Vitality sign shox

After weeks of rumors, Vitality acquired Richard “shox” Papillon from G2 Esports and added the player to their CS:GO lineup today.

The 27-year-old will reunite with two former teammates in Cédric “RpK” Guipouy and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, with whom he won several international titles while playing for G2.

Vitality have been missing a player since Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt was benched after the team fell short in the quarterfinals of the StarLadder Berlin Major in August. Shox was reportedly one of the potential replacements alongside Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey, who ended up as a temporary replacement for shox himself on G2.

Although shox has served as the in-game leader for years on G2, he won’t take the role of Alex McMeekin. Vitality have stressed that he will be just a player and that the decision was made by the team’s coach, Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam.

Shox adds firepower to the rest and will take some of the weight from the team’s star Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, who has been top-fragging in almost every tournament for Vitality. But we’ll have to see if Alex has what it takes to be a full-time captain, since he was previously sharing the role with NBK-.

Vitality will make their debut with shox next week at DreamHack Masters Malmö, which will be played from Oct. 1 to Oct. 6. They will face strong opponents in Astralis, Team Liquid and, Evil Geniuses.