Title image courtesy of EWC Flickr account
Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida and Azure Ray part ways, replaced by Li "niu" Kongbo.
After coming out of retirement at the start of 2024 to join Azure Ray, Zhang "Faith_bian/Bach" Ruida didn't have the best of seasons. Despite doing well in the region, they struggled on the international stage.
Their only top 4 finishes through the year were at BetBoom Dacha Dubai where they finished in fourth place and at Elite League Season 1 where they finished third. Both tournaments took place in May.
AR left Riyadh Masters 2024 with a 1-9 overall game score in the Play-in Stage. This came after they also fell short in the regional qualifiers for The International 2024 (TI13), which left the organization on the outside at the biggest two tournaments of the year.
“It's too embarrassing,” posted Azure Ray on their Weibo page after they were eliminated from Riyadh Masters 2024. “We can’t continue to lose far away from home,” the organisation noted, announcing a period of restructure that left just Bach and Zhen “lou” Lou. After which they went on to take 7-8th in Snow Ruyi LAN.
Bach will be replaced with Li "niu" Kongbo who last played with PSG.LGD and took a 3rd place finish with them at TI2023.
At this time it is unknown if Bach will retire once again or just another team.
Azure Ray Roster
Zhen “lou” LouHanKongbo “Niu” LiHao “plAnet” LinYajun “皮球” Yu
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