RpK retires from Counter-Strike

French Counter-Strike legend Cédric “⁠RpK⁠” Guipouy has hung up his mouse at the age of 32, he announced today. He started playing professionally in 2006 in Counter-Strike: Source, becoming one of the best players to ever touch that version of CS.

RpK made the switch to CS:GO in August 2012 with VeryGames but ended up retiring in January 2013 to work with his father as a car mechanic. Le Tank made a comeback in December 2014 to play for Titan, who had just parted ways with Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian as a result of his VAC ban. He kept playing professionally until April 2021 when Vitality benched him to open space for the arrival of Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen.

Now that RpK seems to have retired for good, he’s created his own merch to keep his legacy alive. “Today marks the end of a long and beautiful career,” he wrote on Twitter. “It started long ago, had ups and downs, but I always loved it. I’m grateful for your support over the years, I won’t forget it.”

Aside from Vitality, VeryGames, and Titan, RpK also played for other big French teams in CS:GO such as G2 and Envy. He attended a total of eight Majors and won several important tournaments, including the ECS season one Finals with G2 in 2016, the ECS season seven Finals with Vitality in June 2019, and the BLAST Premier Fall with Vitality in December 2020. He was referred to by some of his teammates as a glue-type player who was always willing to sacrifice his game to help the team.

RpK hinted on Twitter that he’ll keep working on esports projects about his “life and career” and will share more details with fans in the near future.