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

The 25-year-old AWPer fended off retirement talk in a Russian podcast.

Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov has insisted that he has no plans to retire anytime soon after Denis "⁠deko⁠" Zhukov claimed in January that he might hang up his mouse and keyboard at the end of the year if Spirit failed to win any silverware.

"deko and I just talked about that topic, but he said it as a joke, basically," sh1ro said 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."

The 25-year-old has been an ever-present figure in 's Top 20 Player of the Year ranking since 2021, peaking at No.3 in 2022.

When asked about how his playstyle has changed over the years, sh1ro said that he "loved" the way he played at the start of his career, between 2018 and 2020. He also noted that his game draws from many different players, highlighting Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut as one whose style he particularly enjoys.

"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."

sh1ro did not want to be drawn into comparisons between ZywOo and Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev , saying that "it's hard to look at the question objectively," though he made no secret of his admiration for Vitality 's star.

"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."