The 2020 CBA All-Star Weekend started in Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, with the Rising Stars Challenge contest on Saturday. In the competition between the CBA's first- and second-year rookies and a team made of Chinese University Basketball Association players, the professional team beat their college opponents 83-75.

Jiang Weize of the Jilin Northeast Tigers was named MVP of the game with 14 points, five rebounds and one assist. He made in total five shots in the game and four of them either helped his team regain lead or seal the deal.

On the college side, Zhang Ning of Peking University, who has been known as China's best college shooting guard, washed away his shame of scoring zero points in the previous two Rising Stars Challenge games by putting down 15 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Both sides were unexpectedly serious about the All-Star appetizer. Thanks to their better coordination and youthful vigor, the college team got the upper hand in the first quarter. College players showed no fear even in front of professional opponents.

Their coach Bai Jiang though lost one of his biggest cards Li Zhanglin early in the game, he kept adjusting the team's tactics based on the development of the game, even helping the students come back from 10-point trail in the third quarter.

By contrast, the CBA side's coach Stephon Marbury is even more well-conceived and far-sighted. He put his best players in the backup squad, leading the CBA team to punch later but harder.

Marbury's players apparently understood what their coach wanted. Guards like Xu Jie and Wang Junjie showed better control of the pace of the game and they knew when was the best time to strike. Though the CBA side trailed twice in the first and the third quarter respectively, they managed to regain the lead and pocket the final victory.

The following Skills Competition had more of a star attendance and more surprises. Two of China's national team guards Zhao Rui from the Guangdong Southern Tigers and Zhao Jiwei from the Liaoning Flying Leopards plus defending champion Jiang were all knocked out in the first two rounds of competition.

In the semifinals on Sunday, Hu Jinqiu from the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions will meet Wang Junjie from the Bayi Rockets while Wang Lanqin from Tsinghua University will take on Chen Peidong from the Shandong Heroes.

Eight shooters battled for two rounds in the preliminary competition of the 3-Point Contest. The defending champion Chen Linjian from Fujian Sturgeons and Rising Stars Challenge MVP Jiang Weize secured their spots in the final with 21 and 19 points in the first round.

Meng Xiang from Huaqiao University and Kyranbek Makan from the Xinjiang Flying Tigers both shot down 17 points and thus needed extra competition. Meng speeded up his shooting but, unfortunately lost his pace, and only got three points. Kyranbek maintained his rhythm and entered the final on Sunday with 10 points.

The last All-Star individual event on Saturday was the preliminary of Slam Dunk Contest. Of the six rim rattlers, Yi Jinhong from southwest China's Yunnan Province drew the most attention.

None of the six did anything impressive in their first dunks. Four got 42 points and U.S. guard Kay Felder from the Xinjiang Flying Tigers led with 47 points after working with his teammate Kyranbek to finish a single-hand Tomahawk Dunk.

The best part happened in the second round. Yi first finished a two-hand reverse between the legs dunk. However, He then asked to try again. This time, Zhao Rui came to help by holding the ball behind his head while standing in front of a billboard. Yi leaped high, took the ball, flew over Zhao and the billboard and smashed the ball into the basket. His incredible performance got him 50 points.

Yi will be competing for the Slam Dunk Contest championship with Felder and Tang Haobo from the Jilin University on Sunday.

(CGTN Sports Scene's Liu Jiaqi contributed to this story.)