misutaaa’s remarkable rise: Vitality’s newest superstar

Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier joined Team Vitality as a seventeen-year-old rookie rfiler in March 2020, in what was his first-ever taste of CS:GO at a professional level. 

He has quickly grown from a struggling prodigy player being subbed out of various maps, to being only behind the mighty Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut as Vitality’s most destructive fragger. Here’s everything you need to know about the remarkable rise of misutaaa. 

Early struggles 

Throughout his debut year in 2020, misutaaa averaged a 0.99 rating, 0.91 impact, 0.62 kills per round (KPR), and a KAST round contribution rate of just 71%. At the time, he was the lowest-rated player in the entire Vitality lineup. 

However, the year was not without important challenges that help put some valuable context around these numbers. Not only was this a seventeen-year-old still balancing gaming, studies, and general life during a global pandemic, but also one without any prior experience of top-tier CS. 

Team Vitality were also not one of the most stable orgs in the world at the time, with Dan “apEX” Madesclaire adjusting to his new role of an in-game leader following the shock loss of Alex “ALEX” McMeekin, and the org beginning to experiment with their first-ever six-man roster, with misutaaa being the player substituted on Dust II and Nuke. 

The team’s use of substitutes helped the team climb to the summit of the world rankings for a solid 10 weeks with wins at IEM Beijing and BLAST Fall Finals, however, it was clear that constantly being rotated in and out of the server was not helping misutaaa on a personal level. 

Valve’s delves to ban substitutes from official events naturally hit Vitality harder than any other team, and the org began to switch their approach up entirely in the wake of the decision. Misutaaa was chosen to stay on at the expense of Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom, and French CS legend Cédric “RpK” Guipouy was benched in favor of the 22-year old Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van.

New roles and responsibilities 

All of these changes in and out of the server have coincided with a huge turnaround in form for misutaaa, with the rifler seemingly embracing the array of new roles and responsibilities he has stepped up with. 

With the arrival of Kyojin, misutaaa is no longer the inexperienced prodigy talent in the team, and there’s a real palpable feeling of it being a welcome release for the rifler in the server. His plays are noticeably more daring and high stakes than before, with misutaaa more and more confident trusting in his abilities and carrying the weight of a round on his shoulders.

Teammates apEX and Richard “shox” Papillon have both recently come out and spoken about the changes in misutaaa in and out of the server on a personal level that have also impacted his performances. According to them, misutaaa is now a far more out-going and confident person to be around, and far more at ease with how his game sense and mid-round calling has developed during his time with the team. 

Misutaaa also now has his first valuable taste of LAN experience behind him following IEM Cologne, as well as a whole plethora of both positive and negative experiences against the very best sides in the world to call upon whenever gameday rolls around. 

Over the last three months, misutaaa’s KAST contribution rate is at 72%, his KPR is up to 0.66, however it is his impact and overall rating that have seen a real jump to 1.05 and 1.07 respectively. The Frenchman’s numbers are only going in one direction at the moment, and there’s no reason why a strong end to the year won’t see misutaaa bag himself a HLTV top twenty award, and start to fulfill his potential as one of the world’s best players.