Hello Cédric, we never thought we’d interview you again! It’s an unexpected comeback, even more considering you totally disappeared from the CS:GO scene. What did you do during these two years? Hello everyone! So during these two years I worked as a mechanic with my father, a family thing. Beside that I went back to my normal life in Toulouse with my friends.

Did you follow the scene, the competitions, the changes, etc? If you did, what moments do you remember from those two years? I followed the scene, the competitions and the teams from very far away… I only got interested again a few weeks ago and what impressed me the most was the victory of Team LDLC at DH:W along with all the bans… As a matter of fact, even at pro level, you need to stay cautious but I hope Valve will do their best to limit this kind of things.

Did you ever consider coming back during those moments? Why didn't you ever do it? Honestly, I never thought about coming back. I really stepped away from all of this and I was feeling great in my new life. I watched few games some times but I never thought CS:GO would become so widespread

Did you play sometimes? At some point, did you regret stopping the game? I totally stopped playing CS:GO, I think I launched the game only once or twice. I had no regret regarding this. In general, I don’t regret choices that I make. If I stopped at that moment, it was because it wasn’t possible for me to keep going under those conditions. I preferred to retire rather than harm my team and damage my image as a player.

RpK renews with apEX, kennyS & Ex6TenZ, whom he knew at the end of CS:S After the VAC ban of KQLY, Titan was looking for a player. How did your first contact with them and your progressive comeback go? A simpler question, why this comeback? A short time after KQLY’s ban, Jérôme called me to explain me what had happened and brought up the idea of my coming back. Returning to the same conditions as before would not have interested me, I didn’t want to commit as much. He explained to me the evolution since my departure, which I had a hard time believing. Making a living from the game, from a passion, why not try it? I accepted to start the game up again to see if I still enjoyed playing it, and after hours and hours of playing alone, I convinced myself that I was able to do so. We saw that comebacks on CS:GO are rarely a success (krL, delpan, flex0r, mateOo, frod, etc.), why would it be different with you? eSport is growing fast, don’t you fear to feel behind or "has-been" and fail? I simply think that whenever you consider coming back to the top level in a game, you need to be able to put some things aside and stay a 100% focused. It’s possible that those players weren’t able to do so and maybe didn’t have this will and this motivation. If I accepted to come back, it’s to give my best in the game and be way over 100%. I’m not afraid of failing in the sense that I’m ready to do anything to avoid it. It isn’t a simple comeback, it’s the beginning of a brand new career.

How will you make up your deficit? Look at demos, listen to your teammates’ advices, play deathmatch,etc.? So in order to catch up I have a very busy schedule. It’s about gaming from 5PM to 5AM… I’m nerding out like never before! I’m doing 1000 frags everyday in DM, I’m watching many demos to see positioning, movement, etc… And I also listen to my teammates’ advice a lot. At the moment, I’m working a lot with Maniac who offered to update me on all the maps. I’m improving pretty fast and trying to fix my mistakes right away.

What is your future? Are you gonna play CS:GO full-time? Will you live at the Gaming House? What do you think about it by the way (since you never experienced that on Source)? Yes, I’m going to play CS full-time. I think it’s the best way to come back at my best level and get even better. I’m gonna spend one month at the gaming house in January but we won’t keep this system after that. We’ll go back to something more classic, training from home and bootcamping. I would say yes to the gaming house concept, but not too much. We all need to live outside of this a little so the option chosen by the team for this year suits me perfectly.

What do you think about the new maps? (Cobble, Overpass, Train, Season, Cache, etc.)? What do you think about the evolution of the technical aspect of the game, the aim, the stuffs, the weapons (M4A1 or M4A4?) but also about the skins and the stickers? I clearly love the new maps! Even the new version of train, I’m spending quite a lot of time on it, it has a better visibility and adds technical aspects because we can throw nades at B with the new opening. Season I already knew it, and about cache and overpass, I 10-man a lot on it. They are perfectly competitive even if in my opinion Overpass remains pretty CT-sided. Finally, I also appreciate cbble but I have to admit that outside of B where I play a lot, I’m still discovering it. Regarding the aim and the nades, I find it pretty balanced. The skins, the stickers, the new functionalities really add something to the game… Well I don’t really have any skins yet but I’m working on it! Some are really well done. As you probably noticed, your return doesn’t go unnoticed and is making many readers happy. Did you expect such a warm welcome? The pressure is huge but you always seemed hermetic to it, is it still the case after this long break? I have to admit I didn’t expect such a warm welcome after spending two years far away from the game… It is really enjoyable and it’s an extra motivation for me to accentuate my efforts. I think that I can handle the pressure pretty well. I’ve always been like this and as we say “I’d rather drink up the pressure than suffer from it” (i.e. pressure is like beer in French).

At the time RpK and VeryGames used to be 2nd behind NiP Do you think you changed since your departure? Is the RpK from 2012 the same than the one from 2014? Yes have I evolved a lot since my departure. Things have changed in my personal life and I’m going to make sure that these changes have an influence on my game. I’m more enterprising, I look for solutions and I have become more analytical than before. I think it’s a good thing for CS. I’ve a real want to involve myself more in the strats, my positions, my mates… things that I wasn’t doing before, I was just headshotting :D

What did you miss the most? A little of everything I’d say, the competition in CS is a whole. It’s a real pleasure to play with guys like Ex6, NiaK, Maniac, apEX and the “little” kennyS again! And to once more meet a few people from the community that I left behind, it’s heartwarming… Regarding the competitions, everything seems more “CRAZY” now and I’m really looking forward to take part in them. What is your goal with Titan at the moment? I clearly want to propel the team to the top rank and of course win some titles quickly… The consecration for me and my mates would be to win a Major, this year we will give it our all!

We give you the last words and wish you a good comeback! :) Thanks again to the community for this welcome, it made me very happy and I want to insist on that. Thanks to Titan for trusting me, and to my friends and family for their support.

