French CS:GO legend Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer is hanging up his mouse to move across the Atlantic and join North American Challengers league team M80 as head coach.
The two-time Major champion switched from CS:GO to Valorant in 2020, but never quite managed to crack the top end of the scene.
He will now focus his energies on whipping M80 into shape, a new organization founded by XSET co-founder Marco Mereu and comprising some of the best players in North America who did not find a spot on a partnered team.
Happy is set to lead M80 as their head coach
The 31-year-old Frenchman brings with him years of experience at the highest levels of CS:GO. He made a name for himself as the in-game leader of the best French sides of their time, including Team LDLC and Team EnVyUs, winning DreamHack Winter 2014 with LDLC and DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 with EnVy.
“I’m really excited to see what I can bring to the team,” he said in M80’s announcement video.
“I’ve been playing so many years in so many different teams and so many different tournaments, winning Majors on the big stage. I know that I can give all that experience to the players and go the extra mile on details and the tactical side.”
M80 is one of the hottest prospects in the Challengers league, fielding former Version1 IGL Alexander “Zander” Dituri, NRG’s Daniel “eeiu” Vucenovic, and the Ghost Gaming core of Marc-Andre “NiSMO” Tayar, Gianfranco “koalanoob” Potestio, and Mohamed “johnqt” Amine Ouarid.
The team has already secured an invite to the upcoming Challengers circuit, and will not have to compete in the open qualifiers.
Every one of its players displayed immense potential in 2022 with their respective teams, but failed to find the needed consistency after hot streaks.
Happy will hope to be a steadying hand for the young team, and the squad’s goal is to qualify for Ascension and eventually advance to the Americas league.
They will start their Challengers run on February 1.
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