kaze: "We need to adapt to European style a bit, and not rely on firepower"

Rare Atom's veteran trio of kaze, summer, and somebody got off to a winning start in Shanghai.

Andrew "⁠kaze⁠" Khong has played two Major Challenger stages, one with ViCi in 2019 and his first alongside YuLun "⁠Summer⁠" Cai in 2018 with Flash.

Re-united six years later, he and Summer are one win from a home Major after beating GR on the opening day of the RMR.

The Malaysian AWPer, now 30, has had a tough time in 2024 he and long-term sidekick Zhuo "⁠advent⁠" Liang were benched by TYLOO.

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Asia RMR
12/11/2024	Rare Atom 12:00 TALON	Match
11/11/2024	Rare Atom Finished 13:4 GR	Match

But an invite to join Rare Atom "upped" kaze's motivation, and — while he is not getting ahead of himself publicly — the team must be dreaming of making it to see the audience and experience a home crowd.

If you cannot see the Soundcloud embed, listen to the interview here

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First of all, congratulations on the win, how does it feel?

I'm feeling happy with a win. We started off strong on T side, I'd say we did pretty well today for a first matchup. Today felt good.

How have you prepared for the event, do you feel comfortable?

Yeah, we bootcamped in Serbia for roughly a month. So, we have been preparing a lot recently, all the maps, what our weaknesses are as well, so we are well prepared for this Major.

And something on your own journey, benched on TYLOO a while ago now but how do you see your career progressing? Are you happy to be back on Rare Atom?

As far as the bench from TYLOO is concerned, at that moment I felt quite sad being benched, and not being wanted anymore. I kind of felt sad not competing, and Rare Atom found me, and wanted me to play as an AWPer for them so my motivation went up to play for them.

What is it like to link up with summer and somebody. You played with them in 2017 in a showmatch on HLTV with Flash, what's it like to be on a team with them?

We've been teammates before during 2017, Flash Gaming, it's good to have them back as teammates. We've also been talking off the server as well, during time not being teammates. It's good to be back with them.

What do you think of the team's style? Asian CS is moving away, towards a more European style in general, but you guys are still doing the old-school style that's really fun to watch sometimes, is that a conscious thing?

I would say, we don't want too much of that playstyle. It's too messy, we need to adapt to European style a bit, to actually play the game, and not rely on firepower. We need to rely on strats as well, we try not to depend on that.

Do you think that's an unfair characterisation? It's something the commentators sometimes say, when Somebody runs through a smoke or something. Do you think you're beyond that old-school representation now?

It depends on the situation, I would say, if you want to run through smokes. You need to see the situation first. Maybe sometimes you can pull it off, maybe sometimes you cannot.

What does it mean for the team, obviously you're Malaysian, but for the rest of the team, we are in China. Is it a different kind of pressure?

I don't feel any difference, I'm Malaysian-Chinese as well, we have the same culture and that, it wouldn't be much different. I still feel the same as them.

What is that feeling? If it's the same as them?

I feel home. You wouldn't feel separated. It feels like home to me.

What would it mean to make it to the Major. There's fans at all three stages, you'd be playing in front of them. Are you allowing yourself to think of that yet, or is it game-by-game?

For that, our goal is to make it to the Major. But mostly we'll try our best game-by-game, not to be too over-confident and take it slowly.

You're not one of the two top team teams here, but there's a lot of teams here that are in the mix for the third slot. Do you see a way to the Major? How realistic is it to think you'll get one of those slots?

Yeah, a lot of fans might think we will not make it. As the most favorites, The MongolZ, FlyQuest, I don't know who else. Basically, it will be a tough road to make it to the Major, and I don't think it will be easy for us. It will be tough to make it through.