Shox revealed his new CS:GO project hours after being released by Apeks. The goal is to play in the BLAST Paris Major.
Richard "shox" Papillon made his new CS:GO project official this Wednesday. The 30-year-old player will reunite with Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux, who he played with in many teams in the past years. These include LDLC, EnvyUs, and G2.
The news about shox's future was brought up in a Twitch livestream. During it, shox also revealed the other players who will complete the lineup alongside himself and SmithZz: Jeremy "Kursy" Gast, Ryan "Neityu" Aubry, Paul "day0s" Niel, and Boris "flex0r" Latry as the assistant coach.
The goal is the Paris Major
Composed only of French players, the obvious goal of this project is to play in the the BLAST Paris Major, which is scheduled to happen in May. During the livestream, SmithZz, who retired from the pro scene in 2019, revealed that his goal is to help the team establish itself in the beginning. After that, he will take a position behind the scenes in the squad.
The lineup of shox's project revealed the objective of the Major champion as a leader to promising names in the French scene. Neityu is only 17 years old while Kursy is 20. Another detail is that flex0r, the assistant coach, was the one responsible for finding recent talent from France such as Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom and Kévin "misutaaa" Rabier.
In the livestream, shox also revealed that he had been approached by the Falcons with the offer to play alongside Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, who he had won a Major with, but shox refused the offer. Shox also said he chatted with LDLC, but the conversations didn't move forward because he felt that he wouldn't be the leader of the project.
Apeks and shox
After his disappointing run in North America with Liquid that was ended after PGL Major Antwerp, shox was hired by Apeks in August of 2022. He only played for the international club for two months before getting benched in October.
Shox was only released from his contract with Apeks in this Wednesday, but judging by the speed of his announcement, shox probably was working on putting together this team since he got benched.
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