sh1ro addresses retirement rumors: "I want to develop, so I'll keep going"

Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov, the renowned 25-year-old AWPer, has reaffirmed his commitment to competitive play, dismissing recent speculation about his potential retirement. In a discussion during a Russian podcast, sh1ro addressed comments made by Denis "deko" Zhukov earlier in the year, which hinted at the possibility of sh1ro hanging up his mouse if Team Spirit did not achieve success.

"deko and I just talked about that topic, but he said it as a joke, basically," sh1ro clarified on the 'RightClick' podcast. "That was back in winter, and for some reason it's being pushed again now. It was a while ago; we talked about it at the Shanghai Major or something like that. It was he who brought up retiring as a joke, actually.

"So no, overall, I look at my career, I want to play, I want to continue, I like the work, I want to develop, and so I'll keep going, and then it's up to the team."

sh1ro has been a mainstay in HLTV's Top 20 Player of the Year rankings since 2021, reaching a peak position of No.3 in 2022. Reflecting on his evolution as a player, he expressed admiration for his early playstyle between 2018 and 2020 but noted that he draws inspiration from various players, especially Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut.

"I think he's a very versatile guy," sh1ro said of ZywOo. "Everyone says he doesn't get many AWP kills based on his stats. Well, first of all, he's played more than twice as many maps as I have, given how much they play, best-of-fives and so on.

"And of course he picks up the AWP there. But that's not the point. I just like how he plays, and honestly, it's kind of like that's how I'd want to play with the AWP if I were given a choice. Because he has a bit of everything: s1mple, device, Jame's style, it's all combined in him somehow. Plus, he's good with the AK too. I really like the guy, I think he's very cool."

Though sh1ro refrained from directly comparing ZywOo to Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, he acknowledged his respect for s1mple's talent. "I like him; he just plays well," sh1ro said. "Very much so. And he adapted well to CS2. He also has very competent people around him, as I understand it. apEX has been with him a long time, and he feels comfortable. He knows how to use him, you know?"

"Maybe if he played for some other team, he'd be used differently, and we wouldn't have the player that we have now."