Legends never die, they are just born and reborn over and over again.

The legend of kennyS is the one that most CSGO fans go back and read again, and again. The tale of the fastest trigger in the west, the fable about the guy so good, he got the AWP nerfed for everyone else - it’s a compelling tale, and there’s so many what if’s around kennyS that one can choose one’s own ending.

The one where he dominates for years, the one where he tails off, or indeed, perhaps the one where he fades away and reignites his career just at the right moment; which will you choose?

We prefer to believe in the third.

Je ne sais quoi

At the end of 2022 we saw FalleN’s fleeting and ill-fated - yet magical - return to the spotlight as he and his Imperial side forced their way through to Rio in the final throes of the RMR, seemingly protected by some sort of divine intervention. It was a moment that all of Brazil had hoped for, but the moment itself was disappointing.

Though kennyS won’t demand quite the same fanfare - not least because French fans aren’t cut from the same cloth as Brazilians, but also in part due to FalleN’s part in building teams - he does bring a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain gravitas that is hard to encapsulate in mere words. kennyS, in fact, might be more universally revered than FalleN.

In that sense, the shadow of the Notre Dame Cathedral that swallows the Accor Arena might be more of a backdrop for the AWPer’s potential return, rather than the foreground that Rio demanded for FalleN’s.

2012: The fastest flick in the West

To understand kennyS, one must roll back the years.

Even from his first few events in CSGO, all the way back in 2012, the Frenchman was electric. The game wasn’t quite as refined by then, and teams genuinely had no idea how to stop the fastest flicks in the West. Kenny could kill your teammate, repeek and kill you faster than some AWPers could fire one shot, back then.

That he was so dominant right from the start of the game’s existence is what makes him so alluring. Kenny is only 27, but he’s been playing the same game professionally for 11 years. He’s woven so deep in the game’s many tapestries because he has been here since inception, and his impact on it is so direct that many still think of the AWP movement nerf as brought on, largely, by the Frenchman.

Of course, he wasn’t the only one, but he was possibly the most iconic.

That nerf alone has guided the way the game is played now in clear, obvious ways. Combat AWPing is much harder, and the weapon has become more specialised, so fewer retakes and more saves are the status quo.

One could argue that kennyS was so good, he killed the fun of AWPing for the rest of us.

Kenny bounced around the French scene in the early years trying to find a stable team. The stand-out star of VeryGames, he quickly moved on to LDLC and then recursive, wherein he played at his first Major. It wasn’t the fairytale start to his Major career, but he was, after all, still a teenager; and he did lose to fnatic. No shame in that.

Hit and Miss

The next few Majors were hit and miss - almost literally. His Clan-Mystik team were double-pumped by Complexity despite beating NAVI in Katowice. He obliterated Vox Eminor in a 16-1 win and impressed in a double OT loss to Cloud9, but was immediately hit by a clapback from a higher being with a good sense of humour.

Dignitas smacked them back with a 16-1 of their own, dumping Titan out of Cologne, leaving our protagonist without a Major playoff finish in the whole year, and it got no better at Kato in 2015, as Titan lost a French derby and got slammed by PENTA to finish last.

Majors used to be pretty janky. Two maps and kennyS was out. We promise, if he does make it to Paris, he’ll play more than two maps.

Ready to shock the world

Luckily, there were two other chances in 2015; and Kenny was ready to shock the world.

He was solid but unspectacular in Cologne, but his performance was good enough to edge Envy into the grand final over TSM. He was quiet in the semi-finals and especially poor in the second map of the final, but the groundwork was laid for kennyS’ magnum opus.

Scene: Cluj-Napoca. kennyS’ crowning glory, and France’s finest moment.

He started as he meant to go on, with a better than 2.0 K/D against Dignitas, and a +10 against NAVI to breeze through the first stage. fnatic posed more of a threat, stealing map one away, but kennyS’ Envy were insatiable on maps two and three, dropping just eleven rounds in two maps.

Hurricane of speed, precision, and aggression

Kenny himself was relatively quiet in that series, with ‘only’ a +10, but he collected 76 kills as Envy slipped past G2 and into the grand final.

The final itself was somewhat anti-climactic; but largely because the AWPer just took over the server, picking up 43 kills in 50 rounds, 10 of which were opening kills. It was at that moment, where the legend of kennyS was born. A hurricane of speed, precision and aggression rolled into the unassuming body of this skinny French kid.

At that moment in time, he was quite possibly the best player in the world. Major MVP, and ridiculously dominant for most of 2015. But the peak was… not fleeting, but quicksilver.

He was still exceptional for the next few years, but he wasn’t indomitable. The kennyS aura had eroded somewhat as the AWP itself became less fearsome, and though his last event on Envy was exceptional his side were dumped out of the Major by FaZe Clan, despite his best efforts.

But that’s the thing about legends. Legends never die.

kennyS has never hit that 2015 peak ever again. But he’s still hit peaks that most players could only dream of. He was superb in 2017 at times, helping G2 to tournament wins in Tours and Malmö, terrific in Cologne as G2 picked up a top 6 finish, and even in 2019 at ESL Pro League.

Even if he hadn’t been, there’s still the hope. You still see the name kennyS and know what he was capable of; nay, what he is capable of. At any time, he could roll back the years and rip you open.

Form is temporary. Class is permanent. Greatness is fleeting, but it never dies. It just lays dormant. Even if the last time we saw that peak was 2019, it’s in there. Somewhere.

"We have no choice but to pass this step"

There has never been a Major in France. kennyS has never had the chance to win a Major in his home country, to be crowned king in his own backyard. Perhaps it’s come too late - there was talk of a move to VALORANT, rumblings of retiring. But the legend never died.

Kenny came back to Counter-Strike, just as Counter-Strike came to Kenny’s home. Just as French Counter-Strike was reduced to dying embers, the phoenix rises from them.

His first few events on Falcons were slow, but as the stone has rolled, it has gathered moss. His ratings up until the Major qualifier were solid but unspectacular - but he had a superb run of games to get Falcons into the RMR.

The plot armour FalleN had in the Americas RMR for Rio might just have been bestowed upon kennyS. There will be no greater motivation than the chance to rekindle his great career by bringing his old teammate NBK with him, under the lights in Paris, and walk out in front of the crowd who he inspired eight years ago.

It won’t be easy. There are superb teams, willing fighters and fresh blood. Teenagers with inhuman reaction times, old heads who’ve been on big stages a lot more recently than kennyS and everything in between.

It might just require a miracle.

But if anyone can pull off a miracle, it’s kennyS.