China's Meteoric Rise in Valorant Esports

China as a region has been the talk of the town in Valorant esports for quite a few months now. Notably, Riot Games’ first-person hero shooter received approval in late December 2022 from the Chinese government’s National Press and Publication Administration and following this, Valorant officially launched in China on 12th July. Notably, since the region’s international debut last year, China has had a meteoric rise. Last year, Chinese teams had to fight via the East Asian Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) to make it to Valorant Champions, but this year, the region was awarded three slots.

Here's how the region has been faring so far on the international stage.

Bilibili Gaming & EDG make Valorant Champions 2023 Playoffs

At Valorant Champions 2023, EDward Gaming (EDG), Bilibili Gaming (BLG), and FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) represented China. However, in the group stage of the tournament, FPX fumbled quite hard and lost the two series it played against Evil Geniuses (EG) and T1.

Meanwhile, both EDG and BLG went 2-1. EDG won against GIANTS and lost to Paper Rex and had to fight against GIANTS again in the Decider match to make it to the Playoffs.

On the other hand, BLG won against NRG and lost to Fnatic in the Winners Match. However, it proved that it was worthy of a Playoffs spot in the Decider match where it won against NRG again with a 2-0 score.

It is extremely surprising to see BLG, an international LAN newcomer, to win against a powerhouse and seasoned team like NRG.

While NRG hoped to wipe out BLG from the running, BLG's Lei “yosemite” Wang stole the show by picking up 41 kills and helped his team pick up a crucial win with backs against the wall.

Twitter user Commend talked about China's domination in Valorant LANs. He wrote, "The craziest thing about Chinese Valorant is how good they are ALREADY. NRG's core has attended 8 international events. China as a WHOLE REGION has only had teams at 4. Just imagine what it'll be like in 5 years time..."

Notably, China has attended only the following international tournaments since 2022:

• Valorant Champions 2022

• Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) LOCK//IN

• Valorant 2023 Masters Tokyo

• Valorant Champions 2023

In the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals of Valorant Champions 2023, China's BLG will take on DRX on 18th August. On the same day, EDG will go up against Evil Geniuses.

You can follow all the updates from Valorant Champions 2023 here on our event hub at Valorant Champions 2023 Playoffs: Teams, Schedule, Results, Format, More.