After helping LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 lukxo Lucca Travaioli DaviH David Cruz Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia erde Roberto Lobos tkzin Enzo Zimiani loan lift the Champions Shanghai trophy as an analyst, Thong "balax" Chern Kwi has announced that he is searching for a new team. In his announcement, he said that he is open to any region as an assistant coach, coach, or analyst at any level.

balax also confirmed with VLR that his contract with LOUD expired after Champions Shanghai, meaning he was not a part of the team the day after the event was over.

"After helping and learning from 3 teams and systems this year I am confident I can help any team in 2027," he said.

balax started the year on FrosT 's staff at Global Esports Global Esports Inactive PatMen Patrick Mendoza Kr1stal Savva Fedorov xavi8k Xavier Juan Autumn Kale Dunne as a coach, but left midway through Pacific Stage 1. He landed with Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #8 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan yilai Gu Yiming (顾依铭) Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) bud Yang Renyu (杨韧余) FT Yan Shuaibo (闫帅博) as an analyst ahead of China Stage 2, and then joined Romanilly 's LOUD staff ahead of Champions as an analyst. Before GE, balax spent a short time with Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #3 WsLeo Huang Pinwei (黄品维) Sharks Qiu Ge (邱戈) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) , assisting the team through the China Stage 2 playoffs and Champions Paris in an analyst role. He started his coaching career earlier that year, leading Singapore-based Soi Thai Esports Soi Thai Esports Inactive ESMONDE Esmonde Farm Rui Siang Moosey Yeow Zhen Feng kayle Ahmad Aqil benaf Benedict Tan as its head coach.

The job of an analyst in professional Valorant varies from case to case, but balax's job on LOUD seemed to zero in on getting in the opponents' brains a bit. In the press conference following the team's on-stage trophy lift, assistant coach Bati spoke on balax's role, providing further insight into what he did behind the scenes.

"Honestly, in the beginning, he was doing a little bit of anti," he said. "Then we swapped, because he didn't know our play style, so it was harder for us to implement his anti. And then he did anti of ourselves, so he was anti-ing every single game that we played and understanding what kind of tendencies we had."

With balax signing off after a trophy-lifting run in Shanghai, LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 lukxo Lucca Travaioli DaviH David Cruz Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia erde Roberto Lobos tkzin Enzo Zimiani loan 's full roster is now:

  • Roberto "erde" Lobos
  • Lucca "lukxo" Travaioli
  • David "DaviH" Cruz
  • Sebastián "Darker" Castro Cicuamia
  • Enzo "tkzin" Zimiani (Loan)
  • Carlos "Wenty" Lira Portela (Manager)
  • Gonzalo "Romanilly" Manzano (Head coach)
  • Miguel "Bati" Batista (Assistant coach)
  • Lucas "bajerski" Bajerski Pereira (Performance coach)