‘The Problem’: A reflection on the career of Kioshima

The career of Fabien ‘kioshima’ Fey has been quite the rollercoaster. He is a two-time major champion, so his career has been anything but disappointing; however, it has been anything but smooth sailing. While people will say he already peaked, his time with FaZe is showing that the French player is only getting started. Not only is his team performing well but so is he. So let’s take a trip down memory lane to see how this French star got to where he is today.

The up-and-coming

via http://www.epsilon-esports.com

Kioshima had his first huge showing at ESL One Cologne 2014. In this tournament he was key in fueling Richard ‘shox’ Papillion’s Epsilon team to a playoff spot, defeating eventual champions of the tournament, Ninjas in Pyjamas, to do so. He played very well in the tournament, so well in fact that LDLC leader Vincent ‘Happy’ Cervoni thought he deserved a spot on what would become the best team from France.

French domination

While LDLC was not the best team in the world, they had the pride of being the best team from France. A key detail is that Hovik ‘KQLY’ Tovmassian was VAC banned, leaving Titan very vulnerable in terms of firepower. LDLC did not seem to care in the slightest. In their time together as a team, they went between two different orgs and amassed a total of nine tournament wins, including a major. They broke the meta with their infamous force buy rounds. In these rounds, they leveraged their skill, along with dynamite teamwork, to win many rounds. After the famed ‘honeymoon’ period wore off, the poor economic decision making drove the team into the ground, an error Happy would make more than just this once.

Kenny the savior

via HLTV.org

Meanwhile, over in Titan, Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schaub, was fighting extremely hard in every game, dropping thirty-plus kills in order to give his team just the outside chance of winning. He eventually had enough with losing despite monster individual performances. He and Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire, swapped places with shox and Edouard ‘SmithZz’ Dubourdeaux. This EnVyUs team would bring kio his second major win, despite that his lack of a consistent role was causing him to suffer in terms of performance. Kenny and apEX carrying let the team ignore their problems, for a little while, until bad results started to pile up.

Outcast

When things started to really hit the fan, the team was left with no choice but to remove the worst performing player. That, unfortunately, was kioshima. Removing him at the time was definitely justified; however, in the coming year, it would become very clear that kio was not ‘the problem’ within EnVyUs. Kio was left without any options for a while, as he was still under contract from EnVyUs. Eventually, he ended up landing with a team known for being dreadful tactically that just leveraged skill. This team was FaZe.

FaZe up

via http://wiki.teamliquid.net

Coming into a FaZe Clan, a team that was trying desperately to build something special, kio was considered a role player. His form did not really improve with the new look; however, he seemed to make the team better, as not many players on the team were willing to play roles. Eventually, the team would add in renowned AWP player Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli. Following the addition of allu, Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen, renowned in-game leader, joined forces with FaZe after being removed from Astralis.

A team that was once only capable of group stage upsets was now a contender for playoff spots. FaZe even managed to reach the quarterfinals of the ELEAGUE Major; although, they weren’t happy just being a playoff team. There would be a blockbuster move in the coming months, that would make FaZe a contender for the coveted world-number-one spot. Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač had decided to join with none other then FaZe and kioshima after he escaped his mousesports prison.

via [youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3o7ETjya-Q"]

After the arrival of karrigan, kio’s individual form was on the up and up. It made an enormous spike after the arrival of Bosnia’s finest, NiKo. He was now more than just some role player, he was creating massive impact for his team, helping lead his team to four consecutive finals, and two tournament wins.

He is currently playing the best Counter-Strike of his career, and FaZe is a legitimate contender for the upcoming PGL major. ‘The Problem’ is anything but in this FaZe team, and things are only looking up for kio.

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Featured image via HTLV.org