EDward Gaming completes the China Evolution Series Trifecta

Valorant

27 Nov

Ganesh Jadhav

Over the last few weeks, the final tournament of the China Evolution Series was played. Hosted by Hongqiao World IE Hub, Shanghai, the China Evolution Series Act 3: Heritability concluded over the weekend with the global phenoms, EDward Gaming securing all three trophies.

EDward Gaming have established their absolute domination in China over the past few months, the team has lost only two matches in the three tournaments. The recent China Evolution Series Act 3: Heritability was the biggest of the three with a total of twelve teams playing the Main Event. Let’s recap how the tournament went down.

CES Act 3 - Road to the Main Event:

As mentioned earlier, the Main Event of the tournament featured a total of twelve teams. Out of these twelve teams, EDward Gaming, Trace Esports, Rare Atom and Attacking Soul Esports directly qualified on the basis of Act 2 placements.

The other eight teams went through intense open qualifiers to secure their spot in the Main Event. The tournament started with eight open qualifiers from A-H.

A total of 39 teams played in these open qualifiers. With each group featuring five teams with an exception of Group C with four teams.

Two teams from each group qualified for the Play-in stage. With eight groups and two teams from each group qualifying, the play-in stage featured sixteen teams.

The format divided these sixteen teams into four groups of four. Each group played a double-elimination bracket and two teams from each qualified for the Main Event.

These eight teams that qualified for the Main Event were

Teams that were left behind include big names such as JD Gaming, Weibo Gaming, Ninjas In Pyjamas, Invictus Gaming and Tyloo.

CES Act 3 Main Event - Road to the Grand Finals:

With twelve teams playing, the Main Event featured a modified double-elimination bracket. The four directly invited teams qualified directly for the Upper Quarterfinals.

China Evolution Series Act 3 - Heritability Main Event Bracket (credits: Valorant Esports CN)

The Main Event started November 16 and concluded on the 24th. The two teams that made it to the Grand Finals were first Rare Atom followed by the defending Champions EDward Gaming.

Rare Atoms - Road to the Grand Finals:

Rare Atom squad at CES Act 3 (credits: Valorant Esports CN)

The Rare Atom squad has established itself as a challenger for EDward Gaming since the CES Act 1. The team has consistently placed top three and has only fallen to EDward Gaming in the playoffs.

Come CES Act 3, Rare Atom continued their domination starting with Dragon Ranger in a swift 2-0 fashion. In the series, Rare Atom limited the Dragon Ranger to five rounds a map, completely annihilating them.

The Act 2 runner-ups Trace Esports was Rare Atom’s next opponent. In the match, Trace Esports drew the first blood, winning Rare Atom’s map pick 13-9. Rare Atom answered back with a 13-10 win to force a third map. The final map concluded with Rare Atom defeating Trace Esports in overtime.

The Upper Finals had Rare Atom facing off against their arch nemesis, their rivals, a team they hadn’t taken down yet, EDward Gaming. Their brawl started on Lotus and after a fury of strikes Rare Atom came out on top with a 14-12 OT win.

Rare Atom followed their hard earned victory with a swift 13-6 assassination on EDward Gaming map pick of Sunset. Finally, the Goliath was taken down. With the victory Rare Atom secured the Grand Finals.

EDward Gaming - Clawing back to the top

EDward Gaming squad at CES Act 3 (credits: Valorant Esports CN)

Starting in the Upper Quarterfinal, the indomitable EDward Gaming took on TOP Esports. TOP esports put a strong resistance on their opponents map pick. Unfortunately, EDward Gaming stayed strong to win the game 13-10.

Haven wasn’t as one-sided with EDward Gaming winning the map 13-2 to secure the series 2-0. Taking on Attacking Soul Esports, EDward Gaming made a preemptive strike winning ASE’s map pick 13-9.

ASE answered back with a close 13-11 win on Split to force a third map. The final map had the brawling teams fighting for control with neither coming out on top at the end of regulation. Finally, in the OT, EDG won three rounds in a row to win the game.

In the Upper Finals, EDward Gaming took on Rare Atom, the outcome was unexpected and EDward Gaming had to bounce back from the Lower Finals.

In the Lower Finals, awaited a familiar face, FunPlus Phoenix. FPX has always been a strong opponent for EDG. The Bo5 series started on Haven with FPX striking first winning the first map 13-7.

EDG followed the loss with a 13-5, 13-7 and a close 13-11 win to take down FPX and qualify for the Grand Finals.

EDward Gaming completes the trifecta - The Grand Finals recap:

The EDward Gaming once again stood tall on the Grand Finals stage. It was Rare Atom’s second Grand Finals appearance against the same team. The team they lost to in Act 1, the team they took down to secure the Grand Finals. The team that is the apex predator in China.

Starting on Bind, EDward Gaming dominated the first half securing a strong 8-4 half. Rare Atom came back in the second half but could not complete the comeback going 0-1 down in the series.

Now on Rare Atom’s Lotus, EDG once again secured a 8-4 half. They declined a comeback from the Rare Atom side once again to win the second map 13-9. The win propelled EDG to a series and tournament point.

The third map saw Rare Atom securing a lead for the first time in the series. Unfortunately the nominal two-rounds did not yield a significant impact as EDG closed down the lead and closed the third map with a 13-9 score. With the map win, EDward Gaming secured their third CES title completing the trifecta.

The Aftermath

Zheng "ZmjjKK" Yongkang was named the finals MVP once again. EDward Gaming’s dominant display is a testament to the team’s strength. The team has taken down multiple strong opponents on their way to conquering the Chinese Valorant team.

Amongst other stand out performers, TOP Esports takes the cake coming out of nowhere to finish in the top 10 of China Evolution series.

With the VCT China teams announcement just around the corner, it’d be interesting to see which teams make it and which teams are left behind.

Featured Image Credits: Valorant Esports China