The Kickoff regional qualifiers in each of the four competitive regions are in full swing, and there are still many interesting matches ahead. However, the tournament in China started the fastest, and so today we learned the name of the first team to reach the grand final and earn a slot at Masters Bangkok.

A tense match between BiliBili and Trace

VCT 2025: China Kickoff has already been going on for 12 days, and today, Bilibili Gaming vs. Trace Esports took place as part of the top grid final. The match was long-awaited, as the former were the favorites before the start of the event, and the latter looked like a dark horse that even managed to destroy the current world champions. That's why the audience watched the fight with enthusiasm, and their expectations were met.

The match started with Bind, which was the choice of Trace Esports. Despite the fact that the first half ended evenly, after switching sides, the team easily confirmed their choice and won the map with a score of 13-8. On the second map, Haven, which Bilibili had already chosen, the situation was similar, only in the opposite direction. The first ox was even, and in the second one, the owners of the map closed their opponents with a total score of 13-10. The last map was Lotus, which was not chosen by either side, and here the winner was stronger. Both teams have a lot of experience and a good winrate on Lotus, but Trace Esports proved to be stronger. The team defeated their opponents with a score of 13-6 without any problems, and thus won the match with a score of 2-1.

As a result of the match, Trace Esports is through to the grand finals of VCT 2025: China Kickoff, and with that, it definitely gets one of the two slots for the upcoming Masters Bangkok. Bilibili Gaming, in turn, falls to the bottom of the bracket where it will meet the winner of the EDward/Dragon Rangers pair for the second slot in the grand final tomorrow.

VCT 2025: China Kickoff takes place from January 11 to 25 in LAN format at the VCT CN Arena in Shanghai. Twelve partner teams from the VCT program are competing for two spots at Masters Bangkok and valuable China Points, which are required to qualify for the World Championship.