French Counter-Strike veteran RpK announces retirement

Thirty-two-year-old Counter-Strike veteran Cédric “RpK” Guipouy announced his retirement today. In his 14-year career, RpK played on a number of strong French-speaking teams, including Team Envy, G2 Esports and VeryGames. However, he ended his career with Team Vitality.

Today marks the end of a long & beautiful career. It started long ago, had ups & downs, but I always loved it.
I'm greatful for your support over the years, I won't forget it ❤️

In memory of my journey, I started my merch to keep Le Tank legacy alive 👇https://t.co/jblRlyZ1af pic.twitter.com/KHdZiCTmho

— Cédric Guipouy – RPK MOTORSPORT (@RpKTANKK) September 2, 2021

RpK was released from his contract with Vitality on Aug. 26 after he was moved to the bench a few months prior for Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van. With Vitality, RpK saw relative success across his three years on the team, winning CS_summit 4, DreamHack Open Atlanta 2018 and the Intel Extreme Masters XV – Beijing Online: Europe.

RpK will hang up his Counter-Strike keyboard and mouse and jump into the automobile industry, according to Dexerto. The Frenchman is also starting his own merchandise line off of his nickname “Le Tank.”

RpK’s Counter-Strike legacy

RpK started his career back in 2007 with Counter-Strike: Source. He bounced around a few teams before landing on VeryGames, where he would spend most of his time on in his Source days. With VeryGames, RpK claimed his most prestigious trophy in the title: the Electronic Sports World Cup 2011. In 2012, along with the rest of VeryGames, he switched over to the new title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and placed second at the next ESWC event to Ninjas in Pyjamas. This would start a rivalry with the Swedish squad in the early days of CS:GO’s lifecycle.

Once fully invested in CS:GO, VeryGames became known as Titan and RpK went on to join G2. He then moved to Envy and, eventually, Team Vitality. He also retired for a brief time in 2013 and worked as a car mechanic.

RpK has attended nine majors across his career but he did not place highly at any of them. His best placements at tournaments mostly came from his time with Team Vitality in CS:GO. With Vitality, the tenured Frenchman won the BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Regular Season and BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown.