EDward Gaming’s Smoggy discusses lessons from past losses

Most teams talk about learning from losses. Few can point to a specific philosophy born from defeat that directly produced a championship comeback. Zhang “Smoggy” Zhao can.

The EDward Gaming duelist, fresh off being named Finals MVP in the VCT 2026 China Stage 1 grand final, has been candid about how past tournament setbacks transformed the way his team handles pressure. The result: a 3-2 reverse against Xi Lai Gaming on May 10 that secured EDG’s ticket to VCT Masters London 2026.

The comeback and the mindset behind it

Smoggy has described his approach as deliberately methodical. Rather than fixating on the deficit or letting emotions dictate decisions, the team leans into what he calls a “step-by-step” strategy. In English: stop worrying about the scoreboard, focus on the next round, and trust the process of identifying what’s actually going wrong in real time.

The 3-2 victory over XLG wasn’t just a win. It was EDG’s ninth title since 2024, a stat that quietly underscores how dominant this roster has become in the Chinese VALORANT scene. EDG has developed something of a reputation for thriving in overtime and deficit situations during major events.

Who is Smoggy

Born June 8, 2002, Zhang Zhao joined EDward Gaming in July 2022. In the years since, he’s accumulated over $276,800 in career earnings, a figure that places him comfortably among the top earners in Chinese VALORANT.

Smoggy’s interviews reveal a player who thinks about competition in structural terms, someone who treats losses not as emotional events but as data sets to be parsed and understood. Where many players default to vague platitudes about “getting better” after a loss, Smoggy talks specifically about the team sitting down, dissecting what went wrong at a tactical level, and building adjustments into their preparation. The losses at international arenas, the ones that stung the most, became the foundation for a more resilient competitive identity.

Smoggy has stressed the importance of not getting overconfident, even when the team is riding a hot streak. For a squad that’s won nine titles in roughly two years, that’s a harder discipline to maintain than it sounds.

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