MaxFloPlaY.FIFA

 

 

With an honour roll that includes two silver medals at the World Cyber Games, gold medals from ENC and other places at ESWC, FIWC and the VG Grand Finals, MaxFloPlaY.FIFA are currently, clearly dominating Eastern European FIFA tournaments. Based on their current string of impressive performances and results, this will not be the last that we hear from them as they continue to rack up wins and dominate opponents.

 

MaxFloPlaY.FIFA is a relatively new gaming clan in the Polish scene but they have certainly achieved far more than what one would expect from such a young team. With a strong and balanced squad, MaxFloPlaY has achieved a podium finish in almost every competition they competed in Poland in addition to good results during international tournaments. What makes this young team so successful? RGN was fortunate to get an interview with Jarek Radzio, one of MaxFloPlaY’s managers, in an attempt to get an insight into the “secrets of their success”.

 

 

Hi Jarek, thank you for granting this interview. Could you share with us how your team was formed?

- Hello and thank you for this opportunity. We are really interested in sharing our experience and ideas with different communities from other parts of the world. Our team was established in 2007 and we were called, “plaYing for perfection” in the beginning. It is also our slogan because it reflects our goals. This team was created by friends playing BF2142, with around 50 people at that point!

 

What’s the meaning of your team’s name?

- “MaxFlo” is a partial name of a well-known music corporation in Poland – MaxFloRecords who is our main partner. “PlaY” has been naturally added as a result.

 

What sort of difficulties have the team faced since its inception till now?

- In the very beginning it was very hard to become one of the top organizations in Poland. As recently as 6 months ago, we experienced a small crisis as we felt that we were not making the sort of progress that we desired as a team. Therefore, we had to decide if we were going to abandon this project or commit even more time and sweat into it. With hindsight, we have clearly taken the right decision and everyone can see the results that we have achieved thus far. (smile)

 

Since your team is now recognized as being one of the top 2 eSports organizations in Poland, how many gamers are there currently in your team?

- Recently we decided to release some players and decided to focus on quality and not quantity. Currently we have 5 FIFA 13 players, 5 CS:GO players and 3 StarCraft 2 players.

 

How are your current sponsors and has your team had to pay out of your own pockets to participate in competitions?

- We have several partners and are looking to add more sponsors to the list. As mentioned earlier, MaxFloRec is our main partner; we also have agrements with Tt eSPORTS, GUNNAR Optiks and DXRacer. Hopefully, we will be able to confirm a new partnership soon and make an announcement. As for using our own money for tournaments, it will not be a problem for us as we have allocated funds for most of the major events.

 

How do you guys train?

- Our FIFA squad mainly plays online as there are a lot of online tournaments, in Europe, that you can compete in. Apart from that, we do have private training sessions to discuss about tactics, strategies, etc... and have many experienced players who are ready to help us, i.e. our FIFA team manager is a former WCG Monza finalist, ENC Champion and has almost 100 medals on ESL – Cezary “KarteKpl” Gontarek.

 

What are your plans moving forward?

- We aim promote eSports in Poland and this year our development plan includes recruiting a team for League of Legends. This game has the biggest audience in Poland and is a top priority of ours.

 

What makes your team different from the others?

- We don’t like losing and our motivation is to be the best, not only in terms of results but even in terms of small ideas. All our new additions need to be of the highest quality. We are passionate about eSports and our managers do not reap huge profits from their work even though they spend a lot of time in order to help our players with any issues – even in their private life.

 

What’s your opinion about European FIFA community (especially in Poland) and Asian FIFA community? What’s the biggest difference?

- The biggest difference may be the cultural fascination with football. In Europe, we are just crazy about this sport and that is the reason that our community may be a little stronger. In Asia, StarCraft 2 and League of Legends seem to be too prominent for the FIFA community to position themselves globally. In my opinion, the skill level in Europe is much higher than their Asian counterparts.

 

Who are the standout players in your team?

- Actually our FIFA team is really balanced. In FIFA 13 four out of five players have won LAN tournaments. We obviously do have a leader, Michał “Owca” Owczarzak, a former Polish representative at the Electronic Sports World Cup and current Polish PS3 Champion. All of our players are top Polish players and in our opinion always stand a chance to win major international tournaments.

 

What do you think EA should improve in future FIFA games?

- I am hoping for a new online system. FIFA can be a great eSports title but EA has focused on changes to the angle for online streaming, casting possibilities and replays etc… Maybe implementing a community tab in the main menu where eSports news can be displayed just like we see it in CS:GO and LoL.

 

How has eSports affected your lives?

- First of all, I think all gamers have better reflexes and perception – this has been proven by a lot of research. Apart from that, we have made a lot of friends from all over the world as eSports has allowed us to travel across the globe, meet different people and learn about their culture. Even older members – I mean our managers – enjoy a watching MaxFloPlaY winning. After a tournament weekend we reluctantly return to our normal lives. (smile)

 

I’m sure that almost every gamer understands that feeling. Thanks for this interview and I wish your team greater success in the near future.

- Thank you and I hope to work with you guys in future! If someone is interested in our team – check our Facebook profile at www.facebook.com/MaxFloPlaY.