JD Gaming broke Weibo's streak and now eye Paris
At the 2026 Midseason Championship, JD Gaming are in a unique position to answer one question: is OWCS China at the same level as North America?
Historically, the answer has been no. Aside from Weibo Gaming, the undisputed best team in China, Chinese teams have had a terrible track record at international events. Since China was added as an OWCS region in March 2025, the only time a non-Weibo Chinese team has ever won at a major was the JD Gaming squad’s match versus ZoKorp Esports at last year’s Midseason Championship.
Now, after a great showing in OWCS China Stage 2, JD Gaming look more primed than ever to take a series in Paris.
As Team CC, JD Gaming qualified for the Grand Finals in all three OWCS China stages last year. They fell to Weibo Gaming in OWCS China’s Grand Finals every time, but their consistent performances as China’s second seed allowed them to appear at every 2025 major.
That streak was finally broken last stage, when JD Gaming were knocked out of the regional playoffs bracket by rival team All Gamers. JD Gaming looked uncomfortable on the Cat/Bastion comp dominating pro play at the time, and the meta often required Hwang “Belosrea” Gyu-tae to abandon his signature main tank heroes and play D.Va.
Then, in Stage 2, JD Gaming leveled up. Nowhere has this improvement been more obvious than their 3-1 win against Weibo Gaming in the playoffs seeding decider match, which shattered Weibo’s 41-game undefeated streak in OWCS China. The addition of tank player Park “Roxy” Si-heon brought needed depth to the roster, and Liu “Kaneki” Nian outclassed Weibo Gaming with his much-improved Symmetra. (In the post-match interview, Kaneki said that he spent hours every day watching POVs of Symm players, including Ahmad "Youbi" Alyoubi.)
In the Stage 2 playoffs, JD Gaming took Weibo Gaming to five maps in the Upper Bracket Final. JD Gaming won Aatlis in the Mauga mirror thanks to Li “Pineapple” Zhuo’s highlight performance on Shion, and they fully comp-gapped Weibo on King’s Row by running Kaneki on Mei. JD Gaming still lost Map 5 and went on to lose once again against Weibo Gaming in the Grand Final, but the Upper Bracket Final—and the seeding decider victory the month before—proved that JD Gaming could now go toe-to-toe with the regional champs.
Will the improvements JD Gaming made in Stage 2 be enough for a win in Paris? For now, it’s impossible to tell. JD Gaming’s first opponent at the Midseason Championship is North America’s second seed, Spacestation Gaming. A win against Spacestation would be JD Gaming’s first-ever international win against a team from a major region.