Jordan "BKN" Soojian has announced that he will be stepping down from his role as a coach for DarkZero Esports. As such, the team will continue on with Brandon "BC" Carr as the coach, and Cristian "eCentral" Guerra as the analyst. BKN, meanwhile, will still be staying with the organisation and will be the new Brand Coordinator. As part of his responsibilities, he will drive the creation of new content, carry out event photography, help drive merchandise sales, and more.
In his statement (transcribed below), BKN stated that he will still move with the team to Las Vegas in preparation for the new top-level North American division. He will also be attending all the events with the team but will shift his focus to expanding the DarkZero brand -- possibly into other areas as well.
After about 4 years of being a professional in Siege, both as a player and a coach, I'm retiring to work on the organization side of Esports with DarkZero as it's Brand Coordinator. Thank you to the fans for their support over the years. To the players I've worked with over the years, even if I was able to change just one of you for the better it was all worth it to me. I'll be with the team in Vegas. I'll still be at all of our events. Primary focus now is helping make DarkZero a forever brand and a championship organization. Thanks again everyone for one hell of a ride. Oh yea I almost forgot. I need someone to get me a Valorant closed beta key as a send off gift. Appreciate this person. #GoingDark - Jordan
With this, BKN leaves an active role with the playing roster of a team for the first time. Having debuted on the Recorded Reported roster, he had reached his peak as a player on the fearsome Ominous roster in Season 4.
Soon after, he had joined PENTA Sports as a coach for three months, assisting the team to its Season 5 title. However, it was a switch to Continuum -- now Evil Geniuses -- that made him a familiar face. Nine months with the 2017 Invitational champions saw a mixed bag of results, but two Major grand final defeats meant that his time with Evil Geniuses would come to an end. Soon after the Six Major Paris, he joined the then-SK Gaming roster as a coach and has been there ever since.
BKN at the Six Invitational with DarkZero
DarkZero, having entered Rainbow Six with the purchase of the SK roster, had run with BKN and BC as duo-coaches for a while. However, most of 2019 had been spent with BC in a playing role, meaning that BKN had been the sole out-and-out coach for the team for that period. With BKN at the helm, DarkZero quickly became a force to be reckoned with. Finishing second in North America in Season 9 of the Pro League, DarkZero topped by finishing first the next season. Not only that, the team made it to the grand final of the Pro League Finals in Tokoname, only to be felled by Natus Vincere.
Since then, BC returned to a coaching role while BKN's involvement in that role seemingly ebbed. Through the Six Invitational 2020, where DarkZero made it to the main stage, BC had been publicly leading the team and it now seems that BKN is formalising his departure from that role.
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Catch DarkZero in action next on the 6th of April against Tempo Storm, and check back here at SiegeGG for more coverage of the scene.