CS:GO veteran Shox officially signs with Team Liquid
Team Liquid finally announced the addition of French veteran Richard “shox” Papillion to its CS:GO roster after weeks of rumors and reports.
Shox parted ways with his previous team Vitality only last week, after their last participation in Blast Premier World Finals 2021. Shox had been with Vitality for two years, signing in 2019. Around the same time, Coach XTQZZZ also announced his departure.
To celebrate his arrival, Team Liquid posted on Twitter a clip of Shox – including his gameplay – with the caption “Welcome the legendary @ShoxCSGO to our starting roster!”
Future with Team Liquid
The North American Team Liquid is Shox’s first international project since 2013, where he joined TCM-Gaming for a minute alongside players such as Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács and Dimitrios ‘stavros’ Smoilis.
He had also played for major CS:GO teams in his country, including LDLC, G2, Titan, and Envy. Although he had won multiple competitions, his first and only major title is with LDLC, back at DreamHack Winter 2014,
Shox has been competing at the highest level in Counter-Strike since the mid-2000s, providing Team Liquid with his versatility and experience. Multiple media sources have called him one of the greatest players in Global Offensive history. He was also featured in HLTV’s Top 20 Players list from 2013 to 2016.
His handle, “shox”, is referencing a model of Nike shoes that were popular around the time he started playing.
In a conversation with Dexerto, the 29-year-old player expressed his plan to continue playing for as long as possible.
“I want to break the age limit and prove to the world that you can be 30, 33, or 35 and still compete on a tier-one level,” Shox said.
Final roster line-up
Shox is the second player who signed a deal with Liquid during the off-season, following the highly-rated AwPer Josh ‘oSee’ Ohm from Extra Salt, on December 27. Ohm rose to the environment of North American CS:GO upper echelons after joining the ATK roster at the beginning of 2020.
According to reports, Liquid’s roster is expected to be completed by former rifler/IGL Nick ‘nitr0’ Cannella, who used to play with Liquid between 2015 and 2020. In August 2020, Nitr0 left both Liquid and CS:GO for 100 Thieves and VALORANT. During his stay with the team, he led Liquid to victory in Intel Grand Salam Season 2.
Currently, Team Liquid CS:GO roster consists of star rifler Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski, lurker Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic, Josh ‘oSee’ Ohm, and Richard ‘shox’ Papillon, alongside coach Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag.
Liquid still has time to finalize its roster before its next scheduled event, the Polish tournament Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI – Katowice (IEAM Katowice) which is set to begin on February 15, 2022.
Meanwhile, the team has moved Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, and Michael “Grim” Wince to the inactive roster, one week before Shox joined the team. This raised rumors that the trio players are departing with Team Liquid soon.
