The legendary CS:GO rifler Richard "shox" Papillon and his younger countryman Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van has been removed from the active roster on Nakama, the organization reveals on [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/nakama_esports/status/1655627722629034006","isNewTab":true,"text":"Twitter"}].

This marks an end to a short 4-month tenure with the roster for shox, which he himself captained and was a founding figure of, while kyojin first joined the team in early March this year. Nakama has issued the following on the recent roster change.

- We would like to inform you today of the removal of shox and Kyojin from the active roster. We would like to thank both players for their dedication and hard work on the project. While we search for their replacements, they will continue to assist us as stand-ins for ESEA matches if needed, Nakama wrote in a Twitlonger.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"shox-reveals-new-lineup-2023","isNewTab":true}]

This was shox’s third time being either benched or removed from a CS:GO team ever since he left the French top team Vitality back in December 2021.

First he departed Team Liquid after a failed attempt in North America, then he moved to Scandinavia and Apeks where he did not find any success either, and now, nearly halfway through 2023, shox is once again on his way out of a team.

It will be interesting to see where the former Major winner will land next.

Removing shox and kyojin leaves Nakama with only three players.

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shox

Kyojin

Jayson "⁠Kyojin⁠" Nguyen got released from his former team Falcons after nine months with no big success. A time at Falcons where Kyojin was left on the bench twice giving up his space to NBK- and then recently kennyS, despite showing some great performances for the team, Kyojin is moving on in his career. 

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As a pro player on the bench, all you really can do is grind on Faceit to keep up with the game. Kyojin played an insane round with the deagle doing a Faceit match on Inferno. Down 2-4 on an eco buy, the french rifler/AWPer took things into his own hands taking down four players of the enemy team with just four bullets to the head. An insane 4k bye the bench player who is currently looking for another team to move on in his career. 

Check out this insane 4k with just the dealge from Kyojin:

[twitchClip:TenderArborealLadiesTinyFace-m21doybEb9geSXQT]

The 23-year-old Kyojin says farewell to his former team Falcons after the team benched him in a change for kennyS. The Frenchman has been in Falcons for nine months and is currently averaging 1.02 rating / 0.63 KPR / 0.89 Impact / 68.5 ADR over the past three months. 

Since Kyojin joined Falcons, he was a regularly active player until he suffered a hand injury and decided to take a step back. The old CSGO legend Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt joined the team as a short-term replacement for Kyojin as he recovered from his injury. The replacement in NBK- became a permanent plan for the team, which left Kyojin on the bench. 

Kyojin came back into the active roster as Bryan "⁠Maka⁠" Canda got benched in October, but as G2 released kennyS, Falcons saw their opportunity and took in the fast AWPer which once again left Kyojin on the bench with the green light to explore the CSGO scene for a new team. 

The Frenchmen from Falcons have decided to make roster changes to their CS:GO team with the demotion of Bryan “maka” Canda. The benching of the 25-year-old rifler comes one week after Falcons failed to qualify for the Rio Major.

In a press release, Falcons explains that the former Vitality player Jayson "⁠Kyojin⁠" Nguyen Van is set to fill out the void from maka, while they will "assess the AWP role and future roster". Kyojin was benched on Falcons in August, and will play as a stand-in. 

{cflag:FR} Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier

{cflag:FR} Jordan "⁠Python⁠" Munck-Foehrle

{cflag:FR} Jayson "⁠Kyojin⁠" Nguyen Van (stand-in)

Maka

After being released from his contract with Team Vitality at the start of the year, 22-year-old Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van has found himself a new home. 

The rifler will represent Team Falcons with his teammates from the orgless team Akimbo. The team showed great potential at the ESL Challenger League, and has now officially joined the Saudi-based Organization. The team consists of three former LDLC players, Bryan "⁠Maka⁠" Canda, Nicolas "⁠Keoz⁠" Dgus, Ali "⁠hAdji⁠" Haïnouss.

Jordan "⁠Python⁠" Munck-Foehrle is the fifth man on the roster that is currently ranked #54 in the world.

Keoz

hAdji

Python

Akimbo

According to a report by [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/neLendirekt","isNewTab":true,"text":"neL"}] and [link:{"url":"https://www.1pv.fr/news/137023-kyojin-to-bounce-back-with-ldlc-ol-next-to-hadji-maka-keoz-amp-python","isNewTab":true,"text":"1pv.cs"}], Team Vitality’s Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van is set to transfer to LDLC OL. The French media outlet recount that the 22-year-old rifler will join forces with the lower-tier team led by the former Envy profile Ali "hAdji" Haïnouss.

Leaving Vitality after a lacklustre tenure

If the rumours are true, Kyojin will leave Vitality after only eight month’s service, where the rifler didn't manage to establish his name and position on the top of CS:GO after replacing the legendary Frenchman Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy who was benched by the organization.

The departure of Kyojin will be the third exit from Vitality in a short period of time, as Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon and the head coach Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam both have been discarded. The void will most likely be filled up with the superstar trio of Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Emil “Magisk” Reif and Danny “zonic” Sørensen, after a long period with heavy rumours of a potential Danish-French collaboration.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"shock-transfer-rise-astralis-trio-sign-with-vitality","isNewTab":true}]

LDLC OL's rumoured roster looks like this:

{cflag:FR} Jordan "Python" Munck-Foehrle 

Team Vitality

LDLC

CS:GO is a game that’s built to make highlights happen. From tense clutch situations to one deags, and knife kills, there’s a lot to choose from.

But there’s perhaps nothing sexier than a beautiful flickshot.

In the match between G2 and Vitality in the semi-finals of BLAST Premier World Final, Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van shocked the casters after winning a tough 1v3 situation, in which he hit a ridiculous USP-S flickshot on G2’s Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic.

G2 Esports

Vitality and Astralis butted heads earlier this week, resulting in a 2-1 victory for Vitality. Now it was Astralis' turn to show that the first match was just a fluke.

Unsurprisingly Astralis picked Nuke, which so far has looked like their go-to map. The clear weak spot of Astralis have been their T-sides, which is why it was very important that they won the opening pistol round and converted the following two. Vitality led by “ZywOo” and “misutaaa” were able to answer back which gave us an incredibly close first half, with Vitality just edging out Astralis and going to halftime with an 8-7 lead.

Vitality extended their lead even further going up 12-7, but that’s when the exceptional Astralis CT-side came into play. Spearheaded by the clutch minister “Xyp9x”, Astralis took every round from that point and won their map pick 16-12.

Vitality were also predictable with their map pick, which was Inferno. When they clashed earlier this week it was Vitality that took a convincing win at 16-11. A good start was heavily needed for Vitality, as the Danes on the other side statistically have been the best CT-side team of the tournament winning almost 70% of their CT-rounds.

The French team did get the best start with a quad kill in the pistol by “Kyojin”. Both teams were great at stringing rounds together, which made the half somewhat streaky with Astralis coming out on top 8-7, carried by a monster performance from “k0nfig”.

"k0nfig" continued his brilliant showing after the break, but the support from his team was a bit lacking. This allowed "ZywOo" to go berserk, and Vitality to retake the lead on the map. Astralis never really managed to pressure the defense of the French squad, and the map concluded at 16-11 in favor of Vitality.

The decider map left over was the eternal Mirage. The French side started the map out on the CT-side with the Danes attacking.

Vitality started hot and heavy with beautiful individual rounds from the French side, but Astralis was not deterred. The T-side looked better for Astralis than it had done early this week and they were able to get to the half at an acceptable 9-6 in favor of the Frenchmen.

It was again the French squad that got the best start in the second half getting up to 13-6, making the rematch of the Upper Final look very possible. Astralis did manage to take one round win on their CT-side, but that was it. Vitality take the map 16-7 and thereby the series 2-1.

The Frenchmen will now have to face the #1 team in the world, in the Grand Final later tonight!

[twitchClip:blastpremier/clip/CautiousZealousBaguetteKappaWealth-eAYKs7fIzg09HrMu]

Vitality – Astralis (2-1) | BLAST Fall Final 2021 (Consolidation Final)

ZywOo – 1.56 Rating / 27-15 K-D / 102.2 ADR

ZywOo – 1.61 Rating / 29-13 K-D / 102.8 ADR

misutaaa – 1.58 Rating / 20-11 K-D / 78.3 ADR

ZywOo" Herbaut | 1.55 Rating / 78-40 K-D / 100.8 ADR

ZywOo

Misutaaa

Xyp9x

k0nfig

Astralis

It's less than 24 hours since Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut and the rest of Vitality was knocked out of the PGL Stockholm Major by NAVI. Here one day after, some extraordinary rumours has seen the light, hinting towards a new direction for the French super team.

According to a [link:{"url":"https://www.1pv.fr/news/135446-vitality-zonic-magisk-amp-dupreeh-to-replace-xtqzz-shox-amp-kyojin","isNewTab":true,"text":"report"}] by neL and 1pv.fr, Vititaly is currently working on creating a new star-studded international roster possessing the Astralis trio in Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen, Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif and the head coach Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen.

The French media site state that Danes will replace Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van, the veteran Richard “shox” Papillon, and eventually also Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam in the coaching position.

The news about Magisk, dupreeh and Zonic joining ZywOo and company comes only a few days after Astralis announced the departure of the trio, after having won countless titles under the iconic banner.

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dupreeh

Magisk

In the first elimination match of the day, we have Vitality facing Evil Geniuses. The French side comes into this match as huge favorites, as the results of EG have been extremely underwhelming. The first two matchups for the American side were losses against FaZe and Copenhagen Flames, at 16-6 and 16-2. They would need a massive performance boost to survive at the Major. The first map picked by EG was Inferno, then Vertigo picked by Vitality and Dust2 would be the decider if needed.

The favorites from France started fast going up 4-0 and rapidly building their economy by only losing two players during these rounds. EG answered back with force, stringing together three rounds together before being obliterated by a sinister “shox” ace. EG managed a couple more rounds by having “Brehze” break down the Vitality defense, but the Frenchmen would go into the second half with a lead of 10-5.

The American Geniuses started out great in the second half, picking up momentum in the pistol round and converting it into seven rounds in a row, going up 12-10. That’s when the fun stopped as the Frenchmen found form and took three. Vitality were not able to put up any more resistance on their T-side and EG takes the victory on their own map pick at 16-13 and shows that they have more fight in them than they showed yesterday.

The second map would take place on the construction site of Vertigo. The map pick of Vitality would grant them the first three rounds. But EG looked solid and were able to keep the economy low for the French side. This would be crucial as the Geniuses managed to break the Vitality side and take five rounds for themselves. For a moment it looked like EG would complete the upset at 2-0, but after their five-round win-streak, Vitality totally crushed them, taking all the all every single round from that point on. Vitality takes the map 16-5, ending on a streak of 13 rounds in a row.

Dust2 was to be the final stand that would decide the fate of EG and Vitality at this Major. The Geniuses would get the first foot out the door as they took down the pistol round. Vitality shut them down fast with the force-buy and began to build their lead. The American squad struggled throughout the first half to figure out how to crack the French defense. “CeRq” was not done at this Major and helped carry his team to five rounds on the T-side.

EG would start fastest again taking the first two of the second half. The American squad kept fighting as hard as they could getting a round here and there, but it just did not seem like enough, as the French powerhouse possessed too much firepower and reached series-point at 15-9. “MICHU” managed to keep his team in contention a little longer, but it was all for naught as the Frenchmen were able to close it out at 16-12

Vitality – Evil Geniuses 2-1 | PGL Major Stockholm Legends Stage

13-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:US} Brehze – 1.41 Rating / 24-18 K-D / 102.5 ADR

16-5 (Vertigo) | {cflag:FR} ZywOo – 1.58 Rating / 20-11 K-D / 92.5 ADR

16-12 (Dust2) | {cflag:FR} Kyojin – 1.31 Rating / 21-14 K-D / 70.4 ADR

[twitchClip:pgl_csgo/clip/BitterSpotlessAntGOWSkull-g7Frt1jenOHpROyM]

CeRq

MICHU

Brehze

Evil Geniuses

After narrowly losing to s1mple and NAVI in the ESL Pro League Season 14 Grand final, the roster of ZywOo, Kyojin, shox, misutaaa and apEX are back, and have helped Vitality take down Astralis and Team Liquid in the ongoing BLAST Premier Fall Groups event. 

The renowned analyst, Richard Lewis believes Kyojin and misutaaa have taken the pressure off one of the world's best in ZywOo, which means the deadly AWPer will remain at his best for longer. 

apEX

On Sunday, Team Vitality won Group A in BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2021, following a 2-1 victory over Astralis in the Group final.

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Team Vitality’s Kyojin has found his way to our #POTD, presenting his wild ace against Astralis on Dust2, where he denied the Danish squad to enter long by taking them all down single handedly. The 22-year-old Frenchman played a massive role in the victory and finished on top of the scoreboard on Dust2 with a 1.47 Rating and 22-10 K/D.

The Group A Final from BLAST Premier Fall went all three maps.

It was a reprise from yesterday's Upper Final, as Team Vitality and Astralis went head to head. With both of them qualified for the LAN Final event later this year, it was interesting to see, how the two teams approached the map veto.

Vitality had the choice of playing Inferno or Dust2 on the deciding map and chose the latter. A map that the Frenchmen have had no success with the last five times they have played it in a competitive match. A sign that Vitality was forcing themselves to perform better on the map against a top-tier opponent.

Both teams won their map pick by 16-10, which paved the way for Dust2 to be the decider.

Here newcomer Jayson 'Kyojin' Nguyen Van saw some much-needed success as the young Vitality player was on the top of the scoreboard for the French Bees. Vitality took a 9-6 lead with them into the second half, where Astralis had to do win a CT-half, which had been the big problem for the Danes at this tournament. They fell short in the end, but after six maps of Counter-Strike, the Danes can be satisfied with a good showing, that qualified them for the LAN event on home turf. Team Vitality wins Group A after three straight wins at the tournament.

Astralis - Team Vitality 1-2 | BLAST Premier Fall Group

16-10 (Nuke) | {cflag:DK} Bubzkji – 1.50 Rating / 25-13 K-D / 83.3 ADR

10-16 (Vertigo) | {cflag:FR} apEX – 1.39 Rating / 22-10 K-D / 83.0 ADR

9-16 (Dust2) | {cflag:FR} Kyojin – 1.47 Rating / 22-10 K-D / 83.3 ADR

MVP: {cflag:DK} Lucas 'Bubzkji' Andersen | 1.22 Rating / 60-51 K-D / 79.1 ADR

Bubzkji

The series starting with Complexity’s map pick on Vertigo, but things didn’t go as planned. Vitality winning the pistol and showed their proficiency on the map as Complexity struggled to get their offense running. For the rest of the half, Kyojin troops completely dominated Complexity out of the server as they finished 12-3. Vitality kept their momentum in the second half, and again the difference between the two teams was significant to a point. Complexity almost looked uncomfortable throughout the match and Vitality continued putting numbers on the board and cruised to a victory, 16-6.

Overpass unfolded in an entirely different fashion as Complexity were the ones in firm control from the start, as they won five rounds in a row for an early lead. The rounds for Vitality were few and far from the level they showed on Vertigo. Complexity locked ZywOo troops out of bombsites, a defensive effort that dominated the first half, 11-4. A pistol win allowed Complexity to further extend their lead to 14-4 before Vitality was able to reply, but only five rounds went their way before Complexity took things over the line, closing out the map 16-9.  

It was a strong start from Vitality on Mirage as they won the first five rounds. Poizen’s AWP was the key to put Complexity on the board. However, Vitality was quick to retrieve their footing, running away with the latter portion of the half by securing a 12-3 lead. A quad-kill from apEX allowed Vitality to keep their momentum and winning the pistol. Complexity climbed back into contention early on and continued to get rounds and reached up to 12-14. But unfortunately for Complexity, Vitality kept the composure and denied them a comeback, closing out the map 16-14.

Complexity - Vitality (1-2) ESL Pro League Season 14

6-16 | {cflag:FR} (Vertigo) Kyojin – 1.50 Rating / 22-12 K-D / 85.3 ADR

16-9 | {cflag:BG} (Overpass) poizen – 1.64 Rating / 28-18 K-D / 112.5 ADR

14-16 | {cflag:BG} (Mirage) poizen – 1.34 Rating / 25-17 K-D / 81.4 ADR

MVP: {cflag:BG} Valentin "poizon" Vasilev – 1.25 Rating / 63-52 K-D / 83.1 ADR

poizon

compLexity Gaming

Renegades thought they had secured themselves their first round in the match against Team Vitality, but Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van destroyed the hopes of the Australians with a perfect 3K to win the round.

The French player's highlight is our Pley of the Day. 

You can watch more Pley of the Days in our link down below.

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/pley-day-juli/","isNewTab":false}]

We have seen many players fall from Vertigo, and we have all tried it at some point, but it´s not just for us! The professionals make mistakes like us, especially on Vertigo!  

This time it was the French Kyojin who fell down the long drop, a funny clip and it isn’t the first in this week!

The reaction from the player is priceless, as you can see the player panic as he falls on the map.

On Sunday the French teammate from Vitality Shox delivered the same as he chose to falls just like Kyojin!

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Maybe we should begin to call it the Vitality!

[twitchClip:FairNaivePoultryBatChest-XDizg4I1CMfdjRnP]

Vitality ended up winning the map after all, in their 2-0 win against the mighty Virtus.pro!

Kévin "misutaaa" Rabier and Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van put up a show yesterday when Vitality took on G2 on Vertigo. The promising French duo was situated in a tough 2v5 clutch with the round looking done and dusted for the young guns. However, you know what they say "It's not over till it's over"

Watch misutaaa and Kyojin hit one headshot after another to seal the round win in the end. 

Vitality couldn't secure the win, despite the great showing from misutaaa and Kyojin.

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Both Team Vitality and Furia stare into a surprisingly early exit at DreamHack Masters Spring today. The Frenchmen and the Brazilians disappointed yesterday with lackluster performances in the opening round.

Today they get their chance to strike back.

All eyes will be on Team Vitality's new player Jayson 'Kyojin' Nguyen Van, who got off to a rough start yesterday in his debut. The match against Extra Salt will be live from 13.30 (CEST).

In the other match in the lower bracket in Group B, we have an all-Brazilian brawl. Both Furia and paiN lost 16-6 yesterday to BIG and Heroic and will have to show a lot more today to survive in the tournament. The match will be live at 13.30 (CEST).

FURIA

paiN

Extra Salt

The opening (bo1) rounds at DreamHack Master Spring gave the following results.

Biggest surprise was the huge Furia defeat. On Vertigo the American AWP'er Paytyn 'junior' Johnson played a horrible map with a 6-20 K-D scoreline.

Team Vitality lost another match. This time with the new player Jayson 'Kyojin' Nguyen Van on the roster. The Frenchman had a difficult debut.

17.30: Fiend - Spirit (Lower bracket elimination match)

19.55: Natus Vincere - Virtus.pro (Upper semi-final)

19.55: mousesports - FaZe (Lower bracket elimination match)

13.30: Extra Salt - Team Vitality (Lower bracket elimination match)

13.30: Furia - paiN (Lower bracket elimination match)

16.45: Astralis - Complexity (Upper semi-final)

Junior

The star-studded Vitality side has not been up to their usual high levels so far in 2021, as the Frenchmen has lacked consistency and a steady form for the entire year. The otherwise dominant team has presented one disappointing result after another, even though possessing superstars like Richard “shox” Papillon and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.

The early exits at the prominent events of IEM Katowice ESL Pro League, seemed like that was the last straw for Vitality and the current roster. Following the disappointing showings, they announced the benching of their loyal servant Cédric "RpK" Guipouy, which paved the way for the rather unknown Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van.  

[slugRMA:french-legend-leaves-vitality-after-blast-spring-showdown]

[slugRMA:vitality-name-young-frenchman-new-fifth]

Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam has now, in an interview with 1pv.fr, touched on the roster moves regarding the benching of RpK and Nivera and the signing of Kyojin,  and why he believed that the timing was right.

- We arrived at the conclusion that something had to change. Some people say that we should just hold out until LANs are back, but those people don’t realize how long the season is and we don’t know when LANs will be back. There are big tournaments being played in the online era and we have to respect our organization, which needs good results.

[link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/news/31635/xtqzzz-on-signing-kyojin-the-only-hard-and-painful-moment-was-telling-rpk-he-was-being-benched","text":"Transcribed interview by HLTV (English) "}]

Here you can see the full interview by 1pv.fr featuring XTQZZZ:

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[slugRMA:fantastic-team-performance-secures-win-9z]

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

Kyojin

Player stats

Articles mentioning Kyojin

shox and kyojin leaves the active roster on Nakama

Video: Four ridicilously crisp deagle shot by Kyojin

Former Vitality rifler released

Falcons bench AWPer, Kyojin to stand in

Former Vitality player has found new team

Report: Kyojin leaves Vitality to join LDLC

Pley of the Day: Kyojin’s flick makes French commentators jump out of their chair

ZywOo carry Vitality to the Grand Final

Shock transfer on the rise? Astralis trio to sign with Vitality

Vitality survive at the Major, Evil Geniuses eliminated

Richard Lewis: Vitality are back

Pley of the Day: Wild ace by Kyojin in the Group final

Vitality wins Group A after another victory against Astralis

Vitality beat Complexity and qualifies for the Quarter-finals at ESL Pro League

Pley of the Day: New Vitality player turns 3vs5 into a win

Vitality did it again on Vertigo!

Video: misutaaa and Kyojin win incredible 2v5 clutch vs G2

Live: Extra Salt vs Team Vitality / Furia vs paiN

Favorites makes it through opening round at DreamHack Masters Spring

Vitality coach on roster moves: Something had to change

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