Team Liquid bench CS veteran shox and head coach adreN

Declan Mclaughlin
Shox before joining Team Liquid CS in his chair

Team Liquid have announced that they have benched Richard “shox” Papillon and their head coach Eric “adreN” Hoag from their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team.

The last event that the French veteran and American coach will compete in a Team Liquid jersey will be IEM Dallas where the squad placed in the top eight after losing in the group stage to Cloud9.

In the announcement on June 19, Team Liquid said that they are exploring options for their future lineup. shox’s departure was first reported by Dot Esports in May.

“Today we are announcing that shox and adreN are stepping down from out active lineup as we explore all of our future options for our roster,” Team Liquid said.

adreN has been a part of Team Liquid’s CS team multiple times over the years, both as a player and coach. The organization signed him as a coach in 2018 before parting ways in 2020 to make way for Jason “moses” O’Toole. He then rejoined the team in 2021.

shox is a storied player from Europe that has played CS for over a decade. The 30 year old has played for various European team like Team Vitality, Titan and G2 Esports. This is his first stint with a North American team.

Team Liquid went through a retooling of their roster at the end of 2021 and early 2022 releasing the core of the 2020 and 2021 squad in Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip, Michael “Grim” Wince and Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo. In that time they added shox, Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella after his time in Valorant and Extra Salt stand out Joshua “oSee” Ohm.

In the six months that the squad has been together they managed a few top eight finishes at ESL Pro League Season 15, IEM Dallas and in the North American RMR qualifiers for the PGL 2022 Major Antwerp. At the PGL Major, Team Liquid failed to make it out of the Legends Stage, winning no maps in that phase of the event.

About The Author

Based in Indiana, Declan McLaughlin is an esports reporter for Dexerto Esports covering Valorant, LoL and anything else that pops up. Previously an editor and reporter at Upcomer, Declan is often found reading investigative stories or trying to do investigations himself. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Indiana University. You can contact him at declan.mclaughlin@dexerto.com.