shox: "I'm really proud of the rookies, that they fought against the fear"

We caught up with Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon after Vitality made it back from a 0-2 start in the Legends Stage to qualify for the Major playoffs.

Vitality are through to the playoffs after what has been an impressive turnaround from a 0-2 start to the Legends stage from the French team. Losing to Virtus.pro and HEROIC in the first two rounds, shox and company had their backs against the wall but persevered, surviving three-map series against EG, Astralis, and Entropiq to lock in their place in the Avicii Arena.

In the previous interview with the team, Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire spoke about the two Major rookies, Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier and Jayson "⁠Kyojin⁠" Nguyen Van, and getting them through the jitters they were experiencing in the opening stages of the tournament.

Talking to shox this time after Vitality turned their fortunes around, the veteran gave the two youngsters props for overcoming their fears to help the team pull through to the playoffs.

"You never expect that, but it was just what I wanted, us fighting for it day by day, game by game, which is really hard mentally," the 29-year-old told HLTV.org. "We had a couple of maps where we were struggling, especially in this mental part, but I'm really proud of the team, and especially the rookies, that they fought against this fear to just step up."

shox went on to discuss how he has had to become the hype man to help bring the energy up and the team's expectations for the playoffs.

"It's also going to be the first time in an arena for Kyojin and misutaaa, so it's going to be one more step for them," he said. "We're going to try to help them in that part to feel comfortable. But in my opinion, it's your first Major, you're going to play your first playoff in an arena, don't talk about expectations or whatever, just let them enjoy what is playing in the arena and we'll see what happens."