Team Vitality announced this Monday that the oldest member in their CS:GO roster: Cédric ‘RpK’ Guipouy will step down from the active roster following this week’s BLAST Premier Spring Showdown.
Jayson ‘Kyojin’ Van will replace him after the tournament, with the French talent having announced just this April that he was clear to play in official Valve events.
Playing since 2018 for Vitality, RpK announced on social media that he’d be taking a competitive break for the foreseeable future. It is unclear at this point if the 31-year-old veteran will retire, given that has nearly 14 years of career across multiple versions of Counter-Strike.
This departure will be another considerable blow to the French team, as Nabil ‘Nivera’ Benrlitom found himself on the bench just last month due to Valve’s regulations surrounding six-man rosters.
With RpK stepping down, it would seem natural for Nivera to make a return to the active line-up. However, immediately after its first announcement, Vitality announced Kyojin instead of the Belgium youngster, surfacing doubts about the future of Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom’s brother.
Kyojin is a unique player with great untapped talent and tremendous potential, who will help us build the future of Team Vitality around a younger roster.
Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam, Coach of Vitality
Kyojin has been an up-and-comer of the French scene, having played with some of the finest talents in the region but never landing a huge opportunity at a top tier team.
The youngster will have a massive challenge in Vitality, with Kyojin bound to make his debut with the rest of the team in late April, at the DreamHack Masters Spring 2021.
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