Our sister site VPGAME sat down with Richard “shox” Papillon at IEM Beijing prior to his match against 100 Thieves to discuss his time on Vitality, the new Cache, the overpowered Krieg, the Chinese scene and more.

Vitality was eventually eliminated by 100 Thieves 2-1 in the semifinals of IEM Beijing. You can read the transcribed interview below.

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VPGAME: You’ve been on Vitality for awhile now, so how are you feeling in the team and with your teammates after a couple of tournaments together?

shox: So far I’m feeling really good in the team. Out of the game, everything has been smooth and I’m happy to be with them. In the game itself, it’s still a bit hard because even though I’ve been here for two months now we’ve only had like 10 days of practice. Because we’re always going to a tournament because of the schedule.

So we are just trying our best. We are waiting for a time when we’ll have some time to practice and then finally it will be a bit more normal.







VPGAME: Have you spent any time on the new Cache? Do you have any opinion on it and which side do you believe benefits more from it?

shox: First, I’m really happy Cache is back. I think it’s a really good map and balanced I would say. We didn’t begin to work on it. As I said we don’t even have much practice so we haven’t even thought to start on Cache.

I’ve just played it for fun a few times. The map is pretty okay, maybe needs one or two small things but overall its fine. The green color is really hard when you play it, I mean green is fine but maybe less.







VPGAME: There’s been a lot of discussion about the SG 553 with people saying it’s unbalanced. Do you think so? And how do you think it should be nerfed?

shox: Definitely, it’s way too much. It’s overpowered. In my opinion, it just doesn’t make any sense, I don’t feel like it’s CS. Meaning it’s better than any other weapon in the game at the moment. It has the best fire rate, best armor penetration, it has zoom.

The Krieg, you’re just taking duel – duels you wouldn’t take with any other rifle. When the AWP was overpowered it was a problem but I feel like the Krieg is even worse. It’s a big problem and I hope it’s going to be fixed quickly.

With the AUG they raised the price and lowered the fire rate and I think they should do the same for the Krieg. They should raise the price, lower the fire rate, and increase the recoil because there’s almost no recoil on it compared to other rifles. It would be a good start.







VPGAME: Do you have any specific impressions of China or Beijing in general?

shox: As I mentioned, I didn’t have much time to do much in Beijing because we’ve been playing every day since we arrived. But I already came to Beijing in 2013 and I mean I would say what I like the most in China is the people as they are all really friendly, they’re smiling.







VPGAME: You met TYLOO and you also met iG before – so how do you see the gap between Chinese teams and the top international teams and do you have any suggestions?

shox: I think ViCi is a Chinese team that has a lot of potential, we’ve been saying that for a couple of years now. They are really skilled players but they are lacking in some areas. I still believe when they’re in China playing between Chinese teams they can’t really get away from it. I think to take it a step further they will need to live in Europe or in the US to come to understand how it is.

To improve each day by each day but they are trying to do it each time they come to the states or Europe but it’s different. If they want to take a step forward, they need to move to Europe of the US.

Disclaimer: VPEsports is a Washington State based esports news media company funded by VPGame.

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