Vitality’s CS:GO roster is reportedly about to have a major overhaul. The French organization is set to drop veteran Richard “shox” Papillon, newcomer Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen, and head coach Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam for Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Danny “zonic” Sørensen, according to a report by French website 1pv.fr.
The Astralis trio moved to the bench following Astralis’ elimination from the PGL Stockholm Major Legends Stage by the hands of Vitality, and their contracts are due to expire at the end of 2021. They were replaced by former Complexity players Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and former North head coach Alexander “ave” Holdt.
The report by 1pv.fr’s comes one day after Natus Vincere knocked out Vitality in the CS:GO Major quarterfinals. The all-French lineup, like Astralis, also struggled in the Legends Stage and had to come back from a 0-2 start to book a spot in the playoffs.
Should the roster changes take place, Vitality would move away from an all-French CS:GO lineup since the organization entered the Counter-Strike scene in October 2018. XTQZZZ has been in charge of the squad since December 2018, and shox arrived in September 2019. The 29-year-old helped them win notable events such as Epicenter in December 2019 and BLAST Premier Fall in December 2020.
Kyojin, on the other hand, was signed in April 2021 to replace veteran Cédric “RpK” Guipouy. His journey with Vitality is his first experience in a tier-one team and he helped them finish as runners-up to Na`Vi in ESL Pro League season 14 in September.
