Edward gaming wins first VALORANT Champions title

26 August 2024

The end of the summer has been a period to look forward to for international esports fans, and VALORANT fans in particular, in the past few years. That’s because for the last three years, the VALORANT Champions was played during that period, including this year. The 2024 edition took place between August 1st and August 25th in the cities of Seoul and Incheon, in South Korea, with sixteen of the best VALORANT teams in the world vying for a piece of the huge $ 2.250.000 prize pool.

The most recent edition was special not just because of the multi-million prize pool, but also because it has given us the first Chinese VALORANT world champion ever. In the grand final of VALORANT Champions 2024, it was Chinese side Edward Gaming (EDG) who beat Spain’s Team Heretics 3-2. This marked the first time a Chinese team has taken title since the start of the tournament back in 2021.

EDward Gaming for the surprise

In all honesty, it didn’t look like EDward Gaming would be taking home the title at the start of the VALORANT Champions 2024.They were placed in Group D, together with Singapore-based esports organization Paper Rex and Turkish side FUT Esports, as well as international esports powerhouse G2 Esports.

It was the latter who actually made qualification for the Playoffs a close call for EDG, as they beat the Chinese team in the second game of the group stage (1-2). The eventual champions did manage to beat FUT Esports (2-0) and Paper Rex (2-1) to clinch second place in Group D to progress to the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals. There they faced fellow Chinese organization Trace Esports (2-0), who they beat to qualify for the Semifinals. The Americans from Sentinels made it a close affair by winning the first map, but EDG came back and took over on Lotus (9-13) and Sunset (6-13). The Upper Bracket Final had EDG face off against Leviatán from Argentina, which resulted in a 2-1 victory.

The VALORANT Champions 2024 Grand Final was then between Edward Gaming and Spanish organization Team Heretics, who had eliminated Leviatán in the Lower Bracket Final (1-3) right before that. There was little between the two Grand Finalists, as the battle needed a decisive fifth map. On Abyss, EDG proved the cooler of the two, which brought them their first VALORANT Champions title plus $ 1.000.000 in prize money. The Spaniards didn’t do badly either with $ 400.000, while number three Leviatán took home $ 250.000.

On the rise in China

While Edward Gaming’s victory meant a major milestone for Chinese esports and VALORANT in particular, it wasn’t the first success the team ever booked. As a matter of fact, EDG had been dominating Chinese VALORANT competitions for the entirety of last year, including victories at the VALORANT China Evolution Series Act 1: Variation, the VALORANT China Evolution Series Act 2: Selection, and the VALORANT China Evolution Series Act 3: Heritability. On the international stage, their most recent performances saw them finish inside the top 8 at both the VCT 2024_ Masters Madrid and the VCT 2024: Masters Shanghai earlier this.