GangKui Cup Season 1: Recap

Organized by HuyaTV in partnership with Xinsai Esports and CSBOY, the inaugural edition of the GangKui Cup has come to a close. Four teams took stage at the NewHappy Esports Center in Shanghai following their closed qualifier success. A straight forward single-elimination bracket playoffs saw Rare Atom take home the lion's share of the $10,000 USD prize pool.

Let's take a quick look at yesterday's proceedings.

The tournament began a couple of weeks back with an online open qualifier across the Chinese region. Eight teams made it into the closed qualifier where a Swiss System bo3 sent the top four into the playoffs. Rare Atom were the favorites from the get-go and delivered a strong performance in the closed qualifier, clearing the Swiss bracket with a 2-0 record alongside Wings Up.

In the last round of games in the closed qualifier, FengDa took down Steel Helmet and XDM defeated Kaleido Gaming to lock in the final two spots in the playoffs.

Semi-finals

Rare Atom vs XDM

In the first semi-final, Rare Atom started with flying colors on Mirage, putting up a massive 10-2 lead on the CT-side of Mirage. 2.93 and 1.90 rating performances from ChildKing and L1haNg saw Rare Atom take Mirage 13-2, toppling XDM on their own map pick. XDM got off to a strong start on the CT-side of Inferno with pistol and anti-eco wins. XDM were denied the bonus and eventually the first gun round.

Rare Atom slid a 7-5 half in their favor as XDM's economy never really hit the sweet spot throughout the first half. Rare Atom built up a solid lead in the second half before XDM could get an idea of Rare Atom's CT-defense. A 13-9 win saw Rare Atom book the grand-final spot.

Wings Up vs FengDa

In the second semi-final Wings Up took on FengDa and split an even 6-6 half in the opening map of the series, Mirage. Pistol and anti-eco wins on the T-side netted Wings Up a momentary lead at 8-6 but FengDa's gun rounds were too much to handle for Wings Up as the former put up a 13-10 win on Mirage after a strong CT-side.

The second map was a one-sided affair where FengDa fell apart after winning the pistol round on the CT-side of Dust2. After stealing the anti-eco, Wings Up strung up six rounds in a row and ended the first half with a big 10-2 half off of gas's 2.04 rating, 124 ADR T-side showing. Wings Up levelled the series with a 13-2 win on Dust2.

The classic Inferno decider saw a back and forth start but Wings Up capitalized on FengDa's mistakes towards the end, netting them a small 7-5 lead on the CT-side. Switching over, Wings Up lost their T-side pistol and anti-eco but upon winning the first gun round, Wings Up ran with the momentum closing Inferno 13-8 and locking in a grand-final clash against Rare Atom.

Grand-final

Rare Atom vs Wings Up

Rare Atom took on Wings Up in an electrifying bo5 grand-final matchup. The series started on Dust2 with Rare Atom being handed a 4-8 deficit on the CT-side. The ChildKing-kaze duo fueled Rare Atom's comeback, pushing the opening map into overtime. Rare Atom's comeback efforts went in vain as Wings Up won a double-overtime encounter 19-16 off of B1NGO's 30-bomb.

Every single player stepped up for Rare Atom in the second map, pulling through to a 9-3 lead on the T-side and despite fumbling a couple of rounds on match point, Rare Atom held on to close Inferno 13-6 and level the series at 1-1. Rare Atom were down 4-8 yet again on the third map, Ancient but this time an impressive T-side showing from Trash propelled Rare Atom to match point at 12-10, dropping just a couple of rounds. Wings Up were on the brink of pushing another map to overtime but Rare Atom didn't let things slip, closing out Ancient 13-11.

Wings Up had to topple Rare Atom on their pick, Anubis just to push the series into the decider and the latter showed great potential, sliding a 7-5 T-side in their favor. The two-round lead wasn't enough for Wings Up to steer clear on an extremely T-sided map as Rare Atom''s Summer put up a 129 ADR T-side showing, netting them a super close 13-11 win.

Rare Atom swept the bo5 grand-final 3-1 after conceding the opening map and won the inaugural edition of the GangKui Cup, taking home a cash prize of $5,000 USD.