Who are the VALORANT VCT China partner teams?

China is officially joining the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) with its own dedicated league in 2024. As a result, VALORANT developer Riot Games announced the 10 partner teams that will compete in the first season of VCT China. 

The introduction of this large market to the VCT ecosystem will make China the fourth main region, joining the Americas, EMEA and Pacific leagues which began in 2023. 

In this article, we will provide a brief background into the 10 announced VCT China partner teams, as well as promoted team Dragon Ranger Gaming. Most of the partner organisations are well-known to Western viewers due to their connections within League of Legends, Counter-Strike and other games, however, some are relatively unknown outside of China.

Although one of the lesser-known names in VCT China’s roster of teams, All Gamers is a notable brand to CrossFire enthusiasts, especially in China. The organisation is one of the most successful CrossFire teams to date, winning the CrossFire Pro League more than 10 times and winning CrossFire Stars, the game’s World Championship, in 2021. 

In the LPL, China’s League of Legends competition, All Gamers compete as Anyone’s Legend. The team is also one of the oldest organisations on this list, first established in 1999.  

A Chinese esports organisation that made headlines after reaching the semi-finals of the League of Legends World Championship in 2023. The organisation is owned by Chinese video sharing website Bilibili.com. BiliBili Gaming is one of the more experienced and established VALORANT teams in China, having competed at VALORANT Champions 2023, finishing in the top ten. 

BiliBili Gaming has proved to be a very competitive VALORANT team, performing well in international tournaments for more than two years. Moreover, the organisation also owned Overwatch League franchise Hangzhou Spark before the competition disbanded in 2023.

Based in Shanghai, Edward Gaming is known for its success in a variety of different games and genres. Notably, the organisation won the League of Legends World Championship in 2021 and the Mid-Season Invitational in 2015.

In VALORANT, Edward Gaming participated in several major international tournaments, qualifying for VALORANT Champions in 2022 and 2023, as well as VCT Masters Tokyo 2023. Edward Gaming is one of the most successful Chinese VALORANT organisations on international tournaments, together with BiliBili Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix. 

The organisation is also one of the two Chinese organisations to compete at last year’s VCT LOCK//IN, the other being FunPlus Phoenix. 

Another team known more to Chinese viewers than those outside of the country, Titan is most famous for its PUBG Mobile team that competes in the Peacekeeper Elite League. Founded in 2021, the team notably won the Peacekeeper Elite League Summer in 2023, and is regarded as one of the more successful teams in the game.

In VALORANT, the organisation has yet to make an impression, but it does have prior experience in the game. The team competed in the VALORANT China Evolution Series Act 3, placing 5th in the tournament.

A Chinese esports organisation with a long history of FPS successes, TYLOO is one of the most known Counter-Strike brands in Asia. Established in 2007, the organisation is considered a pioneer of Counter-Strike in China, helping grow the game’s popularity in the country. With abundant tactical FPS experience, TYLOO is arguably one of the teams with the biggest advantage when it comes to the genre. 

TYLOO recently qualified for IEM Chengdu 2024 and has competed at several BLAST and ESL events in the past.

Being an organisation focused on Counter-Strike, TYLOO did not have a strong VALORANT presence up until VCT China, but the team did compete in local and regional tournaments, similar to other rosters on this list.

Nova Esports is a well-known name across several mobile games, notably Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile and Arena of Valor. The company has operations in China and Europe, where it competes in Call of Duty Mobile. Nova Esports also entered Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in 2023, and has won the PUBG Mobile Global Championship in 2021. 

The organisation was created in 2016 as a Class of Clans clan and, after a short time, established itself as one of the country’s notable mobile esports organisations. According to Nova’s website, the team competes in only mobile games with VALORANT being the only PC title the organisation is currently investing in. 

JD Gaming is another organisation well-known for its success in League of Legends, where it won two splits of the LPL in 2023, the Mid-Season Invitational and was knocked out in the semi-finals of the 2023 World Championship by eventual winners T1. The organisation also fields a Wild Rift team which finished second at the Chinese WRL in 2022.

In VALORANT, the organisation competed locally in China’s Evolution Series. JD Gaming is also owned by Chinese ecommerce website JD.com. 

Trace Esports is one of the lesser-known teams competing in VCT China. The team is most known for its Wild Rift roster which is a steady regional performer in B-tier events, and started 2024 with a solid finish at the China Conference within Wild Rift League Asia 2023 Season 2. 

VALORANT is the first PC game that Trace Esports competes in, but the VCT is not the first time the viewers may have seen them in action. The roster already competed in the VCT Champions qualifiers in China, where it lost to FPX and did not make the Champions. 

An organisation owned by the Premier League football club Wolverhampton Wanderers, Wolves Esports is a result of the club’s major push into the Chinese market. Besides VALORANT, Wolves Esports also competes in Call of Duty Mobile, where it fields one of the strongest teams in the country (and the world). Wolves Esports won the Call of Duty Mobile World Championship in 2023, as well as the Snapdragon Pro Series Season 3 in China.

The organisation has operations in Europe, but it has recorded most of its success in Asia. In addition to VALORANT and Call of Duty, Wolves Esports also competes in Rainbow Six, Street Fighter and Honor of Kings, among several other games. 

An organisation known for League of Legends and Counter-Strike, FPX is another very strong and experienced contender for the VCT China throne, operating in multiple markets since its creation in 2017. The company is owned by FunPlus, a game development company in China, and was also known for being a steady CS:GO performer before the roster was disbanded. FPX notably acquired GODSENT’s CS:GO roster in a major move in 2021.

Compared to some of the other teams, FPX has a lot of high-tier VALORANT experience, albeit as an EMEA representative. The organisation finished 4th at VALORANT Champions 2022 and won the VCT Stage 2 Masters in the same year, making it one of the more successful Chinese organisations internationally. FPX also competed in the VCT LOCK//IN tournament as the second Chinese representative.

A team that made headlines after winning the first edition of the Ascension tournament in late 2023, becoming the first promoted team for VCT China. Dragon Ranger Gaming is known for its success in mobile MOBA game Honor of Kings, where it placed second at the Honor of Kings International Championship 2022 and in several other high-profile tournaments, bringing home several million pounds of prize pool money between 2018 and 2023.

In VALORANT, DRG competed in the Chinese qualifiers for the VALORANT Champions 2023, and the China Evolution Series, but its most notable achievement to date was securing promotion to the VCT China for the next two years.