In what has already been a packed week of CS:GO roster shuffles, a brand new team has been added to the mix. Recently, french Counter-Strike legend, Richard ‘Shox’ Papillon announced that he’s working on a brand new project ahead of the Major. This team includes another legend of the scene, Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux. Both are known for their dominance in earlier iterations of CS and will now be working with fresh talent.
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French CS:GO veterans Shox and SmithZz aim to qualify for the Blast Paris Major
Tic tac tic tac ⏰ pic.twitter.com/mpmKdIJN8p
— Richard Papillon (@shoxCSGO) January 10, 2023
The creation of the team was first hinted at over on Shox’s Twitter page. Here he announced that his objective was to qualify for the Paris Major, and that more details would follow on his Twitch stream. As discussed on his stream, the new lineup will be as follows:
- Richard “shox” Papillon (IGL)
- Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux (Rifle)
- Jeremy “kursy” Gast (AWP)
- Ryan “Neityu” Aubry (Rifle)
- Paul “Day0s” Niel (Rifle)
- Boris “flex0r” Latry (assistant coach)
Shox and SmithZz will be the ones the rookies will look to in terms of structure. Both players are in their 30s with plenty of CS experience under their belt. Not only have they been a part of the sport for decades, but both are major winners as well. While SmithZz hasn’t been seen in action for a while, Shox had a few ups and downs in the last few years.
From G2 in 2019 to Vitality and Team Liquid in 2022, the French rifler has been in touch with tier-1 CS and is looking to revive the French scene with this project. Despite offers from teams like Falcons, Shox is hedging his bets on this new project to make it to the major. Time will tell what results await the yet-unnamed team.
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