No man is an island but in the French scene, Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey has ventured far into international waters and distant lands compared to his domestic counterparts.

This search for opportunity wasn’t just fueled by aspiration but a consequence of the drama that has surrounded every historical team from France, especially the era of constant shuffles and scuffles between players.

As one of France’s most accomplished players, kioShiMa remains one of the most popular French players in the Counter-Strike scene even though he is often competing outside of his home region’s strongest lineups.

Start game

kioShiMa was one of a handful of French CS:GO players who made the leap from 1.6 rather than Source. Competing next to some of France’s most notable players from the original title, kio would go on to play alongside the greatest, Michael “HaRts” Zanatta, on Clan-Mystik for the switch to Global Offensive.

If it wasn’t for his teammate Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian, kio would have been voted VaKarM.net’s Prospect of the Year in its annual awards for 2013.

It was on Clan-Mystik a year later that Richard “shox” Papillon first met kioShiMa during his brief time on Clan-Mystik before a move to Epsilon Esports in mid-2014.

Epsilon surprised many by achieving Legends status at ESL One Cologne while Titan fell before playoffs. Team LDLC were able to reach the semifinals and also held Legends status.

The first of the major French shuffles saw kio and shox leave Epsilon to join the remains of LDLC, Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer and Kévin “Uzzziii” Vernel on Mercenary. This team went on to be signed by LDLC within two days of forming.

Kenny “kennyS” Schrub refused to join Mercenary when an offer was made and remained with Kevin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans on Titan, who had ‘stolen away’ LDLC’s Major slot by signing the core of KQLY, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire and Mathieu “Maniac” Quiquerez.

Wave riding

LDLC had to battle through the European Closed Qualifier for DreamHack Winter 2014 and were successful in making it through to the main event.

Before CS:GO’s fourth Major could take place, the French scene was rocked by a VAC ban scandal. Titan’s KQLY and Epsilon’s Gordon “Sf” Giry were hit by bans just a week before the Major was due to start.

While kio has often been scrutinised for controversial inventory management by a ‘hacker’ in the wake of the news, numerous players moved items as many were in disbelief and wondered if it was a mistake or false positive.

The VAC bans were indeed legitimate and with Titan and Epsilon Esports both disqualified, Team LDLC were the sole French representatives at DreamHack Winter 2014 and in-game leader Happy was the event’s MVP in a karmic conclusion to the year, with kio as LDLC’s second strongest performer.

While kio was not crowned MVP at the Major, he had been the MVP at the SLTV StarSeries XI Finals a month earlier and his consistent performances earned him a place on HLTV’s Top 20 Players of 2014 list.

Like the rest of LDLC, kioShiMa joined Team EnVyUs at the start of 2015. ESL One Katowice 2015 saw the team make a deep run to the semifinals and secure a Legends spot once again.

Another one

During the Electronic Sports World Cup 2015, EnVyUs decided to make a swap with Titan, changing shox and Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux for apEX and kennyS. Clashes between the duo and the rest of the EnVyUs squad had led to this second French shuffle.

Just a few weeks after the shuffle, ESL One Cologne 2015 saw the new EnVyUs get close but fall short in the grand final. Instead, Fnatic lifted their third Major trophy.

DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 would see the same French core from Jönköping the year previously win the grand final in convicing fashion over Natus Vincere. The trio of kio, Happy and NBK became two-time champions, joining the five Fnatic players in the exclusive list of winners to claim multiple Major titles (which now contains 20 names following a number of wins by Astralis and Luminousity Gaming/SK Gaming).

Despite the Major victory at the end of the year, EnVyUs had a leadership struggle in the new year and underperformance would see a change to the roster.

Problem?

kio was labelled by his EnVyUs teammates as ‘the problem’ and replaced by Timothée “DEVIL” Démolon a week after MLG Major Columbus 2016. While Happy was not leading at the time and wanted to keep kio, he explained in an interview with TopMid that “it was so difficult with him and something was broken” in the end.

“This is the end of an adventure, my time as a former player in Envyus is over. I’m leaving this team with mainly good memories who are gonna stay forever as the many big trophies we won as a team. Our cohesion became really bad, the communication between players became even worst, we basically lost our soul. I personally found really hard to work in those conditions and couldn’t make it through, my point of view is that I can’t work that much hours with people you can’t communicate with properly or who don’t entirely respect you.” — kioShiMa, statement from the EnVyUs website regarding his removal

A look at the numbers would suggest this was logical but kioShiMa‘s replacement was such a disappointment that many questioned the decision, believing the team had more than just a singular ‘problem’ and felt keeping kio would have been better than making a change.

While still under contract at EnVyUs, kioShiMa was bought out by FaZe Clan. This was the first time any top tier French player had gone international and was before the wave of European mix teams we have seen in recent years.

The FaZe team was unremarkable and achieved very little throughout 2016 until roster moves saw Finnish AWPer Aleksi “allu” Jalli and Danish in-game leader Finn “karrigan” Andersen join the roster. A handful of solid results at the end of the year set FaZe up to qualify for the ELEAGUE Atlanta 2017 Major and kio paid homage to his nickname in his autograph sticker for the event.

A respectable run to claim a Legends spot was ended by SK Gaming. The Brazilian side had Portuguese player Ricardo “fox” Pacheco standing in but later went on to dominate the year. The dominance wasn’t absolute as FaZe Clan were able to beat Astralis to win StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3 with Nikola “NiKo” Kovač while SK failed to make it out of the group stage.

Phased out

Always on the cusp of further victory but never quite getting over the line, PGL Major Krakow 2017 marked the last straw for the organisation. The last place finish saw kioShiMa and allu removed and replaced by two legendary veterans in Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer and Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács.

Options were limited for kioShiMa at the time despite the usual post-Major changes taking place. mousesports began to rebuild with stronger talent, PENTA Esports had its best players signed by other organisations and the French scene only had a few opportunities.

G2 Esports had the French superteam and it was unlikely that kio would be welcomed in by shox after the events of the second French shuffle even if a change was made at that time.

In the end, kioShiMa did make a return to French soil many months later. Returning to Team EnVyUs, once again working with Happy, the in-game leader he won Majors alongside but also the one who bestowed the ‘problem’ reputation onto him originally in 2016 to replace a benched Alexandre “xms” Forté.

Like any French lineup, the cracks quickly began to show in EnVyUs. Fellow 1.6 alumni Christophe “SIXER” Xia continued to struggle to perform at the level needed for an AWPer and lagged behind every other player in the role at the time.

Breaking point

A very shallow map pool and doubt in Happy’s leadership saw a mutiny ahead of the CS:GO Asia Championships 2018 led by kio.

Cédric “RpK” Guipouy “didn’t want to play with [them] for this tournament and wanted to have a small break after all this fighting within the team to try to fix everything” which saw him stick with Happy. xms and SIXER were brought back from the bench to compete before EnVyUs dropped both of their CS:GO teams ahead of the European Minor.

The FACEIT Major 2018 in London saw the ex-EnVyUs players stick together under the name LeftOut for the Minor and they were not the only French hopefuls in attendance.

Former EnVyUs coach Damien “maLeK” Marcel and EnVyUs Academy player Audric “JaCkz” Jug had found themselves on 3DMAX before they both later joined G2 Esports.

3DMAX ended up going further than LeftOut despite the latter being considered one of the strongest contenders.

The group of players on LeftOut chose not to continue playing together and kioShiMa became teamless once again.

Beyond Europe

Cloud9 was kio’s next destination after many months of waiting.

The former Major champions had seen 18 different players representing the organisation in just under two years since the win in Boston and the lineup quickly became something of a hostel (a YMC9, if you will) for numerous European players without anywhere else to go.

kio’s tenure for Cloud9 was short-lived as he was released four months later but teammate Jordan “Zellsis” Monemurro defended him regarding the negative reputation the Frenchman seemed to have earned.

What followed was yet another half a year of inactivity. Many wondered what would be next for the two-time Major champion who seemed to be unable to settle on rosters, French or international, without issues arising.

Top tier exile

While Team Vitality were the strongest French lineup at the time, with Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut impressing everyone and carrying Vitality to victory, kioShiMa instead wanted to join G2 Esports.

G2 were set to go international with sights set on CR4ZY’s Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač and Nemanja “nexa” Isaković and so kio’s time on the roster was temporary. The two events he played were the online GG.BET Beijing Invitational and ESL One New York 2019.

In both tournaments, G2 finished third/fourth which was enough for a lineup that was missing its in-game leader, using a stand-in and was set to remove one of the remaining players imminently.

Statistically, kio was not putting up big numbers during his G2 tenure (1.09 and 0.87 respectively) but his name still held weight and like many in the French scene, hope for a renaissance kept him in discussions.

Vitality had a choice when replacing NBK. The two options were kioShiMa or shox. Despite kio being a free agent, the French organisation instead signed shox from the G2 Esports bench for a reported $350,000 to $450,000 the day G2 played the semifinal in New York.

After the surprise departure of in-game leader Alex “ALEX” McMeekin earlier this year, Vitality signed 17-year-old Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier as kio had already found a new home.

Unorthodox

kio’s time as a stand-in also saw him play with Team Heretics and the organisation went on to sign him and Lucas “Lucky” Chastang in late 2019.

While it feels like a long way down from the glory days of LDLC and EnVyUs, Heretics is not simply a farm team or an easy paycheck for kio. The team has been steadily improving in recent months and has added the younger brother of Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom, to the roster this year.

Heretics will be playing the Road to Rio in Europe as the Minor spot they fought for was replaced by the online system as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As such a storied player, this is far from the end of kioShiMa’s tale.