Cédric “RpK” Guipouy, a French Counter-Strike legend, has announced his retirement at the age of 32. RpK was the fourth most decorated player in CS: GO history, with 11 major titles and more prize money than anyone except for Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. He’ll be sorely missed by fans of French Counter-Strike, as he embarks on his post-retirement career as a Twitch streamer.
For those unfamiliar with the French scene, a few words of context are necessary. The first Frenchman to emerge as a world-class player was Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey in 2012. Just before the Global Offensive movement started in 2013, he was recruited by Richard “shox” Papillon to join VeryGames, then one of the most storied teams in the world. A year later, he moved to EnvyUs and continued to perform well in events like DreamHack Winter 2014 and ESWC 2015. However, kioShiMa never made it to a Major final outside of his home country — an ironic fate for the Frenchman who was arguably better than anyone in France besides Richard “shox” Papillon.
A couple of months later, Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom emerged as a star player on Imaginary (later renamed Titan). He made it to the semifinals of both majors in 2014 but was never quite able to reach dominance in the same fashion that kioShiMa had. He then moved to EnVyUs in early 2015, where he’s continued to be one of the most consistent players in the world.
RpK is widely considered to be the best French player ever. He joined Titan at the end of 2013 and eventually became an irreplaceable member of shox’s squad after their acquisition by EnVyUs. He’s won four Majors and nine other international tournaments. He made it to the grand finals of every major he attended, with the exception of ESL One Cologne 2016 (when EnVyUs was upset by NiP). Even though he couldn’t make it all the way, his consistency at Majors is unprecedented, especially for a French player.
