HyP: "It was certain I wanted to qualify the club for VCT and then I would stop"

After nearly four years with Mandatory in the French Challengers league and six years of competing on VALORANT, Damien “HyP” Souville has announced on social media that he is retiring from professional play. In this in-depth interview, HyP looks back on his time with Adrien “Zerator” Nougaret’s organization, reflecting on his connection with the founder, the challenges he faced during his final season, and the strong bond he built with his teammates.

He also opens up about the reasons behind his decision to end his career, his desire to take a step back from competition, and his genuine surprise at the overwhelming support and recognition he received from fans and figures across the VALORANT scene.

Damien "HyP" Souville: "From what I remember, yes, because the objective when I arrived at VALORANT was really to continue my career and be professional. However, I didn't expect things to go so well for me right from the start. In the sense that, with HypHypHyp, things were going really well, we were the best team in Europe at the time alongside Fish123. And then, I got recruited by NIP (Ninjas in Pyjamas) very quickly. I really didn't expect my transition to go that smoothly. And I think that actually ended up hurting me, because it was almost too easy and I thought to myself: 'Oh, but actually, this is super simple.' And I didn't realize all the work I needed to put in to be at the level of this game.

HyP: I think I didn't work the right way when I arrived at the game. There were too many differences between Overwatch and VALORANT: in the way you take duels, the way you play, how you manage games mentally, or even how you prepare for them. In fact, there were so many things I had to relearn. I literally learned a game from scratch. Because obviously, playing casually with your friends for fun is completely different from being professional and at the top level. At first, I played VALORANT like I was just playing with my friends, essentially.

HyP: To be completely honest, it's not that hard. Even though yes, I'm a competitor, yes I want to win, and yes, the fact of having so many second-place finishes is frustrating. I wanted to win, I wanted to win all the finals I participated in. But I'll admit that my feeling today is different. If you'd asked me this question six months ago, the answer would have been different. But right now, my answer is that honestly, I don't really care that much anymore. My objective was to qualify the club for VCT EMEA, which was the thing closest to my heart. Aside from that, winning the French league, it's not that I didn't care about it... but almost. The fact of coming so close to making VCT and then losing is what hurts more, rather than telling myself I never won the French league with Mandatory. But of course, I would have liked to bring them that title. And not having done it was definitely a subject: "Should I go for one more year to try to win that title and then retire?" But in reality, the proof that it's not something that affects me that much is that never having won a Challengers France split wasn't a motivation big enough to play another year.

HyP: Yes, of course. It's very difficult to know exactly how much it impacted them. But yes, I talked to them about it. I know that already, a year ago, when I re-signed with the project, I told myself: "This is probably my last year." I was already talking about it with my family. I eventually decided to come back for one more year because I had things to prove to myself and things to prove to people as well. We had just come off two somewhat disappointing years, I was quite frustrated that we couldn't qualify for Ascension. I was really disappointed and I wanted to tell myself: "OK, I'm going for one more year." Mandatory wanted to completely change the roster, or almost, and they trusted me to stay one more year. So already, I had this mentality: "This is my last year, I'm going to give everything." And when we get to the end of the year and we're in Split 3 playoffs, we lose our first match against BLX, I bring it up right after in the debrief. We do a round table to see what each person wants to say about the team and the upcoming match, because we're playing KC Blue Stars two days later. And at that moment, I say: "Guys, I don't know if I should have told you, but this is potentially going to be my last year, and I really don't want us to stop here." If we stopped there, the year would have been catastrophic. We'd be losing in Split 3 playoffs just like in Split 2... I didn't want it to end like that. And knowing how much it motivated them, how much it united us, I'll admit that's hard to measure, but I think it played a role. That's why I wanted to tell them. And ultimately, the story turned out beautifully because we managed to beat KC, then we got our revenge against BLX, we won against Valiant in an incredible match, and we qualified for Challengers EMEA. Then we make it out of groups, even though the group was tough, and we qualify for Ascension. So yeah, I think it played a role in our preparation, but it's hard to measure exactly how much.

HyP: It put pressure on me in the sense that I warned the players, I warned the club, too. And I didn't want certain people, whether players or staff, to think that I had lost my motivation to continue, and that therefore I would work less hard. And it's certain that people asked themselves questions. The fact that I received an offer at the beginning of Split 3 to become an assistant coach also comes from that: people around me were wondering if I still had the motivation to give everything and keep going. I obviously had management tell me that they were counting on me until the end. And on one hand, you don't want people to doubt you. I've always given my all, I really think I never cheated on that. The fact that people could doubt that put a bit of pressure on me. I told myself: "I don't want people to have that impression." So yeah, it added extra pressure. And at the same time, this season was very challenging for me mentally, maybe one of the toughest I've experienced. But I'm proud because I managed to win a battle against myself, to prove that I didn't give up until the very end. Where I'm disappointed with my performances at Challengers EMEA, I'm not disappointed at all about Ascension.

HyP: There's definitely this thing where I didn't want the season to be a flop. I want to leave, but I wanted to leave being proud of myself, being proud of what I brought to the club. The objective, I'm not lying, was to qualify for VCT, and then I leave like a prince, and good luck to everyone for next year. But unfortunately, it didn't happen that way. And honestly, there were moments during the year where, if you'd told me: "You're going to Ascension, you're going to play the final match, but you don't qualify for VCT," I think I would have signed up for that. Especially because we really came back from far. There was really a moment in the team where we just weren't playing well. We weren't good, and you could feel it in practice, in official matches. We were capable of doing amazing things, but we were also capable of doing anything and being really terrible on so many fronts. So yes, there was pressure all year long. I didn't want it to be a "flop of a year" and to end on a year filled with failures. So it was pressure, and on top of that, I had to adapt to changes. Because I lost the captain role and the In-Game Leader role, but I also changed my role in the game. Now, instead of playing Initiator, I started playing Sentinel, and that's obviously a very different way to play. As an Initiator before, I was constantly sending abilities for my teammates and I loved that, it was my greatest strength. I was always playing second. With Sentinel, it's completely different. I have to take space, I have to gather information. I'm alone, I have to be autonomous. I have to get my first contacts and do everything myself. Anyway, it's really a different role so I had a lot of pressure on other aspects too.

HyP: Yes, 100 percent. Playing in VCT is absolutely not a motivation for me. It doesn't motivate me at all to go play in Berlin, it doesn't motivate me to go play in VCT, given the current format. I also had the chance to experience that in the Overwatch League, to play in Tier 1, to play on stage every weekend, etc... But yes, it was certain that I wanted to qualify the club for VCT, and then I would stop.

HyP: No, absolutely not. I think that after two years at the club, I asked myself that question. And the most likely offers I could have had would have been from other French clubs, I imagine, that were in VCT. And I wanted to prepare myself a bit for the idea, and I told myself that I was so grateful to Mandatory, to Zerator for everything he brought to us, that I couldn't do it. There are so many things that people don't know about what Zerator has brought into my daily life. I had struggles, I had moments where I couldn't live in my apartment anymore because of a fire, and in that moment, he literally carried me. He became one of my best friends, clearly. Very quickly, I told myself that I would never go to another club. It was absolutely impossible. So yes, it was impossible for me to leave.

HyP: I didn't expect the community support to be so strong, and I didn't expect it to be so kind. For fans, there are obviously moments where you're frustrated, and some handle that frustration poorly, sometimes sending you harsh messages. And I never received that. In four seasons, I never received a negative message from a Mandatory fan. There were moments where people were disappointed; they shared that generally, it can happen, but I never received insults. So, that's something that really surprised me. Did I expect the adventure to last this long with Mandatory then? Maybe not. But I expected it to be something stable, and I knew that by signing with Mandatory, I was signing with a club that had beautiful values. And we know esports, we know how unstable this environment is, with clubs that can't even pay their players for example. I knew that wasn't a problem when joining Mandatory and that's also why I joined the club in the first place. I was like: "If I'm good, there's absolutely no reason for the club to part ways with me."

HyP: Every single day, every evening, in my daily routine, I train on a game and work to compete. So first, there's that fatigue, the sacrifice of constantly working and constantly training. We're not complaining, it's a pleasure to have lived this adventure, but it's true that I'm reaching a point in my life where I want to explore something else. I want to take time for the people close to me, spend a bit more time with my family, go to events, and take little trips that excite me. Because in esports, our schedule is absolutely not stable, we can't plan anything in advance. I generally have my schedule for next week, and that's it. If I wanted to plan a summer vacation to leave, I can't, so it's been a really long time since I took a vacation with my girlfriend for more than a weekend.

There are these things, these daily sacrifices of scheduling, that are hard. There's also the pressure, the pressure of performance, the pressure of results. Constantly, you question yourself, constantly you have to work because if you don't work, you're going to lose and there are so many people behind you working to take your spot. It's the world of competition, and that's obviously a lot of pressure. So I wanted to explore something else, take time for myself, take a step back. And that's why I was sure that this was really my last year. And it was still difficult to commit to it, because it's stressful when you've done nine years of competition and you've only ever known that your whole life, it's hard to know how I'm going to manage without it. So now, obviously, it's a bit early to answer that question, but it's something that stresses me about the future.
And I also thought about how much I wanted to come back for one more year.

The fact that the year was so difficult but at the same time I managed to win a huge battle against myself and I made it to Ascension while playing probably the best VALORANT I've ever played, I told myself, "If I stop here, that's a waste." Especially because I know that if I came back for one more year, I still have so much to bring; I learned so much this year that if I came back for one more year, getting my lead back, I'm convinced I would have done an amazing job. I really asked myself the question about staying. But in reality, as I already said, winning the French league didn't motivate me enough. And with the Ascension format changing and the fact that we can't qualify for VCT anymore, I asked myself: what's the point of continuing? If I come back for one more year, the French league title doesn't motivate me enough. I could also try to showcase myself to try to get recruited to tier 1, but that's not even something that motivates me because I don't want to play for any other club besides Mandatory and I can't even qualify the club for VCT anymore.

HyP: I may have realized it through all the feedback I received, all the messages I got. I have several players who told me that I was an inspiration to them, that I was a role model to follow, and obviously, that made me really happy. I, too, when I started in esports, had reference players who made me want to play, who inspired me tremendously, and telling myself that I can be that player for some young people makes me very proud. But yes, personally, I still feel unsatisfied: I would have liked to win more titles and maybe take the club to VCT, or even have a season with the club in VCT if we'd qualified earlier. I see that, overall, I'm still somewhat disappointed with my VALORANT career. I would have liked to go higher. But ultimately, I lived an incredible experience with Mandatory, even if it may not have been at the level I expected to be when I arrived on the game, or where I saw myself being when starting VALORANT. At first, I thought that in three or four years I'd be in tier 1, and that's not the case; I stayed in tier 2. At least I was at the top of tier 2, and we lived amazing moments to share with the entire community that followed us, so overall it's still positive. But yes, I had trouble realizing it, and I think it's really with the number of messages and reactions under my announcement that I truly realized.

HyP: No, I'm not disappointed with what I did on VALORANT, but there's still this world of competition and esports. You have to have luck, you have to have the right project, you have to have all of that. And I had the luck of having an organization that trusted me to manage a project, and that was Mandatory. And I think I missed a little bit of things here and there, a little bit of experience. That experience, that thing, I managed to get today by working with Enzo (Enzo Mestari), with madC (Kévin Ducourtioux), with Derly (Florentin Derly). And madC made a post sharing my retirement announcement where he said: "We met too late," and I kind of share that feeling. The fact that madC, for example, really complemented me well and that by working together earlier, we could have really done some amazing things. So there's still this little thing that makes me know I could have done more and gone further, so I'm somewhat disappointed in that sense. But otherwise, in reality, when you step back, I managed to live nine years as a professional esports player and I think there aren't many players who managed to do that. On VALORANT, I was in tier 2, but always at the top of tier 2. So I think that's still quite an impressive career, and I need to manage to be proud of it.

HyP: Generally, the reasons why I'm stopping are not because I'm tired of playing. And if I moved into coaching or something close to it, I think I would continue to have the same constraints that made me stop my career as a player. In summary, I think I really need a break from competition. Even though it's terrifying because that's been my whole life, I think I really need it. I need to take time for myself, take a step back. I have some small health issues, nothing serious, but since I play every day, I wasn't taking the time to deal with them. And yeah, I need a break from competition. I'm not closing the door at all on the idea of becoming a coach in the future, putting together a team and managing it. I think that's something that would suit me well, actually, I think it's something I'd be really effective at, so it's definitely not a door I'm closing on myself.

HyP: For that, I've played with players who have been established on the game for a while and who have a lot of experience. And if today I had to name a few names who could go further, I really believe in TakaS (Jonathan Paupard). I think TakaS hasn't shown everything yet, and he's an exceptional player, plus an exceptional teammate. I loved working with him this year, even if it wasn't the whole season. I really loved it. He literally changed my VALORANT experience, he inspired me in his way of playing, he helped me through difficult moments, he was a real brother. And I think he still has a great career ahead of him. After that, I think about other players like CyvOph (Clément Millard). He went to VCT, he performed really well, but the year went really badly for him, and I know it took a hit on his morale. I don't know how he'll bounce back or if he'll have the opportunity to play in VCT again next year, but I hope he does because he deserves it in my opinion. He's the kind of player who has enormous potential and who can go very, very far.
An easy answer about players I haven't played with as well is Veqaj (Sylvain Pattyn). He's a monster; he showed it in the French league, he showed it at Gentle Mates. Despite the fact that the split wasn't incredible, I found him very good individually. He's now joining Fnatic [according to a Sheep Esports report] and what a blessing, I'm so happy for him, I think it's an exceptional opportunity that he has to go to Fnatic, and I hope it lasts. I hope he's set to prove himself in that team over several years, and that's what I wish for him. And then there are names like kAdavra (Thomas Johner). The thing is, he announced not long ago that he was retiring, and then ultimately he came back. That's something that scares me a little bit, to be honest. I hope he'll manage to continue progressing, that he's found the motivation to grind, because similarly, he's a player who has a lot of character, and you need that to reach the highest level. But in reality, there are plenty of young players within Tier 3 who are working well and who have crazy potential. And unfortunately, in France, right now, we have very few projects that help these players develop and continue to grind to reach VCT. So I hope that's something that will change in the future, but I have to admit that I don't have too much hope given the state of the scene at the organizational level.

HyP: I'm very curious to see what Riot is going to do for 2027. I think the current format needs to be changed. I personally don't know to what extent it's impacted by the fact that I play all the time, and now I'm retiring, but I find that recently the VCT format was a bit boring to watch and follow. The only time I really enjoyed watching matches was during Masters and Champions, obviously. And even then, it wasn't even every single day of Champions and Masters, particularly in the group stages, where sometimes there were matches I didn't care much about. I'll admit that I have a hard time understanding why really. But it's true that I lost a lot of interest in watching certain matches. And then the VCT format, there are a lot of matches, and sometimes it's just not interesting, we get bored, I feel like. In Challengers, I don't even need to talk about it, it's obviously worse. Even worse at our level is that we have leagues, notably the French league, where you have a few professional teams and the rest of the teams without contracts. For me, that's a huge problem. So that's good too, because ultimately these players, who aren't being paid, still have the opportunity to showcase themselves and get recruited. But in fact, they're facing players who are full-time and don't need to worry about money, because they have their salary, it's their job. For VCT, I don't know what the solution is, but in any case, for tier 2, I would really like us to manage to bring together all the Challengers leagues a bit more. It would almost be like just one EMEA league where everyone plays against each other. Besides, what we had this year that was new, the Challengers EMEA, I thought that was really great.

HyP: When I answer that question for Overwatch, I have a lot of trouble because there were several. But for VALORANT, it's obvious, it's the Ascension we experienced this year. There's this thing... With this group that we had, this year was really very difficult. We struggled to work together, struggled to get on the same page. But it was a group of really cool human beings, because we managed to tell each other things, we managed to all lift each other up, despite the fact that we disagreed on many points. And because we knew that in the end the objective was the same: win and go to VCT. We did everything for that. Ultimately, we arrived at Ascension with such a united group, a group that got so much pleasure from playing together, so much pleasure from living together on a daily basis, that Ascension was really a joy to experience. It was truly a pleasure to live it and to leave on that tournament, it's a gift, honestly. I don't even want to mention one match in particular, because even the first match we lost, ultimately, the way we reacted, the way we debriefed after, we were all on the same wavelength, we managed to get on the same page, it was incredible. It's a memory that will stay with me for a very long time."