It's a new Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) season, with the best Valorant esports teams in the world competing in their regional Kickoff events for spots at the Masters Bangkok 2025 tournament. The first Kickoff event to finish up is VCT China, where we saw some incredible top-tier action take place. Here's what went down.

At the VCT CN Arena in Shanghai, China, 12 teams from the region competed for only two coveted spots at Masters Bangkok 2025 and some important VCT points.

In the double-elimination bracket, Trace Esports got off to a powerful start, beating Dragon Ranger Gaming with a clean 2-0 win and then repeating the process against one of the favorites, EDward Gaming, with another convincing 2-0 win. In the upper bracket final, Bilibili Gaming gave Trace Esports a run for their money, but Trace Esports came out on top with a 2-1 win to make it to the grand final of the VCT 2025 Kickoff China event.

After being defeated by Trace Esports, EDward Gaming made a heroic lower-bracket run, beating XLG Esports with a 2-1 reverse sweep, then Dragon Ranger Gaming 2-0, and Bilibili Gaming 3-0 with a huge clean sweep to make it to the grand finale. In the grand finale of VCT 2025 Kickoff China, Trace Esports got off to a strong start, winning the first map. However, EDward Gaming kicked things into second gear, and smashed the next three maps to win the tournament, beating Trace Esports with a 3-1 score.

• 1st place - EDward Gaming (Masters Bangkok spot)
• 2nd place - Trace Esports (Masters Bangkok spot)
• 3rd place - Bilibili Gaming
• 4th place - Dragon Ranger Gaming
• 5th & 6th place - FunPlus Phoenix & XLG Esports
• 7th & 8th place - Nova Esports & JD Gaming
• 9th to 12th place - Wolves Esports, TYLOO, Titan Esports Club and All Gamers.

Congratulations to EDward Gaming's Zheng "ZmjjKK" Yongkang for winning the MVP award for the VCT 2025 Kickoff China event and for both EDward Gaming and Trace Esports for earning a coveted spot at the VALORANT Masters Bangkok 2025 tournament.

Header image via Riot Games.