Team Vitality change their CS:GO roster – again

In January this year, Team Vitality replaced Remy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam, Richard “shox” Papillon, and Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van with three Astralis members: Danny “zonic” Sorensen, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, and Emil “Magisk” Reif.

This change was supposed to be a huge upgrade for the French squad, who were now expected to win important trophies. After all, in 2021, with their previous roster, they managed to win the title at IEM Masters Winter and finish third at BLAST Premier World Final. But instead of seeing a massive improvement, Vitality mostly failed.

The disappointing results of 2022

In 2022, Vitality finished 9th-12th at IEM Katowice, 5th-8th at Pinnacle Cup III, 13th-16th at ESL Pro League Season 15, 6th 9th-11th at PGL Major Antwerp, 7th-8th at IEM Dallas, 2nd at BLAST Premier Spring Finals, and 9th-12th at IEM Cologne.

Given their expectations, Vitality have had a really bad year so far. And that’s why they decided to make another roster change. In less than a year, they went from being a fully French team to having just two French players.

The latest Vitality member who left the club is Kevin “misutaaa” Rabier. He had been playing for Vitality for more than two years, so his departure is very significant. With just a few weeks left until the next important CS:GO events, the club is likely to announce very soon who the replacement for misutaaa is going to be.

The departing player’s new team will be Falcons. But we don’t know yet who will take his place in Vitality.

Potential options

At this point it is quite challenging to anticipate what will happen next for the French organization, but what we do know is that Vitality were chasing Lotan “Spinx” Giladi a short while ago. The 21-year-old Israeli player currently plays for ENCE and his stats are quite good. However, nothing is certain yet.

Another option for Vitality is probably shox, who is a currently inactive Team Liquid member. If a deal is reached, he would be a great addition to French crew. And it’s quite likely that he desires to return to his own country.

Competing for a North American organization isn’t easy for a French player. There are many obstacles to overcome and the English language is the least of them. Being away from loved ones for long periods of time can quickly have an impact on motivation and mental health. We’ve already seen that in the case of Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz.

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