kaze transitions to coaching role

Rare Atom's kaze will be taking up a new role with the Chinese team announcing that the veteran AWP-er will be joining the coaching staff and begin a new chapter as coach.

Rare Atom currently have z8z as their current and there has been no announcement on the coaching set-up moving forward and whether kaze will assist z8z or take up the role wholly or not. In their announcement, Rare Atom says that the decision was taken after 'full communication and friendly negotiation' between the team and kaze.

It is not clear yet as to who will replace kaze on the lineup either, with the team having made no official announcement yet. Rare Atom, most recently, won the ESL Challenger League Season 50 Asia-Pacific Cup 3, taking down The Huns in the final. Rare Atom had Taiwan's Marek playing for them, for the event, with kaze's last game for Rare Atom being in the CS Asia Championships 2025 China Open Qualifier, where they lost 0-2 to Take me away.

Marek, though, looks likely to be present in the server in Budapest, for the upcoming Major, with the Chinese team all but confirming his place in the lineup, through a recent post on Weibo. Marek, also serves as the team's assistant coach.

A veteran of the Asian Counter-Strike community, kaze has been active for more than a decade, with his notable stints coming with MVP.karnal, ViCi, Rare Atom and TYLOO. kaze has been part of three Majors, with Flash, ViCi and Rare Atom, most recently. kaze was supposed to play his fourth Major, second with Rare Atom, at the upcoming StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, having made it to Stage 1, thanks to their global rankings.

With kaze taking up the new role, Rare Atom are:

• Tiger

• Summer

• ChildKing

• L1haNg

• kaze (Coach)

• z8z (Coach)