XLG Esports has emerged as the VCT China Stage 1 champions after defeating Bilibili Gaming 3-1 in the Grand Final match that took place on May 4, 2025. With this victory, the 2024 Ascension winner has secured a direct Playoffs seed for the upcoming Masters Toronto tournament scheduled for June.
Tournament Structure and Journey to the Finals
VCT China Stage 1 featured 12 teams competing for qualification spots to Masters Toronto and valuable VCT Points that could potentially secure a place at the 2025 Champions tournament. The Group Stage ran from March 13th to April 13th, with 2024 Champions winners EDward Gaming (EDG) and Bilibili Gaming finishing at the top of Groups Alpha and Omega, respectively.
As the Group Omega runner-up, XLG began their Playoffs journey in the upper bracket. The team showcased remarkable skill by defeating Nova Esports (2-0), EDG (2-0), and Wolves Esports (2-0) in a dominant display of talent and coordination.
The best-of-five Grand Final against Bilibili Gaming demonstrated XLG’s resilience through multiple overtime maps. XLG secured victories on Fracture (15-13) and Lotus (13-10). Although Bilibili temporarily rallied with a win on Pearl (8-13), XLG closed out the series on Haven with a hard-fought 14-12 victory.
XLG’s Unexpected Tournament Dominance
XLG’s Stage 1 championship came as a surprise to many, with the team dropping only a single match throughout the entire tournament. After suffering an initial loss to Bilibili in their first Group Stage series, XLG embarked on an impressive eight-match winning streak that culminated in sweet revenge during the Grand Final.
The team’s duelist player Arthur ‘Rarga’ Churyumov earned Finals MVP honors and led Stage 1 with an impressive six Match MVP awards. During the post-finals interview, XLG’s in-game leader Ran ‘Viva’ Lifan expressed that he had never experienced anything like this before, adding that after being in the professional scene for so long and witnessing many finals, winning the championship and lifting the trophy for the first time still felt somewhat unbelievable to him.
Surprising Tournament Results and Road to Champions
VCT China Stage 1 delivered several unexpected outcomes beyond XLG’s championship. Most notably, 2025 Kickoff winner Edward Gaming failed to qualify for Masters Toronto. Instead, Wolves Esports will join XLG and Bilibili Gaming as China’s third representative at the international event, scheduled for June 6th-22nd.
Despite missing out on Masters Toronto, EDG remains in contention for the season-ending Champions tournament. The team has accumulated ten VCT China Points thus far, which puts them slightly ahead of XLG (9 points) and Bilibili (8 points) in the race for qualification.
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