Richard "shox" Papillon has left Vitality, the French squad announced on Wednesday, ensuring a shake-up in their roster for the New Year.
The 29-year-old's departure marks the start of the French squads roster changes as they move into 2022, with Team Vitality 7/4 to win the LEC Spring crown.
All change at Vitality
His move ends a successful tenure that saw the partnership win EPICENTER 2019, IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020, BLAST Premier Fall 2020 finals and IEM Winter 2021.
With recent reports speculating that Vitality is set to sign former Astralis trio Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen, Emil "Magisk" Reif, and Danny "zonic" Sørensen, the news comes as no real surprise.
It's widely rumoured that Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van and Remy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam will be the other casualties in the roster shuffle that will allow the Danish trio to join, making Vitality an international roster.
shox was given a fond farewell on Twitter by Vitality, who said: "You have been part of the creation of our legend, we have shared so many good moments since 2019, a chapter is closing but your name will remain engraved in the Vitality history."
Looking to the future
Despite the impending roster moves hanging over their heads, Vitality ended the year on a high note.
Finishing runner-up to Natus Vincere at BLAST Premier Fall Final, they secured the IEM Winter trophy two weeks later, before a respectable third at BLAST Premier World Final 2021.
shox has been linked with a move to Liquid for 2022, with the North American roster announcing the departures of Michael "Grim" Wince, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo, and Jake "Stewie2K" Yip earlier this week.
