In both the groups and playoff stages of the VALORANT Champions Tour Masters Tokyo, one team, in particular, has earned everyone’s attention thanks to an incredible underdog run, with plenty tuning in to catch them live.
Sole Chinese representative EDward Gaming, in their third international tournament appearance, is going deep after a 2-0 win against LOCK//IN finalists LOUD in their second playoff game on June 18. They’ve drawn a lot of attention along the way, playing with house money and eliminating teams like NAVI, T1, and LOUD—teams fans expected to make it deeper in the tournament. Every tournament has its team that everyone loves, and this time around, it’s the sole Chinese team left standing.
The team has a lot of curious eyes watching, seeing just how far this Chinese dream team can go. Most notably, their group stage win over NAVI on June 13 reached just shy of 400,000 viewers according to EsportsCharts. Many thought viewership for the squad had peaked until their win over LOUD on June 18 registered a chart-topping 505,803 peak viewers.
As of the time of publishing, EDG’s win over LOUD is the most viewed game in the tournament, and the only one to top half a million viewers. In fact, EDG has three of the top six most viewed games in Tokyo, along with the most viewed group stage match with their NAVI series.
While many were tuning in to follow EDG’s run through the tournament livewire duelist Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang has garnered a huge following over the last week for his insane Operator Jett play, leading the tournament in plenty of stats.
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As well as this, with the massive amount of Chinese esports fans across all games—as well as the lack of another Chinese squad to support—regional fans got to see their team beat the best the Americas had to offer. EDG pulled off the upset victory, with the squad gaining fans across the world—something EDG themselves recognized and appreciated.
For older fans of VALORANT, teams like Sentinels, TSM, and FPX were the ones who usually garnered the most viewership internationally. Chinese teams never got that chance, and when they did, they were bounced out before developing that run that can build up a fanbase outside of your region. Paper Rex essentially did that in 2022, and EDG might be the next fan-favorite team.
EDG will continue in the lower bracket, facing one of the losing teams from the upper bracket semifinals on June 20. But, even if they lose their next game, it’s hard to see this run as anything but a win for EDG and Chinese VALORANT as a whole.
