Interview with XPX

In any sport or competitive activity you always have those who are expected to do well and those that are not. Esports is no different and even in our competitive scene we have teams that are supposed to win with ease and those that are expected to crash out without winning a map. The thing with predictions and assumptions is that they aren't always right and when your team is not expected to do much, but ends up doing a lot, you get yourself some fans. The biggest example of this recently is XPX, the Portuguese team who won the hearts of the community when they placed 5th at Reflex GT6 and took eventual tournament winners apeX to the last map in a thrilling 3-2 series.

We wanted to know more about this team so we've had a chat with two of their players BlueFran and AK. Check out the interview below on everything to do with their history, the future of the team and how their first EU LAN experience was!


Decerto: Can you introduce yourself to the Decerto world?

Francisco: Hi Decerto, My name is Francisco Ribeiro, or as you may know me online, Bluefran. I'm a 17 year old kid who lives in Lisbon. Besides doing gaming as a hobby I also used to play golf. As of now I don't do any other hobbies and I'm starting to get fat xD I pretty much represent Portugal with the rest of my XPX team on MW3 in the Xbox scene.

AK: My name is Francisco 'AK' Gaspar, I'm 16 years old living and studying in a small city in Portugal. I used to play football but not any more. Apart from that and gaming I don't do anything else, and just like Blue I'm getting fat!

Decerto: Do you have an interesting fact about yourself?

Francisco: Hmm well I have 2 joint toes in both feet and at home I also play standing up!

AK: I used to be pretty good at football but after injuring my knee I've not played since but I'd probably suck at the moment anyway.





Decerto: How did you get involved with the competitive gaming scene?

Francisco: I started on the PS3 when it came out really. Started doing clan matches on an inner ladder of a game called Resistance: Fall of Men. Then my team moved onto a game called Killzone 2 which also had an in game ladder that we used to play. We were quite decent on that and actually got to the top 10 of it. After that we wanted to go into something more serious and decided to make the jump to Call of Duty 4, so we all bought an Xbox360 and started doing gbs. As we got progressively sweatier in them we started being called GB warriors and people started saying we should try Decerto as it was where the really skilled teams played. Sure enough we eventually listened to them and decided to try it out, the rest is history.

AK: I was just a pub master and when I tried to take gaming more seriously I joined XPX Academy, where I was taught the basics of the competitive scene. After leaving the Academy I got invited to join XPX and since the release of Black Ops I've been playing with XPX on the PS3. Three months later of the release of BO I bought a Xbox and started to play with Bluefran and Netcabo and since then we've been playing together.

Decerto: How did the team come together originally?

Francisco: Well, the original team as I said came from the early PS3 days as the time went by and we changed from game to game some people left the team and others entered. So it's safe to say our team didn't really have a start as I know, it just existed.

AK: As I used to play on PS3 and as everyone knows the game had really bad issues and our PS3 team wasn't that much of an active team and I decided to buy a Xbox. Jonimatos joined us on the end of BO when our roster just had 3 players and we were looking for one. Since then we've been playing together.



Decerto: Can you introduce your other two players in the team?

Francisco: Sergio or as you may know him, Netcabo, has been teaming with me for 3 years. He is one of the oldest members of XPX like me and his history is pretty much the same as mine. At the present time on MW3 he SMG's alongside me as we have a really good chemistry from the years we've teamed together. He is also a very mature player so he also helps me calming the team down when necessary.

AK: Well, João ‘Joni’ Matos, just as me, started to play on PS3 on COD 4 however he just got into the competitive scene on MW2. After Reflex Joni got known for is defending skill and even though this is true, Joni can also play as a trustworthy SMG.

Decerto: You're probably the only Portuguese team anyone can name. What is the Portuguese scene like?

AK: From the events in Portugal I've been so far, the attendance is really poor as we get per LAN 10/15 teams even though the online scene is full of teams and even Free Agents. However, with the realease of MW3 the scene increased and as a result we got 24 teams on the last event.

Francisco: To be honest I really dislike it. It's filled with misinformed people unfortunately but like in everything it also has great people. The good thing about it is since Halo 3 came out we've had a National LAN event every year, which has been evolving pretty well at least from when we have started attending, it's called XL Party. The last event was held in the past month of December, in which was hosted a PS3 MW3 tournament, and it had a total of 24 teams if I'm not mistaken. So 25 Portuguese teams which isn't bad. I expect you will start to see some more Portuguese people on Decerto from now on So you can say XPX are the pioneers when it comes to the Call of Duty series on Portuguese console esports.

BlueFran at Reflex GT6

Decerto: Who are the top 5 Portugese teams for MW3 360?

Francisco: In order: XPX, Team Impact, Grow UP, Surgical Gaming, Legendz.

AK: I would say XPX, Team Impact, Legendz, Grow UP and Surgical Gaming.

Decerto: Is it likely to see any other Portugese teams attend EU events in the future?

Francisco: I don't think so, but I hope they prove me wrong.

AK: I've heard rumours these days that one team would like to attend Reflex GT7 but I'm not sure.

Decerto: You recently attended your first event at Reflex GT6, how was the experience?

Francisco: yes, it was our first international event and the first one we were really nervous about. But it turned out in a way we would never imagine. What I mean is we never expected to put up the fight we did against apeX. On the social point of view it was also really great, everyone is really different from what at least I expected, I thought that most of the people would be just like they are on the DE forum, or in XBL. By that I mean that I expected them to act superior and overall ****y, but it was the exact contrary, almost everyone was really humble and really helped us out, you know, they didn't feel like strangers to us. I was really positively surpised. And now all we want to do is just go to another event like it!

AK: It was a really good experience even though we were really nervous about it. When we arrived at the event we noticed that gaming had other meaning than from Portugal and watching all the effort that Xorta puts into it was just brilliant. Also meeting everyone we knew from online was really nice. And to get even better we played our first match on a LAN abroad against apeX and on mainstage couldn't be worse as we were really nervous however we played pretty well and almost managed to beat them on the CTF. Throughout the tournament we kept playing really well and proved some people wrong.



Decerto: Did you expect to do as well as you did?

Francisco: We went into the event with top8 in our mind to be honest. So you can say everything went better than expected.

AK: Our goal as a team was to place Top8 as we knew we could do it, it was just a matter of keeping focus and being a team. After establishing Top8 as a goal Top5 was just the cherry on top of the cake.

Decerto: What was your highlight of the entire event?
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Francisco: Well, for me it was definitely the clutch I was able to pull of on bootleg against apeX. My hands were shaking so much when I saw Gunshi I'm surprised I didn't choke it haha.

AK: I had a sick streak on CTF Seatown against apeX helping the team cap the first 2 flags.

Decerto: What did you think of Amsterdam, had you visited previously?

Francisco: Nope, it was a first for me.. Personally I really enjoyed it altough we spent most time in Weesp as our hotel was there and we were all short on money. But I definitely intend to visit Amsterdam again when I'm 18 and I have more time and money to spare.

AK: I had never been to Amsterdam before being there and to be honest we didn't visit it properly as we should have. Amsterdam should be visited because we didn't have too much money to spend on transport so we just went there for 2 hours before we got the plane. However I enjoyed being there.

Decerto: Are you now looking for an organisation to help support the team to future events?

Francisco: Yes, It's our priority to find an organisation who can support us and that we can represent. So far the search has been going well.

Decerto: Have you had any offers yet?

Francisco: Yes, we had some and I think in the near future we will be able to announce something in concrete.

apeX with XPX at Reflex GT6

Decerto: What event will we see XPX at next?

Francisco: Don't think we will be able to make it to the next Reflex event unfortunately but we will definitly be at BoA in February.

Decerto: Did you expect to get so many fans at Reflex?

Francisco: Haha never in my head did I think that something like that would have happened. I remember us being at the event and we looked at the Rwitter feed on the stream and we just saw loads of support with the ashtag XPXNATION. We just started laughing as we had no idea what that was about!

AK: As Bluefran said, we never thought that we would have that support, but it's really nice that we got it and we love everyone who supported us and who keept doing it. Much love for you guys!

Decerto: Where do you see the team in a years time?

Francisco: Well I see ourselves in a pretty good org and maybe even go to an international event if we prove ourselves worthy of such. It's hard to predict things like this though. Much more because in a space of a year I will go to university and I have no idea how I'll manage gaming and studying.

AK: Hopefully the team will stick together, a team that is being together for 3 years now can stick for the next few years right? Bluefran and Netcabo are going to university next year and we don't know what is going to happen but hopefully we can stick together.

The team at Amsterdam Central

Decerto: What does your family think of it all?

Francisco: Before reflex they just told me "you shouldn't play so much" and that sort of stuff. But when I showed them that we were actually decent at it they started looking at gaming with other eyes haha. The funny thing was that when Reflex was on everyone from my family watched the stream (my grandma included!) and my mother even joined the stream chat. My own christmas dinner was about explaining SnD and my clutch to the whole family and friends, it was hilarious.

AK: Well my parents have different opinions, my mum does support it but my father kind of doesn't like it. The rest of my family after explaining it, they think that it's pretty nice. But I think that going to Amsterdam changed their mind about what I do.

Decerto: What's your personal top 8 European teams at the moment?

Francisco: That's a though question, but I would say (in order): Apex, Foreign, Fariko.yin, infused, XPX, LLL, wW, eXtensive.

AK: apeX.Pro, Team Foreign, Fariko.Yin, eXtensive.WDC, XPX, LLL, Infused, wW. Even though wW and Infused didn't attend Reflex I think they are doing a sick job and will do well at their next LAN.

Decerto: What do you think of MW3 compared to the previous games?

AK: I've just played BO and MW3 competitive but from what I've seen MW3 could of been better if the maps didnt had so much trash and so many headglitches, even though I still find it nice to play.

Francisco: Well, I personally like it, I thought the game played great on LAN. But comparing it to BO and MW2 I would say I can lack a little spawnwise and it would be better if you had as many options to use as an AR as you have in a SMG. The game isn't designed for us competitive players though so I wont moan about it.

Decerto: Thanks for taking the time out to do this interview. Would you like to give a shoutout to anyone?

AK: I would like to thank the whole XPX Team and our sponsor XBOX Portugal, a big shoutout to Almeida, Ajcaf, Jorge, Rafunga, Blaze and Farley! Also thanks to everyone who we met at Reflex and to everyone who is supporting us. Thank you Emotion for your time.

Francisco: Thank you Emo for the patience you had while doing this interview. I would like to give a shoutout to everyone in XPX, some of my Portuguese mates like Rafunga, Ratskiller, Perdiga and to all the people we met on RGT6! And of course a special shoutout to everyone in XPXNATION!


Fonte: Decerto

XPX to the top!

é assim mesmo força nisso!

Muito boa! Parabéns, espero ver-vos (na stream) da BoA