JDG and XLG survive in Kickoff lower bracket

Day 5 of the VCT China Kickoff is over, with the first two teams officially eliminated from the tournament. The first matchup between JD Gaming and Titan Esports Club had two teams looking to rebound from close 2-1 series losses in the upper bracket, while recent Ascension winners Xi Lai Gaming had to prove its mettle over the familiar All Gamers .

JDG Esports vs. Titan Esports Club

The first map of the series was Fracture, with TEC opting for a Raze, Fade, and Killjoy combo while JDG stuck with the Neon, Tejo, and Vyse. TEC got the first pistol and started strong after some nice plays from the new addition Haodong . It took some rounds for stew to step up and pull the half back within reach for JDG, especially after he bought his first Operator of the series. After going down 5-2 early, JDG pulled it back to a respectable 7-5 deficit at the half.

JDG won the second pistol on the attack side, and a Judge pickup from stew converted their bonus round to take the lead. The Neon, Tejo, and Breach utility proved tough for TEC to adjust to, while the Vyse from Z1yan got lots of value on post-plants. Z1yan also took the responsibility of using the Operator and got immense value with it to help JDG win Fracture 13-9.

JDG takes A site cleanly off of lots of utility.

Moving onto Abyss, JDG kept up form with another pistol win to start the second map strong. While stew looked just as strong on Jett as he did on Neon, jkuro on Omen helped provide that secondary fragging to build a significant lead on their attack side. Where Fracture kept the game close around halftime, JDG entered the half up 10-2. After securing their third straight pistol round, JDG handled business to complete the map 13-3 and sweep the series. The standout of the series was stew, who finished with 293 ACS and 41 kills in two maps.

With this win, JDG remains in the running for the tournament in the lower bracket, while TEC is eliminated from the VCT China Kickoff and will have to wait until after Masters Bangkok to return to league play.

Xi Lai Gaming vs. All Gamers

It began on AG's map pick of Abyss, as they decided to run three unique picks in Vyse, Harbor, and Yoru against XLG's more standard comp featuring Jett and Cypher. AG won the first pistol and relied on some hero plays from deLb to keep the lead.

deLb plays aggressively and sneakily on the defense side with his Operator and Shorty.

The flood retake was the focus from AG, as XLG got plenty of plants down on their attack side to mixed success. AG would frequently get the first pick, back away from the site, and then execute on their opponents with utility and coordinated movement. AG entered the half up 9-3 and used the Harbor from monk to pressure mid while being able to wall off sites for post-plants. XLG got some rounds back, but AG won map one 13-8.

Heading into Bind, it turned out to be XLG's pick for a reason as they started hot and kept that form up until halftime. happywei was the standout on Viper, hitting plenty of clean shots like his great performance against Bilibili Gaming . XLG entered the half up 11-1, and with a 13-1 map win, map three was in the cards.

Lotus was the decider for these two teams' Kickoff and Masters Bangkok hopes, and just like Bind, XLG started strong. Where happywei was the star last map, Rarga on Neon ran through AG's attack and prevented them from executing their site takes cleanly. XLG entered the half up 9-3 and won their second pistol of the map to run away with their second map in a row and complete the 2-1 series win. Lotus ended 13-4, with AG winning a total of five rounds in the final two maps of the series, leading to their elimination from Kickoff and Masters Bangkok.

With these results, the next matchups in the lower bracket of the VCT China Kickoff are:

• Nova Esports vs. Wolves Esports
• Dragon Ranger Gaming vs. TYLOO
• JD Gaming vs. Xi Lai Gaming