ZHI-TECH Elite Masters: Day 1 recap
The online group stage of the ZHI-TECH Elite Masters 2026 is underway and the opening day's play has concluded. The online group stage hosts a single-elimination best-of-three bracket and teams just need a single win to make it to the LAN. JijieHao will take on Just Swing tomorrow at 12:30PM IST to kick off the second day's play. Lets take a quick look at how the first day went.
Chinggis Warriors vs Change The Game
After reseeding, Chinggis Warriors took on Change The Game in the opening game of the tournament. The Mongolian side barely broke a sweat in the opening map, taking a 11-1 lead in the first half. A crushing 1-13 defeat on Ancient meant that Change The Game had to take down Chinggis Warriors on their own map pick of Mirage. Efire finished Ancient with a 2.15 rating at an ADR of 109.
An identical 11-1 scoreline in the first half of Mirage set Chinggis Warriors up for a dominant win. The Chinese side suffered another 1-13 loss as Chinggis Warriors knocked out Change The Game to book a LAN slot. yAmi with a 2.76 rating and 130 ADR topped the charts in the second map.
Change The GameChinggis Warriors| Change The Game |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 ZhiJie 'Hack1ng' Chen |
14 - 25 | -11 | 50.0 | 50.0% | 0.65 |
| LiYang 'lyrics3' Jiang |
16 - 27 | -11 | 62.0 | 53.6% | 0.64 |
| Zhu '957' Jianping |
12 - 27 | -15 | 57.8 | 57.1% | 0.60 |
| Lai 'LaiKeXu' Kexu |
12 - 26 | -14 | 48.1 | 42.9% | 0.57 |
| JingYu 'VanceKK' Wan |
11 - 25 | -14 | 53.4 | 46.4% | 0.45 |
| Chinggis Warriors |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Yalalt 'yAmi' Oyunbileg |
35 - 10 | +25 | 115.5 | 96.4% | 2.16 |
| Tugserdene 'Efire' Erdenebold |
26 - 16 | +10 | 89.6 | 96.4% | 1.89 |
| Sodbileg 'cool4st' Batbaatar |
23 - 10 | +13 | 88.0 | 92.9% | 1.50 |
| Undrakhbayar 'ROUX' Zolbayar |
27 - 16 | +11 | 94.9 | 75.0% | 1.43 |
| Zolbayar 'tikuak' Chimedtseren |
18 - 13 | +5 | 76.4 | 85.7% | 1.32 |
Morningstar vs EGG
In the second match Morningstar took on EGG. The series started on Mirage with Morningstar suffering a 5-7 deficit on the CT-side. Dropping just a couple of rounds in the second half, EGG closed Mirage 1307, taking a 1-0 lead in the series. A stellar T-side showing on Ancient, saw Morningstar secure a massive 10-2 lead. Morning struggled on the CT-side but their lead came to their aid, as the limped across the line 13-10 to level the series.
The decider took us to Dust2 where Morningstar's SPine and rubeN propelled the Chinese side off to an 8-4 start in on the CT-side. A flawless T-side saw Morningstar close Dust2 13-4 and take the series 2-1, eliminating EGG.
Morningstar| Morningstar |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qingsong 'SPine' Long |
44 - 39 | +5 | 80.7 | 71.7% | 1.28 |
| JiaZhi 'expSasiKi' Cai |
41 - 37 | +4 | 72.8 | 65.0% | 1.22 |
| Hao 'rage' Yu |
44 - 48 | -4 | 80.7 | 61.7% | 1.16 |
| Cai 'rubeN' XiaoHan |
36 - 38 | -2 | 64.3 | 66.7% | 0.95 |
| Guanshen 'suki' Wang |
30 - 41 | -11 | 58.6 | 70.0% | 0.89 |
| K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wang 'sayo' WenJie |
51 - 40 | +11 | 85.0 | 76.7% | 1.34 |
| Zhenghao 'DANK1NG' Lv |
46 - 39 | +7 | 84.1 | 68.3% | 1.09 |
| Chen 'zeroX1n' YueXin |
38 - 33 | +5 | 66.8 | 70.0% | 0.98 |
| Junqi 'Risk' Chen |
44 - 46 | -2 | 80.0 | 65.0% | 0.96 |
| HaoYang 'ProKiller' Lai |
22 - 39 | -17 | 48.6 | 70.0% | 0.67 |
The Huns vs XDM
The final game of the day saw The Huns take on XDM as both teams split an even 6-6 half on the opening map- Mirage. After conceding the pistol and anti-eco in the second half, The Huns bounced back with three gun rounds. Unfortunately that was all The Huns would secure in the second half as a solid CT-side from XDM fetched the Chinese side a 13-9 win in the opening map.
The Huns returned the favor on their map pick of Ancient. After securing a marginal 7-5 lead on the T-side, The Huns went round for round in the second half but managed to power through and secure a 13-9 win to level the series. In the decider, Dust2, The Huns were handed a crushing 3-9 deficit in the first half but the Mongolians delivered an unbelievable T-side with controlez popping off. The ex-MongolZ rifler dropped a 144 ADR half as The Huns recovered and took Dust2 13-11 to close the series and confirm their LAN slot.
The Huns| The Huns |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tengis 'sk0R' Batjargal |
54 - 46 | +8 | 85.4 | 67.6% | 1.35 |
| Unudelger 'controlez' Baasanjargal |
54 - 51 | +3 | 93.7 | 69.1% | 1.12 |
| Munkhtogtokh 'xerolte' Enkhbat |
44 - 42 | +2 | 72.2 | 72.1% | 1.06 |
| Yesuntumur 'nin9' Gantulga |
37 - 42 | -5 | 56.3 | 67.6% | 0.85 |
| Baatarkhuu 'Bart4k' Batbold |
32 - 46 | -14 | 50.7 | 64.7% | 0.77 |
| K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bo 'r1verLaKe' Wang |
52 - 40 | +12 | 75.4 | 73.5% | 1.29 |
| Chuanze 'Shad0w' Liu |
56 - 49 | +7 | 95.7 | 61.8% | 1.09 |
| Haitao 'Kungao' He |
42 - 42 | +0 | 64.2 | 67.6% | 0.97 |
| Hangqi 'darkk' Dong |
43 - 46 | -3 | 67.6 | 63.2% | 0.95 |
| Jiaye 'taidao' Zhang |
33 - 46 | -13 | 60.2 | 70.6% | 0.84 |
By winning their matches on the first day, Chinggis Warriors, The Huns and Morningstar have qualified for the ZHI-TECH Elite Masters LAN which is set to take place in Beijing, China on 23rd, 24th and 25th January 2026. Carrying a prize pool of ~$43,000 USD, the Chinese LAN will accommodate eight teams in a single-elimination best-of-three bracket that culminates in a best-of-five grand-final. The play-in continues tomorrow with these matches:
Rare Atom vs UR
JijieHao vs Just Swins
FlyQuest vs Steel Helmet
Also read
