When talking about the most experienced players in the professional arena, RpK is certainly a name that cannot be overlooked. Even at 31 years old this year, RpK continues to show extremely stable performance in the colors of Vitality and is a solid support for his teammates to shine.
RpK began his professional career in 2007 with CS:Source. During more than 5 years of competing in this game, RpK played alongside legendary French CS players such as kennyS, Ex6TenZ, and SmithZz, and has won no less than 40 titles. By 2012, he and his teammates from VeryGames decided to switch to CS:GO and achieved some success, including being the runner-up at DreamHack Winter 2012 and the runner-up at ESWC 2012.
However, at the beginning of 2013, RpK unexpectedly announced his retirement to take over the family car repair business. Speaking about this decision, RpK shared: “Today, I have decided to stop playing CS to pursue another passion, cars. The past 6 years have been unforgettable with truly wonderful moments.”
By the end of 2014, a major incident occurred that changed RpK’s life. In November 2014, the global CS:GO community was shocked when a series of pro players, including KQLY, a veteran player competing for Titan, were found to have used hacks and received VAC bans. KQLY’s permanent ban led the organization to call RpK back to professional play. Initially, he refused, but after many persuasive efforts from Ex6TenZ, RpK decided to pick up the mouse again after nearly 2 years away from the game.
Since then, RpK has continued to compete professionally in various teams such as Titan, G2 Esports, and Envy, but without much success. It wasn’t until October 2018, when he joined Vitality, that titles began to come his way. After a few initial tournaments without good results and some roster changes, the latter half of 2019 was an extremely successful period for Vitality members with titles such as champions of ECS Season 7 Finals, champions of EPICENTER 2019, and runners-up at ESL One Cologne 2019 and DreamHack Masters Malmo 2019. These achievements helped Vitality become a new force in the global CS scene and revived French CS from the ashes.
The successes of Vitality are undoubtedly attributed to RpK, as although he is not a star player shining with outstanding highlights, he consistently performs extremely well and is a support for his teammates to shine like ZywOo and shox.
When talking about being 31 years old this year and being one of the oldest players in the professional CS:GO scene, RpK shared: “My goal is to continue playing professionally for as long as possible. As long as I still have motivation and no health issues, I will dedicate all my abilities to the team.”
With a glorious career filled with many prestigious titles, RpK will surely be a shining example for the younger generation of players, proving that age is not an issue if you are persistent and keep the flame of passion alive.