The rebranded ViCi team defeated their domestic rivals and secured a trip to Europe.

Rare Atom will be representing Asia at the qualifier for ESL Pro League Season 16 in June after coming out on top of ESL Challenger League Season 40 for Asia-Pacific. The success of Zhuo "⁠advent⁠" Liang's team sees them lock in their first international appearance since the IEM Cologne Play-in in 2021.

Recently in the region, TYLOO secured a spot at the Asia RMR and NKT qualified for BLAST Showdown by winning MESA Nomadic Masters, which will result in multiple Asian teams competing on the Old Continent before the summer break — barring travel issues that historically plagued them.

Kaze is excited to play international events again

Rare Atom went on to dominate their round-robin group at ESL Challenger League S40 Asia-Pacific, finishing with a 7-0 record in group B and matching TYLOO's record in group A. The two Chinese teams and long-standing rivals were the best in the playoffs as well, handling the likes of IHC and The MongolZ to set up derby matchups.

Rare Atom and TYLOO first faced in the upper bracket final where Rare Atom took a 2-1 victory, before Andrew "⁠kaze⁠" Khong and co. confirmed the title with a 3-1 in the grand final. kaze, Qianhao "⁠Moseyuh⁠" Chen, and Jingxiang "⁠Mercury⁠" Wang stood out for their team with playoffs ratings raging between 1.26 and 1.24, with the 21-year-old Mercury topping the boards in the grand final as well.

ESL Challenger League Season 40 Asia-PacificBest of 5 Rare AtomMatchpage 3 1 3rd April 2022 TYLOO 1Default 0 12Vertigo 16 16Mirage 10 16Inferno 13

Rare Atom	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jingxiang 'Mercury' WangMercury	71 - 57	+14	88.2	1.24
Yi 'JamYoung' YangJamYoung	54 - 50	+4	72.3	1.11
Andrew 'kaze' Khongkaze	58 - 54	+4	73.2	1.10
Qianhao 'Moseyuh' ChenMoseyuh	56 - 61	-5	77.5	1.01
Zhuo 'advent' Liangadvent	46 - 53	-7	60.0	0.92

TYLOO	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Kelun 'SLOWLY' SunSLOWLY	59 - 58	+1	86.0	1.15
YuanZhang 'Attacker' ShengAttacker	59 - 51	+8	72.0	1.03
Zhenghao 'DANK1NG' LvDANK1NG	57 - 58	-1	67.4	0.98
YuLun 'Summer' CaiSummer	47 - 60	-13	67.5	0.95
Hansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandBnTeT	51 - 58	-7	68.7	0.92

Currently, six out of 16 ESL Pro League Season 16 Conference teams have been found, with winners of ESL Challenger events, ESL Challenger Season 40 in Europe and North America, as well as winners of national championships set to join the list. As many as six teams will qualify for the Pro League group stage from the Conference tournament that will take place in Jönköping, Sweden on June 15-20.

Confirmed ESL Pro League Season 16 Conference teams:

Virtus.pro
Sprout
paiN Looking For Org
Rare Atom Virtus.pro #6 Timur 'buster' TulepovEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis IHC #82 Bat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarYesuntumur 'nin9' GantulgaTengis 'sk0R' BatjargalGaridmagnai 'bLitz' ByambasurenSodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold Looking For Org #77 Mike 'ap0c' AliferisEuan 'sterling' MooreJared 'hazr' O'BreeBenson 'Liki' NiuilaJames 'SaVage' Savage TYLOO #74 YuLun 'Summer' CaiHansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandYuanZhang 'Attacker' ShengKelun 'SLOWLY' SunZhenghao 'DANK1NG' Lv NKT #104 Hyun-Pyo 'XigN' LeeAnthony 'ImpressioN' LimGan-Erdene 'dobu' BatboldKrit 'Kntz' ChaiprasitSodbileg 'cool4st' Batbaatar Qianhao 'Moseyuh' Chen Age: 17 Team: Rare Atom Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 14 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.63 The MongolZ #229 Tsog 'Tsogoo' MashbatEnkhtaivan 'Machinegun' LkhagvaBold 'ncl' BatsuhTelmen 'MagnumZ' KhurelkhuuTemuulen 'starDUST' Erdenebayr Andrew 'kaze' Khong Age: 27 Team: Rare Atom Rating 1.0: 1.20 Maps played: 829 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.59 Zhuo 'advent' Liang Age: 29 Team: Rare Atom Rating 1.0: 0.88 Maps played: 1066 KPR: 0.56 DPR: 0.63 ViCi Rare Atom #115 Zhuo 'advent' LiangZhiHong 'aumaN' LiuAndrew 'kaze' KhongYi 'JamYoung' YangJingxiang 'Mercury' Wang paiN #45 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtGabriel 'nython' Lino Sprout #32 Rasmus 'raalz' SteensborgTimo 'Spiidi' RichterFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichMax 'Marix' KugenerVictor 'Staehr' Staehr Jingxiang 'Mercury' Wang Age: 21 Team: Rare Atom Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 39 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.67