happy

Lore & Background

Vincent Cervoni Schopenhauer began his Counter-Strike: Source (CSS) career in December 2007 under the name 'EMSTQD' when he joined with Ex6TenZ's team GlobalTeam. Based on their results, they signed with Epsilon eSports in February 2008. They became one of the best teams in France after adding RpK and shokkk to the roster, and in July, they won The eXperience LAN in Denmark. Happy left the team to captain his own team, Creativ' in 2009. In October 2009, Happy decided to re-join Ex6TenZ's team called redLine, who were later signed by VeryGames. Together, they managed to win EPS France VI, place 2nd in Dreamhack Winter and MaXlan later that year. In February 2010 Happy left VeryGames to focus on academics. Over the next couple of years he was in-game leader in several small teams, most notably for the 2011 3DMAX squad which also featured shox, ScreaM, and apEX, with whom he managed to finish third at the 2011 Copenhagen Games. After Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released in August 2012, Vincent Cervoni Schopenhauer changed his nickname to 'Happy' and formed a new team called PRIME in September 2012 with apEX and Maniac. The following month they were picked up by Team eXtensive! which became LDLC.com in January 2013. Due to poor results LDLC decided to disband their CS:GO team in August 2013. After this Happy formed another mixed team called WE GOT GAME with players such as fxy0 or GMX. They later added kennyS, Maniac, and Uzzziii to the team. This squad was signed by Recursive eSports before the first CS:GO Major sponsored by Valve, DreamHack Winter 2013. At DreamHack, they beat Universal Soldiers and iBUYPOWER on their way to a 2nd-place finish in the group behind Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP). In the quarter-finals they played Fnatic, who beat them 2-1 and went on to win the tournament. Due to lack of financial resources, Recursive eSports parted ways with their CS:GO division on 20 January 2014; despite this, players stayed together and created team Nameless. After rumours that Nameless and Clan-Mystik planned to merge their teams, Happy, together with Uzzziii, Maniac, along with KQLY and apEX from Clan-Mystik, joined LDLC in February 2014. Happy led this team to 1st place in DreamHack Valencia 2014 and a T5 placing in the second CS:GO major, EMS One Katowice, where they were defeated 0-2 by eventual Major champion Virtus.Pro. Happy led LDLC to a T3 placin

In Their Own Story

The dust settles over the final site of Nuke. The clock ticks down in the corner of the screen, invisible but felt by everyone watching. Happy adjusts his grip on the AK-47, eyes locked through the smoke. He knows the enemy is pushing from the tunnel. One shot remains. A teammate falls, leaving him isolated against two opponents. He doesn't flinch. The first enemy flashes out; Happy sidesteps and fires twice before they can react. Silence follows the recoil. He checks his health bar, then turns to the final angle. The round is not over until the bomb defuses or the last enemy bleeds.

Reader's Guide

Happy's in-game leadership style is considered controversial for its aggressive style and frequent assumption of risks such as higher than average use of force buys, executing plans with a focus on speed, and the use of baiting. Tomi Kovanen, writing for PC Gamer, argued that Happy's leadership was overshadowed by the pure skill of the team he leads, and that Happy was better as a fragger than as an in-game leader. In September 2015, PC Gamer named Happy the 4th best CS:GO player and the best player who played in a lurker role at the time, noting that his ability to use the AWP, lead his team, and play with all the weapons in the game made him 'almost a complete player'. It also named Happy as possibly the most individually successful in-game leader in CS:GO history because of his status as the best player on EnVyUS, which was a top three team for 2015. In a January 2016 interview with Splyce, Happy said that he had 'kind of destroyed the strats heavy meta' because of his preference for flexible, unorthodox strategies. Happy is known for his play on the B site on the Counterterrorist side of the Inferno map.

Did You Know?

• Happy won one CS:GO Major as in-game leader: DreamHack Winter 2014