shox: "I want to prove that even at 30 years old you can still win and perform in a tier-1 team"

Richard "shox" Papillon from Liquid in an interview to the club's official website shared his goals in the new team, which he joined before the start of 2022. According to the 29-year-old Frenchman, first of all, he wants to prove to everyone that age is not a decisive factor when it comes to the quality of individual performances.

I want to prove to the Counter-Strike scene that even at 30 years old, you can still win and perform in a tier 1 team. I get the impression that at this age, no one even looks at you, either the organizations, the players, or the coaches. I think it’s wrong. I think that at 30 some people have different priorities - start a family, settle down, stop traveling - and their objectives can change.

But I’m convinced that as long as you have the will for it, you’re still committed to work towards being part of the best, you can still go at least until 35. That’s one of my most personal objectives, to change mentalities in the scene on that topic.

Papillon noted that joining the international lineup was a logical step after all the years spent on the French scene. He added that otherwise he would have had to join a significantly weaker team, since there are no high-level rosters available in France at the moment.

When Vitality told me that I wouldn’t be part of 2022, I put myself out there on the market. Unfortunately, you can’t deny that if I stayed in France, I would have to downgrade, in terms of teams. There’s Vitality at the top, which is no longer 100% french, then there’s LDLC. But there’s a huge gap between the two. If I was to start again in the french scene, it would be from way down, and it would be a harder climb back to the top. From then on, I left the door open to any possible offer.

shox also opened up about the changes in his game that have taken place since joining Liquid.

The first thing that comes to mind are the T sides. With Vitality we had a very grouped, fast and aggressive style, in general we attacked a bomb site in the first 45 seconds. With Liquid I re-discover, and re-learn how to attack a bomb site with less than 30 seconds left. Rounds are longer, there’s more happening, there’s more phases to manage, analyze, react to - it’s different!

It’s things I have to re-learn, and it’s funny because it brings me back to my early days in CS, when I was quite young, 15 or 16, and these were positions I was playing. [...] I re-discover this, and I have to be patient, I work very hard on this, because when it’s been six years that you’ve been rotating all over the place, and that suddenly you have to stick to your bombsite, it’s absolutely not the same gameplay.

Together with shox, Liquid did not manage to show their best at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022 (10-12th place) and IEM Katowice 2022 (13-16th place), after which, however, the team stepped up their game to book a spot in the American RMR. The squad is currently taking part in ESL Pro League Season 15, which you can follow up on our website via this link.

Origin: www.teamliquid.com