Photo: Adela Sznajder for DreamHack

With the recent report from Dexerto that Fabien “ kioShiMa ” Fiey will be parting ways with Cloud9, it’s time to consider the French players future and options.

The 24-year-old has only been with the North American organization for four and a half months but in that time has certainly showcased his time away from the top tier didn’t soften him up too much.

During his time with Cloud9, they attended seven top-level events, the highest placing being 2nd at the ELEAGUE CS :GO Invitational 2019 where they fell 2-1 to FaZe Clan. Outside of that, the team seemed at home in the 6-8th place for most events.

Having played on the previous iteration of Team Envy prior to his break and then signing with Cloud9, kioShiMa had seemingly fallen from his status as a top French player.

For a brief history lesson, the previous Counter-Strike 1.6 professional had been a part of the LDLC CS :G O roste r that competed alongside the infamous fnatic roster of 2014 and even took home the Major title at DreamHack Winter 2014. kio was rated the 19th best player in the world in the 2014 HLTV rankings.

His career following that moment became a flow of highs and lows ultimately seeing him go from LDLC to another French lineup in Team Envyus (different from the one he was a part of most recently), and then to FaZe Clan in March of 2016. After a little over a year in FaZe, he would be outted by Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer. This would see him return to a much different and less impactful Team Envy. This team would disband on June 20, 2018, after a rough showing throughout its short life. He would remain relatively inactive until signing with Cloud9.

During his time with Cloud9, kioShiMa posted a +62 k/d across eight events and 42 maps. His only negative event was at the ECS Season 6 Finals where he finished at -11. If you were to compare him to another member of the Cloud9 roster from that time, support player William “RUSH” Wierzba combined for a -85 k/d across those eight events. Timothy “ autimatic ” Ta was more impressive than both with a +77, his only blemish being a -3 at the iBUYPOWER Masters 2019.

The point of the stats being that kioShiMa can certainly still play against top tier opponents, the problem is finding him a home. Returning the French scene seems like an obvious choice, however, which team could take him?

Vitality had a decent run and showing at the IEM Katowice 2019 Major even with a less than ordinary performance from Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. A change there would be possible but not overly likely at this point. On the flip side, G2 has not been living up to expectations and needed to make a change but already have. It was revealed earlier this month that François ‘”AMANEK” Delaunay will join the squad in place of Alexandre “ bodyy ” Pianaro. This then begs the question as to whether G2 would make an even larger change before giving their newly formed lineup a try.

If not France, then where? I don’t see kio stepping down further in the NA scene and the top teams of Liquid or NRG seem pretty content with who they have for now. compLexity is an option should Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert not stick around perhaps. The UK scene, where he lives with his girlfriend, hasn’t put up a contender in a long time either. In terms of European options, he’s getting into free agency a little late. Several organizations such as mousesports and BIG have already made changes both pre and post Major.

Language barriers may prevent him from joining the likes of a squad such as fnatic who may be looking to make changes following a rough showing in China among other teams that haven’t gone international yet.

At this point, upgrading seems unlikely and finding a team within the same skill pool of Cloud9 could be hard to find for the French legend. Unless things get shaken up with some other top or middle of the pack teams, kio may find himself teamless for at least a few more months.

Let us know where you think he should end up on Twitter at @VPEsports!

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