The group stage of VCT 2025: China Stage 1 is over and only the strongest teams are left out of 12 participants. Today we will talk about the first playoff match of the stage, where Wolves Esports will face TEC. Both teams have had a tough road, and below we will analyze their form and predict how this match will end.

Current Team Form

Wolves Esports

Wolves Esports is a fairly strong team in the Chinese region, which does not claim to be the leader, but is still considered stronger than most of the average teams. At VCT 2025: China Kickoff, the team took 9-12th place, which did not allow them to qualify for Masters, but at the current tournament they are still rehabilitating. In the last five matches Wolves Esports has three wins over Trace Esports and JD Gaming and All Gamers but lost to BiliBili Gaming and XLG Esports.

As mentioned above, Wolves Esports is a solid mid-tier team that confidently defeats similarly average opponents but loses to favorites. But despite the overall score of 3-2, the leadership in the group is not visible to the team, which speaks about the dangerous opponents who together with it passed in the playoffs.

TEC Esports

TEC was considered to be a fairly average team, which at the past qualifiers of VCT 2025: China Kickoff took 9-12th place, which did not allow it to qualify for the Masters. Regardless, the team is doing very well so far at the current tournament. In the last five matches TEC has three wins over Nova Esports, Dragon Ranger Gaming and TYLOO. The two losses came in matches against FunPlus Phoenix, EDward Gaming.

Despite the past failure, at the current tournament TEC came out after the group stage with a score of 3:2 and second place in their Alpha group, which is a great result against the rest of the group.

Team Map

Expected Bans:

• Wolves Esports will probably take Split

• TEC will take Fracture

Expected Picks:

• Wolves Esports may take Ascent

• TEC will take Pearl

Head-to-head

The teams have played two head-to-head matches in the last six months, and both times Wolves Esports won 2-0.

Prediction for the match

Both teams after the end of the group stage are considered among the best in their groups, thanks to which they qualified for the playoffs. Although the situation is almost equal, but in head-to-head meetings Wolves Esports wins, and therefore we will favor them in the future fight.

Predicted outcome: Wolves Esports wins 2-0

VCT 2025: China Stage 1 takes place from March 13 to May 4 in LAN format at the VCT CN Arena in Shanghai. Twelve VCT China partner teams will compete for 3 invitations to Masters Toronto, as well as China Points, which are required to qualify for a future World Championship.