The VALORANT 2024 season has reached its end. In what was already an unpredictable final tournament at Champions, China’s EDward Gaming has claimed VALORANT’s biggest prize. This EDG win marks the first Champs title won by any eastern team. Much like how the West dominated the early seasons of League of Legends before the East took over, this could be the beginning of the same trend.
Image Credit Riot Games
Coming into VALORANT Champions 2024, EDward Gaming once again won the VCT China regional competition. In fact, EDG won every single Chinese VCT event this year: Kickoff, Stage 1, and Stage 2. Following their rise to playoff contender status in 2023, hopes were high for EDG to kick off Chinese VALORANT strong at international events in their first full year as a region.
Instead, VCT Madrid and Shanghai were complete disappointments. EDG failed to make it past the Opening Stage at Madrid, then didn’t win a single map at VALORANT’s first LAN event in China. These back-to-back failures to impact the world stage combined with the low volatility of the fledgling Chinese scene left EDG short of the conversation regarding potential trophy winners.
Still, EDG was a strong team overall. The question was whether they could put it all together for another deep run at VALORANT Champions 2024. They began in Group D and, after falling to G2 Esports in the Winners’ Match, beat Paper Rex in the decider to earn the final Playoff spot.
Tested the Entire Way
In the VALORANT Champions 2024 Playoffs, EDG had a long way to go if they wanted to make history. Their opening match against regional rivals Trace Esports was the easiest step, resulting in a 2-0 sweep. After that, the climb only got more and more difficult.
EDG faced off against Sentinels in their next series. The North Americas squad had made a surprise resurgence here at Champs and was a definite threat. Despite losing map one, EDG maintained composure and brought the series back to even. On the tiebreaker of Sunset, EDG shut Sentinels down and closed the series out with a 13-6 win. EDG had now made it further than ever before at a VALORANT LAN.
In the Upper Bracket Finals, EDward Gaming found themselves against Leviatán. The Americas first seed had been one of the favorites to lift the trophy the entire event. With Erick “aspas” Santos, who many consider the best Duelist in the world, leading the charge, it seemed likely that LEV would blast through the Chinese squad on their way to Finals.
Instead, EDG stepped up their game massively. They took LEV deep into overtime on their favorite Icebox pick. Although EDG didn’t steal the map, their confidence was building. Lotus was not even close, as EDG equalized in a flash. One last game on Abyss would determine the result of the match.
The teams were inseparable at the half. When LEV got off to a hot start in the second half, it looked like EDG had run out of gas. However, the Chinese squad dug in on the defense and took the last five rounds in a row to complete the comeback and win 13-11. Just like that, VALORANT had its first Chinese LAN Grand Finalists.
Grand Finals Gets Under Way
After pulling off a nearly identical lower bracket run from VCT Shanghai, EMEA’s Team Heretics earned the right to challenge EDG for the VALORANT Champions 2024 trophy. As the upper bracket winner, EDG got to ban two maps, while Heretics got none. This should mean that EDG’s first map pick is overwhelmingly in their favor.
That would not be the case, as Heretics came out the gates swinging on Haven. Despite running identical comps, Heretics looked much more comfortable on map one than EDG. Perhaps the Grand Finals jitters were getting the best of the Chinese team, but they were knocked flat on attack. Besides the pistol and follow-up, EDG only won a single round. Heretics easily cleaned up the last couple of points needed to claim map one in no time.
Now, moving to Heretics’ Sunset pick, the possibility of this match slipping away from EDG was there. They needed a big shift in momentum. That shift came in the form of Zheng “zmjjkk” Yongkang, aka “Kangkang.” EDG’s Duelist blew the lid off of Sunset, frequently running down multi-kills, taking space, and hitting shots.
This was the start of a legendary performance that would span the entire Grand Final, but more on that later. For now, EDG had dominated Sunset 13-4 and tied up the series.
EDG On Track for Greatness
Next, EDG was back onto one of their maps in Lotus. They had been phenomenal on this map all tournament, and that wouldn’t stop here. Their unorthodox double Controller comp featuring Clove was too hard for Heretics to play around on defense. Though they were tied at 6-6, Heretics had no response in the second half as EDG flooded them with utility and aggression. With the 13-9 win, EDG were on Championship Point.
Bind was a must-win map for Heretics if they wanted to keep their title dreams alive. Once again, the teams were inseparable going into the half. An economy war immediately broke out in the second with both teams forcing up to try and steal momentum. When Heretics was about to get broken, an important Thrifty kept the ball in their court.
Heretics used that momentum to stretch up to 12 rounds and were poised to force map five. EDG very nearly made the comeback happen, winning three rounds in a row. However, in the final round of regulation, Heretics overcame a Kangkang Ace to stall long enough for the Spike to explode. Map five was locked in.
Making History in More Ways than One
Abyss would be the final battleground at VALORANT Champions 2024. While anything could happen here, EDG definitely felt like they could have been champions already with how that last map ended. They kept that same level of energy as map five got underway. Starting on the attack, EDG often barreled through Heretics’ defenses. Heretics did land some crucial rounds to keep them competitive, but down 8-4, it would be an uphill battle.
Heretics looked to be getting into a groove on their own offense. An impressive five-round streak in the middle of the half cut the deficit to just two rounds. At 11-9 with bad economy, EDG needed to shut the comeback down immediately. That was when Kangkang pulled off one of the best plays in VALORANT history.
From there, EDG closed out Abyss 13-9 to earn the VALORANT Champions 2024 title. In addition to this being China’s first-ever international VALORANT trophy lift, Kangkang set a new record for most kills ever in a VALORANT match at the VCT level with 111. He was awarded MVP for his performance, a well-deserved cap on this fantastic run from one of, if not the best player in the world.
Now that EDG is world champions, every single region has won. an international VALORANT tournament. This could be the start of, where anyone can win at any time, or it could be a new era of dominance from the eastern regions as they catch up to the west. No one knows exactly how things will go. One thing is for sure, though: 2024 VALORANT delivered, and it is primed to do so again in 2025.
