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EDG Says Goodbye To VALORANT Champions After Huge Mistake
Two Chinese teams entered the VALORANT Champions playoffs bracket with the intention of demonstrating their country’s power against the best in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. However, after BiliBili’s departure on August 18th, China had only EDward Gaming to rely on to make the playoffs. Despite having a star player in KangKang, EDG was eliminated by LOUD in a lower bracket round due to their failure to perform.
EDG’s Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang, also known as KangKang, has been credited with a significant portion of the organization’s achievements thus far thanks to his remarkable technical skills in VALORANT. His proficiency with the game’s most expensive weapon is astounding. Unfortunately, like other duelist mains, he often has trouble keeping his cool under pressure, which has lost EDG a couple of rounds in a must-win series more than once.
KangKang admitted to being overaggressive and overtrusting himself in certain instances during the post-match press conference following the August 20 lower bracket round two clash between LOUD and EDG.
I don’t think I did very well in several areas. “I take full responsibility for today’s loss,” he admitted. “My goal for the next time around is to gradually break some of my negative habits. I tend to over-rely on my abilities and play too aggressively at times“.
Despite being called “one of the best duelists in the world,” KangKang admitted later in the interview that he is now overrated. It’s disappointing to hear KangKang label himself overrated after the incredibly entertaining he’s been since Masters Tokyo.
The 19-year-old is typical of his kind when using the Operator, as evidenced by his multiple-kill rounds he achieved yesterday versus LOUD. His poor performance was the deciding factor in EDG’s loss against the eventual champions of the VALORANT Champions tournament in 2022.
Without any support from his squad, KangKang, playing as defense, ventured into extremely high-risk areas of the deciding Haven map while using the Operator. Occasionally it would succeed, but more often than not he would wind up handing early game kills to LOUD.
The 24th round of the deciding game is a blazing example of KangKang’s overheating: LOUD has a map point, and EDG has nothing to lose at 11. KangKang, Operator in hand, pushed into Haven’s C Main, presumably looking for a chance to strike. Given that it was LOUD’s match point and EDG was on the verge of mounting a remarkable comeback, it was a tremendous gamble.
Saadhak had planned for the worst and was waiting for KangKang at C Lobby with his crosshairs perfectly placed. But then again, KangKang wasn’t the only one to botch things up yesterday. It would be unfair to place all of the series’ failure on KangKang alone, given that both EDG’s nobody and Haodong made significant mistakes. Despite their efforts, Smoggy and CHICHOO couldn’t win the game on their own. Perhaps we can use this knowledge to the VALORANT rated games we play every day.
After dropping games one and two, EDG are eliminated from VALORANT Champions contention for the 2023 season, but LOUD are set for a high-stakes duel versus Fnatic in the third round of the lower bracket on August 24.
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