As the tournament is just a few days away, 3the organizers have already revealed the schedule of the upcoming event. Below you can see how the team pairs were formed for the first playoff matches of the stage.
As you can see above, 4 teams, namely Bilibili Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, Trace Esports and EDward Gaming, bypass the first round of the playoffs and are placed directly in the quarterfinals. This was done because these teams showed the best results last season, and therefore their position in the standings will be better.
Favorites and outsiders
Right after the list of teams, we would like to mention those who, in the opinion of our editorial staff, can show better or worse at the upcoming event. The favorites include EDward Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix. The former won the World Championship at the end of 2024 and is now the strongest team in China, despite the fact that they had a rather poor offseason. FunPlus Phoenix, on the other hand, is a very experienced organization that regularly performs at international events.
It is difficult to identify clear outsiders in the region, as the level of teams there is quite weak compared to other regions, but in our opinion, All Gamers is the weakest, as it showed rather mediocre results throughout the year. We also recommend paying attention to the newcomers from XLG Esports, who will be competing on the VCT scene for the first time this year. Although they don't have much experience, the team has a great chance to become a dark horse of the event thanks to their fresh approach to the game and ambitions.
Tournament prizes
As these are regional qualifiers, Riot Games does not allocate a prize pool, as in previous years. Instead, the teams will compete for 2 invitations to the upcoming Masters Bangkok, as well as China Points, which will be needed to get to the World Championship in the future. The prizes will be distributed as follows:
- 1st place - Invitation to the Masters Bangkok and 3 China Points
- 2nd place - Invitation to the Masters Bangkok and 2 China Points
- 3rd place - 1 China Points
- 4th place - 1 China Points
- 5-6th place - No prizes
- 7-8 place - No prizes
- 9-12 place - No prizes
You can follow the tournament and events at VCT 2025: China Kickoff in our section, where we will promptly cover all the news and where you will find all the relevant statistics.
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