EDward Gaming is the last hope at VCT Masters Shanghai.
The first VCT Masters event to take place in China has been nothing short of spectacular with plenty of great games so far and we're not even done with the first round of the playoffs. The Swiss Stage has been a great introduction to the 2024 season with plenty of exciting match-ups during the first week of VCT Masters Shanghai.
But while it has been entertaining from a neutral perspective, the same can't be said for the fans in Shanghai who had to witness two of the three VCT China teams get eliminated from the international tournament. FunPlus Phoenix and Dragon Ranger Gaming failed to make it past the Swiss Stage with the former winning its first series before getting back-to-back losses while the latter fell in two straight series against EMEA teams.
All there is left for VCT China is EDward Gaming, the number one seed that had already secured a playoff bracket spot. EDG will play against the squad responsible for eliminating FPX, Team Heretics later today. But how good will EDG's chances be against one of the more underrated teams from the EU region?
All Eyes on EDG
While this is China's first year as part of the VCT franchise league, EDward Gaming has long been seen as the region's best team since last season. China wasn't officially part of the VCT last year but was still granted a handful of invites to international tournaments, two of which they had a top-six finish in both Masters Tokyo and Champions. EDG would follow that up with another top-six performance at Masters Madrid just a few months before going back-to-back China Kickoff and Stage 1 victories.
They are back once again on the big stage, but this time in their home region. And with this being the first-ever international event in China, one can imagine the pressure it must bring to the homegrown teams to perform well. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case after both FPX and DRG failed to qualify. The one common denominator in both teams' losses was at the hands of EU teams, particularly Team Heretics and FUT Esports.
FPX managed to get a win against FUT but would lose the deciding series against Heretics. As for DRG, they would lose their two games against both FUT and Heretics, which goes to show how well the EMEA region is compared to China. All hope now rests on EDG's shoulders as they prepare to take on Heretics, which will also be the first meeting between both teams. EDG does have a decent record against EMEA squads, having only ever lost against Team Liquid last season.
It's also worth noting that Heretics are playing without a full squad as Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius couldn't be with them in Shanghai due to exams. Having been in and out of the squad, Heretics would re-sign Patryk “patitek” Fabrowski as the stand-in for the team and he has since performed admirably in the last three games. Given how well they have performed against the two Chinese teams, it will be interesting to see how well EDG adapts to Heretics.
Sunset and Icebox in particular have been Heretic's strong maps so far in the tournament, having won twice on both maps against FPX and DRG. Another noteworthy take is that Heretics are fully warmed up for the playoffs as they have already been playing since the Swiss Stage. As for EDG, this will be their first-ever game on the main stage of VCT Masters Shanghai so we will have to see if there will be any rust for the undisputed champs of VCT China.
Of course, EDG does have an ace up its sleeve with the likes of Yongkang “ZmjjKK” Zheng as one of the team's best players. The primary AWP-er of EDG has been a revelation since EDG's debut on the world stage as many have noted his exceptional sniping skills and accuracy from long-range. Both Shunzhi “CHICHOO” Wan and Senxu “Nobody” Wang are also great players with a versatile list of agents to choose from, making EDG's comp highly flexible.
VCT Masters Madrid - Playoffs
EDward Gaming will go up against Team Heretics later today with the winner going up against the victor from the series between Paper Rex and G2 Esports. Be sure to check out the live stream on VALORANT Esports' official Twitch or YouTube channel.
