Bilibili Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, Royal Never Give Up, and Team Weibo are some of the highlight names to make it to the VALORANT Champions China Qualifier.
CHINA – The Preliminary stage for the VALORANT Champions China Qualifier has come to an end, with eight teams securing spots in the main event.
Furthermore, it has been confirmed that the event will be the first offline VALORANT event held in China and will be played on the Chinese server. This comes after the game received domestic approval in December last year, with the open beta launching just recently on Thursday, June 8.
The twelve-team event is set to run from July 3-16 and hold three slots at VALORANT Champions Los Angeles, the most significant event in the VALORANT Champions Tour 2023 calendar. However, in a scenario where either Attacking Soul Esports or EDward Gaming win the upcoming VALORANT Masters Tokyo, China will receive an additional slot for the Los Angeles event.
The eight qualified teams will join four invited teams that earned their spots as the highest-ranked teams in the FGC Invitational circuit: Attacking Soul Esports, EDward Gaming, Bilibili Gaming, and FunPlus Phoenix.
Attacking Soul Esports and EDward Gaming secured the spots for finishing in the top two of FGC VALORANT Invitational Act I. That victory not only qualified them for the upcoming VALORANT Masters in Tokyo but also secured their participation in the Champions qualifier event.
In Act II of the competition, EDward Gaming emerged as the winners but had already secured their spot in the Champions qualifier. This meant there was an additional spot available for another team. Bilibili Gaming, as the next team in line, were granted this spot.
However, since Bilibili had already earned the spot by finishing in second place in Act II, the fourth and final spot became vacant. Instead of giving it to the third-place team, Attacking Soul Esports, who had already secured their qualification in Act I, the spot was given to the fourth-placed team FunPlus Phoenix.
Trace Esports (previously Totoro Gaming) displayed a dominant performance in the preliminary stage, finishing it without losing a single map. On the other hand, TYLOO gained momentum in the preliminary stage with the addition of two former KONE players, Yi “ninebody” Ding and Zhang “LuoK1ng” Zhanpeng, as well as former EDG player Han “Abo” Bohao. Following closely behind were Monarch Effect, Royal Never Give Up, and Team Weibo. Completing the list with a 3-2 record are Dragon Ranger Gaming, Four Angry Men, and NTER.
Nikita “d3ffo” Sudakov’s Gank Gaming were the most notable side to fail in the qualifying process after defeats at the final hurdle in the Swiss bracket.
The tournament format has yet to be revealed, but more details are expected to be announced closer to the event dates.
The twelve teams duking it out in China are:
| Attacking Soul Esports | Bilibili Gaming |
| EDward Gaming | FunPlus Phoenix |
| Trace Esports | TYLOO |
| Team Weibo | Royal Never Give Up |
| Monarch Effect | NTER |
| Four Angry Men | Dragon Ranger Gaming |
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Cover photo courtesy of VALORANT Esports China
