Team Liquid has announced the removal of French rifler Richard “shox” Papillion and coach Eric “adreN” Hoag from its starting lineup. The team said it is exploring options for the future of the roster.

The move was initially reported by Dot Esports, who cited the travel schedule for the Frenchman as one of the main reasons for the decision. While Liquid is based in North America, shox’ family remained in France following his transfer early this year, making balancing work and private life particularly tricky.

Today we are announcing that shox & adreN are stepping down from our active lineup as we explore all of our future options for our roster.

For adreN, the news marks the end of his second stint with Liquid, as the 32-year-old had already been removed from the coaching position in late 2020 before being reinstated half a year later.

shox joined Liquid at the start of the year as the organization looked to rebuild around its star players Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and Keith “NAF” Markovic, and its franchise captain Nicholas “nitr0” Canella.
The year’s first half has been challenging for the roster as they struggled to make it out of group stages.

While Josse van Dessel covers a variety of topics ranging from FIFA esports competitions to professional chess matches, his greatest emphasis is on the world of Counter-Strike, where he covers the title's biggest events and its latest roster moves. Josse also covers local market news in his native Netherlands.