So as you all know, XPX (bluefran, netcabo, akznx, jonimatos and ajcaf –
coach) went to Holland to play at the sixth ReflexGT, we took a camera
with us and did our best to capture some moments, so in short I’m going
to do a little photo-diary of our trip.
Friday
Had the plane to Eindhoven fairly early, so we all got together at the
Oporto Airport and were ready to embark in this journey we did not know
what to expect (ok I lied, we expected loads of weed because it’s
Amsterdam
, but besides that we were clueless of what would happen)
(netcabo, jonimatos, bluefran)
Inside the plane things were pretty euphoric, talking about expectations
and the people we were about to meet was enough to provide quite a
banter during the flight.
(jonimatos and bluefran just philosoraptoring about what would happen in a week’s time)
On arrival in Eindhoven we did not hesitate on bringing out the ol’flag as you can see
(The Portuguese pride is strong in these ones)
After this we just took a cab to weesp were we checked in our hotel (her
van weesp if I’m not mistaken) and promptly headed to the venue as we
promised we would help out setting up the stuff over there .
(Here you can see battleking and friends setting up the venue to be seen as it was on stream )
After doing all we were asked to do, we went to our hotel to try and get
some rest as we the matched would begin on the next day, but it was not
easy to rest as we were told we would have to play apex and team3D max,
so after some brewskis and some laughs ak finally decided to fall
asleep on the floor and netcabo didn’t pass the chance to chair-Tbag him
xD
Saturday –
We found out we did not have matches in the morning, so we had some time
to spare, so went to the supermarket to get supplies and headed back to
the hotel to have lunch and get ready for the nerve racking main stage
match we were about to have against the top Eu team, apex.
(As you see the money was short xD)
And before we left, Ak was severely warned of what would happen to him, in case he choked it on LAN:
On Venue we found out that dealing with the pressure wasn’t as easy as
one would think, after all, you only had a room full of gamers watching
and about 800 people at home following the stream.
But anyways, the time was up, time to get up on stage, and play our
first game against the best team in the event, which we had never played
before, to say that my heart was racing like Schumacher in his golden
days isn’t enough) but the friendly face from @RiDdLeZ
who helped us setting up our headsets calmed me down and made me
realize that they were as human as us and not some cod machines ahahha
(Ak, joni, net, blue)
I’ll do a small match report as I think this was one of our tightest matches in this lan.
CTF lockdown – It was such a sick game, both teams pushed up and back
which resulted in a tie in both halves, the final score being 4-4 if I’m
not mistaken. So a Stopwatch was in order, unluckily we did choke it
and apex got their deserved win in the map. (Riddlez did sick this map
btw.)
Domi arkaden – Was safe to say that we dominated the first half? Why,
after just barely loosing to the best European team, we just got so
pumped, it was like we went into overdrive really, communicated as a
team and the chemistry just flowed which lead us to the win.
SnD lockdown – Well, not much to play, guess Gotaga just rushed alongside @Tommey and completely destroyed us. WP
One could only imagine how happy we were, as XPX were on the brink of
defeating apex, we just filled our chests with pride and waited until
our next match against 3Dmax.
About this one there is not much to say, we were so motivated, the whole
match just seemed easy (not wanting to put our opponent bellow us, as
they did finish sixth), as we won 2-0 and moved on to the WB.
On the WB we faced off against fariko.deviant and team Supreme, which we both beat in order to finish our first day of reflex.
Sunday
So, after having a pretty good first day at lan, who would we play in
the semi finals of the WB? Well you guessed it, apex again :/ We were so
gutted, but on the other side it was the opportunity we needed to set
ourselves in the competitive community as a top team.
On Venue, the stress and pressure were crushing not only apex again, but
main stage again. But this time we thought we knew what we were walking
into, the same apex of Saturday, boy were we wrong…
CTF in Seatown – We just started the game so well, I was running the
flags flawlessly, and the support was coming in, which would got to let
us finish up the first half up 3-0. The crowd as in awe, and I just
shouted in the heat of the moment, “CMON apex, show us you’re the best”
boy did I goofed. Apex just came up so strong in the second half, and we
succumbed to the pressure and pushes from gotaga and tommey, and so
they tied it up… gutted that we would go to stopwatch, and eventually
lose the map, but there you have it, veteran team showing that you
should not lose your head no matter how bad the score looks.
Domination lockdown – A new apex had risen, just simply showing how good
they were, did not let us breathe and took this map fairly easily.
SnD Carbon – You know how they always say, make it or break it? This was
it. 2-3 to them, manage to make it 3-3 and well, here you go
I don’t know how to write what was going on in my mind, in short really,
when I saw I was the last alive I could only think about the fragmovies
I’d seen and I just thought to myself, “It’s my time to shine, how hard
can that be?” I just completely isolated myself, from it all, it was
like I was playing on my own setup. When I got the kill on Gotaga my
heart literally dropped, my head was like “ok so now you just need to
outsmart the smartest player in cod history?” haha, luckily I got him on
his back and didn’t choke it. Was the best thing I did in my gaming
career probably. Just jumped out my chair and screamed out of the top of
my lungs “YEAAAAAAAA!”
Unfortunately, apex went to shut us down in domination arkaden beating
us by 20points. It really felt like it was all over, we forgot there
even was a LB, was so gutted about it. Went to play LLL completely
demotivated, which resulted in absurdly stupid chokes, which lead to a
unpleasing 1-3 game for LLL
Finally, the negative consequences kicked in and we were stomped by the
pressure and that choke feeling, but after a team talk I gave we were
pumped enough to enjoy our final placement match against the acquainted
team3D max.
(me setting up the headset for our final match)
I just said, “Lads, this is our last match on this Lan, let’s make it
count”, and so we did, beating them 3-2 and placing an highly deserved
5th place.
So at the end of the Lan it hit us, that we were the 5th best team in
Europe on Lan, and with that felling in my head, as I was passing trough
the bathroom, I saw none other than @Crookzi and he did not hesitate in
shaking my hand, although his was full of piss xD «3 he offered to take
this picture
(XPX with their heads high)
And Jack being the awesome person he is, completely proved me wrong, as I
thought most DE top players were full of themselves he also took this
picture, smiling, with us
So now, with the lan over for us, it was party time.
And now the pool, who is the most lovable person at lan?
@RiDdLeZ
or
@Tapout
Either way, both really great in person ahaha
…
Apex.Portugal?
Bluefran Aproves
Also, so much love for aspec , as ajcaf once said, “Aspec just sweats
charisma” ahaha somehow sounds so much better in Portuguese xD
Monday –
Just caught the train to Amsterdam and I can’t go into much detail, so here are 2 pictures
So I guess this is the shout out /thanking part..
The apex team
(they really made it worth it, can’t thank them enough really)
The Vp bros Rel MOMO ahaha known them for 3years? Only met them know, they deserve all the love they get
Team foreign, ahaha only met them in our hotel, but they are really down
to earth, I really honestly thought that most people in top teams just
had over-inflated ego’s but I was proven wrong
Specially @Mohog and @Monksymw2
The fariko.yin team, they were the first ones to talk to us on lan, they
are also pretty humble as a team, and I quite enjoyed meeting them
ahaha, specially superhero and Rush
slayr1 also loads of thanks for supporting us and believing in us
RNX team, such great guys
team supreme + toobez «3
boris such a nice guy from Bulgaria too
And most of ALL, a HUGE THANKS FOR THOOSE OF YOU IN XPXNATION, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, AND WE ALL FUCKING LOVE YOU ALL.
So it all ends here. If you read it, you probably enjoyed it, if you
didn’t and are about to post tl;dr don’t, just go hangyourself
P.s: all photos are provided by ajcaf.
So yea, to end here is a photo of me and joni in the return flight, tired asssssss fuark xDD