Team Liquid bench coach adreN and shox

According to the official announcement from Team Liquid, CS:GO veteran Richard “shox” Papillon and coach Eric “adreN” Hoag have been removed from the team’s starting lineup.

The 30-year-old shox decided to step down from Liquid after a disappointing CS:GO season. The French CS:GO veteran joined Liquid in December 2021 as his first overseas team, while for AdreN, this will be the third time parting ways with the organization.

Shox’s CS:GO journey

Prior to joining Liquid, a long list of achievements led to his involvement with multiple top-tier European teams including G2 Esports, Team Envy, and Team Vitality.

Shox achieved many milestones with G2, but the highlights of his tenure with G2 were winning the DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017 and the ESL Pro League Season 5. During his time with Vitality, also helped the team to win Epicenter 2019, BLAST Premier Fall 2020, and Intel Extreme Masters XVI Winter.

His short time with Liquid, on the other hand, was not a tremendous success, as the new squad failed to reach the semi-finals of any major event in 2022.

AdreN leaves Liquid for the third time

AdreN previously coached Liquid from 2015 to 2016, before coming back in 2018. After rejoining the Liquid roster, AdreN and the squad won many crucial tournaments, including Intel Extreme Masters XIV, BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019, Intel Grand Slam Season ESL One Cologne 2019, and ESL Pro League Season 9.

Although 2019 was AdreN’s most successful year with Liquid, he left the organization again in 2020 before returning in May 2021. However, during his recent tenure with Liquid, he wasn’t able to achieve the same heights as he did in 2019. After two more years with the organization, he leaves Liquid with no extra titles.

Team Liquid’s performance in 2022

At BLAST Premier Spring, the team suffered a huge setback by failing to advance past the group stage. The lineup also failed to advance out of the group stages at IEM Katowice and IEM Dallas as their streak of poor performances continued.

However, their performance in the PGL Anwerp Major 2022 and the ESL Pro League Season 15 was noticeably better. Despite a shaky 0-2 start in the Challenger Round of the Antwerp Major, the team rallied to get to the Legends stage.

Despite shox’s vast list of accomplishments in the esports scene, his numbers with Liquid are upsetting. Shox’s six-month stint with the North American club ended with a 0.94 average rating, reflecting that he wasn’t in top form.

Along with shox, Liquid’s In-Game Leader Nicholas “nitro” Cannella appears to be having trouble making an impact. Liquid’s next scheduled event is IEM Cologne, the next stop in the Intel Grand Slam series, which begins on July 5.

Header: Team Liquid