Thong “balax” Chern Kwi is searching for a new Valorant team after helping LOUD win Champions Shanghai as an analyst. In his announcement, he said he is open to any region and willing to work as an assistant coach, coach, or analyst at any level. balax also confirmed to VLR that his LOUD contract expired after Champions Shanghai, so he was no longer on the roster the day after the event ended.
“After helping and learning from 3 teams and systems this year I am confident I can help any team in 2027,” he said.
His departure closes out a short but busy run with LOUD that ended with the biggest result of the year for the Brazilian organization. LOUD lifted the Champions Shanghai trophy after beating Team Vitality in the grand final, capping a title run that included a long playoff push and a trophy lift in front of the Shanghai crowd. GAMER2GO reported on that victory in its coverage of LOUD’s path to the Champions Shanghai grand final.
How balax moved through 2026
balax’s 2026 season stretched across several teams, roles, and regions before ending with LOUD’s title run. He started the year on FrosT’s staff at Global Esports as a coach, but left midway through Pacific Stage 1. From there, he moved to Bilibili Gaming as an analyst ahead of China Stage 2.
Before the LOUD stint, balax also spent time with Xi Lai Gaming as an analyst. According to the source material, he assisted Xi Lai Gaming through the China Stage 2 playoffs and Champions Paris before taking the LOUD role ahead of Champions Shanghai. That sequence meant he worked in both the Pacific and China regions before landing in Brazil for the final stage of the season.
His coaching career began earlier in 2026, when he became head coach of Singapore-based Soi Thai Esports. The material does not give a date for that appointment, but it places Soi Thai Esports at the start of his move into coaching before he shifted back into analyst work with other teams.
The pattern across the year was straightforward: balax moved from head coach to coach, then into analyst roles as he changed teams. He described the season as one in which he learned from three teams and systems, and his search now covers every major support slot in a Valorant staff. The open-ended nature of that search is the main change for LOUD after its championship win, since the staff member who helped prepare the team for Shanghai is now free to look elsewhere.
What LOUD said about his role
balax’s exact workload on LOUD is not laid out in a formal staff breakdown, but assistant coach Bati gave a clear picture of the analyst’s job during the press conference after the trophy lift. He said balax initially handled opponent-focused work before the staff adjusted how they divided duties.
“Honestly, in the beginning, he was doing a little bit of anti,” he said.
Bati said the staff later swapped tasks because balax was still learning LOUD’s own style and it was harder to apply his preparation work at first. Once that changed, he focused on anti-stratting LOUD’s own games as well. Bati described him as someone who ended up studying the team’s tendencies on a game-by-game basis.
“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.”
That detail helps explain why balax’s role mattered during the team’s title run. His work was not about public-facing leadership or in-game calling, but about studying opponents and then helping the staff understand how LOUD itself was playing. The championship run in Shanghai suggests that prep carried over into the team’s matchdays, even if his part of the job stayed behind the scenes.
balax’s contract situation also makes the timing of his exit plain. Because his deal expired after Champions Shanghai, he was never part of LOUD beyond the tournament window. The announcement effectively turns the title run into the final chapter of his time with the team, at least for now, while he looks for his next staff position.
What comes next for the analyst
balax did not limit himself to one path in his announcement. He said he would consider assistant coach, coach, or analyst openings, and he is willing to work in any region. That makes him eligible for a wide range of staff jobs, from opponent scouting to broader coaching duties. The source material does not name any teams linked to him yet, but it does make clear that he is available immediately after the Champions Shanghai run.
For LOUD, the move leaves the championship roster without one of the support staff members who helped guide the team through the event. The organization’s winning lineup on the player side remained intact in the report, while the staff picture changed with balax’s exit. The contract expiration means the split is not framed as a transfer or loan ending; it is a free-agency search after the team’s peak result of the season.
That context matters because balax’s 2026 was built around short stints and rapid changes. Global Esports, Bilibili Gaming, Xi Lai Gaming, Soi Thai Esports, and LOUD all appear in the same year’s path, with each stop adding to the experience he says he can bring to a future team. His final stop produced a world title, and his next one will likely depend on which staff role opens first in the months before 2027.
GAMER2GO previously covered related offseason movement in Valorant, including UdoTan and xavi8k entering free agency after Global Esports’ exit from Valorant and Xi Lai Gaming letting Rarga explore 2027 options while his contract remains in place. balax’s situation is different from both of those cases, but it sits in the same broader stretch of roster and staff movement across the region.
His own timeline is what makes this departure notable: he spent the year moving from coaching to analyst work, helped multiple teams, and ended with a trophy. Now he is making the jump from a championship run back into the market, with no region locked in and no staff title ruled out.
free agent after a title run is wild
bro won and still got released, peak esports paperwork lol
nah that’s the funniest part of it, the timing makes it look colder than it probably is. contract ended, title done, everyone moves on i guess
Had a Roblox team project like that once, the best builder on it kept rotating to another group right after we shipped something decent. Feels messy at the time, but if the contract is done and he wants staff work, you can’t really blame him. Still, leaving right after Champs is the kind of timing that makes every org look a bit unsteady.
Honestly fair if the deal expired. Win the trophy, take the bag somewhere else, simple as.
Do you think LOUD actually loses much here, or was he more of an extra prep guy? The bit about him first doing anti and then switching to LOUD’s own tendencies makes it sound like the staff used him pretty flexibly. I’m wondering if that kind of behind-the-scenes role matters more in a title run than people admit, since no one outside the room really sees it.
Probably not a huge loss. In Valorant staff roles get swapped all the time and the players still have to do the real work, shocking I know.
Yeah, but if he was actually tracking tendencies game by game, that can be enough to swing prep at this level. Not saying he was the whole reason, just that it’s more than a warm body on the bench.
Maybe a little. I just do not think people should overrate one analyst after a trophy run, that is all.
any region though?
That stood out to me too. If he’s open to assistant coach, coach, or analyst, then he’s basically saying ‘just get me in the room and I’ll work’ which is pretty flexible after bouncing through multiple teams.
Or it means he is trying to stay employed, which is also fair. The region part feels like the bigger deal than the title.
Yeah, that’s what i meant really. The role flexibility is nice, but opening every region is the part that makes it feel like he wants to stay in the scene no matter what.
assistant coach is the real value
nah, analyst still matters more
Fair, but the assistant coach slot is where the prep turns into actual practice work. Analyst alone is too narrow for most teams.
The anti-stratting detail is the most interesting part to me. If he started by prepping opponents and then had to flip into learning LOUD’s own style, that explains why staff work is harder than fans make it sound. People act like analyst is just homework, but the real job is translating that prep into something the team can actually use on stage. That’s probably why some staff fit one roster and look average on another.
had a coach do the same thing in my old scrim group
People are sleeping on how normal this move is for a title staff. He won, his contract ended, and now he is free to shop the result like a CV. That does not make it shady, it just means he timed it well and got a clean exit after the biggest possible pitch. In esports, that is almost a dream scenario if you are staff.
Maybe, but a trophy does not mean every room will want the same setup. one win is not magic skin unlock for every team.
No magic, just better market value. BIG difference
haha okay mr spreadsheet, i know. still, some teams want fit more than shiny trophy name on cv
Sure, fit matters. I just think a title run opens doors faster than people here want to admit.
yeah, but a role that changes during the event still shows he could adapt fast. that matters when a team is trying to get through playoffs
LOUD got the better end
better end? they also lost the staff guy who apparently kept doing anti on every single game. sounds like both sides got something out of it.
fair, but LOUD still got the trophy and he got the clip for his resume
contract expiry = free agency
Pretty much, and the fact that he said any region makes it even more open-ended. It sounds less like a sudden drama move and more like the natural end of a short stint.
could still be a bit of a gamble for LOUD though
trophy first, gamble later
2027 is the scary part
Why scary?
Because if he really did bounce through that many teams in one year, the upside is there but the stability question is too. One hot month in playoffs is great, but some orgs want someone who sticks through the rough patches too. Still, I get why people would take a shot on him after Shanghai.
Yeah that is my point. The upside is massive, but the moving around makes it feel like a quick hire if someone wants a long project. If a team needs instant prep for 2027, he makes sense, but not every org wants another short cycle.