As most of us know you not only made a splash in the North American CS Scene but also the French CS Scene as well, can you give us the history of Xp3 and how it is you became a top player in two countries? Describe your play style and how you think it makes you unique from most others in the game.

Well yeah, I’ve been playing for a while now, competitively since 2006 in France as everyone now knows. I played for a lot of famous organizations in France such as *aAa*, atLanteam, WebOne and D4. I moved to Canada in January 2009 and I didn’t really want to stop playing CS yet so I played with a French Canadian team called NSU for a couple of months. After that I started to get offers from some US teams to play for them in the ESEA LAN Finals and that’s pretty much where it started. As a player I use to be the AWP'er of all my teams in France but now I’m the strat caller and I think everyone would consider me as an really aggressive player, I like to go in first and get one or two entry kills for my team so I can make sure we will win the round.

Not many players have had the opportunity to experience the CS scenes in two countries, especially two countries on different continents such as yourself, in your experience how does North American CS compare to that of the French/European scene, in terms of leagues, tournaments, growth and the overall experience? and which country do you feel has the better potential for growth in the future?

Well if you had asked me this question a few years ago I would have said that they are two different worlds, but now since the US is really poor since the end of the CGS, the top American teams are getting inspiration from the European teams, so I would say it’s pretty similar now. About the leagues and stuff, CS in North America is almost dead, there are only two major leagues going on, the first one is ESEA which starts online then finishes on LAN similar to the EPS, and the other one is CEVO which is entirely online, I think there is nothing else around in North America. Which country has the potential to grow in the future? To be honest I really have no idea let's say France haha.

Last season in ESEA-Invite you and your team, who was known as DINC.US at the time, took second place behind compLexity, beating top dogs EG and Excello. Looking foward to this season's playoffs which are only a week away, what are your expectations for the tournament? What are you and Loaded doing to prepare for the event?

Yeah I am definitely looking forward to this season's LAN Finals, we are going to boot camp in Dallas, Texas one week before the event to fix up all our strategies and it’s always good to meet your teammates before a tournament just to get on some confidence and gain chemistry.

I like to ask all of the people I interview about CS:ProMod and gain a pro's perspective on the new competitive mod being developed: what do you think of CSP, what would you like to see changed to the beta to make it more playable and would yourself switch to CSP if major leagues and tournaments switched over from 1.6?

CSP is really improving since this last update, what they are trying to do is really huge. Trying to regroup both community’s CS 1.6 and CS:Source is a really big challenge and I think they can do it if they keep developing the game that way, keeping both communities in mind, but only time will tell us happens. They still have to fix some stuff to make the CS 1.6 community really happy, but I think the game will never be like 1.6, we don’t want 1.6 with new graphics so I’m fine with that, if one day I have to start from ground zero again with a new game, I will. I think I will switch to CSP if the game is 100% ready and if all the major leagues switch as well.

Your current team, Loaded , are one of the top teams and one of the favorites to win ESEA-Invite this season, with the recent acquisition of Scott 'evolution' Cavallero, do you think that you guys are capable of taking down favorites EG and coL? Do you think Loaded is at the level to be able to compete internationally against the European powerhouse teams?

Well we go there to try to defeat those teams so yeah I think we can definitely win against them but its gonna be hard, we are still a young team compared to the others and like you said we just added evolution to our team so we still need some preparation, but things are going really well so far so and I hope we will be ready. About the international competition I have faith if we keep practicing and preparing ourselves like we are doing right now we can compete against anyone in a matter of months.

Since you first established yourself as a top player in France, then making your way to North America, how was the transition into the North American scene and how did you make your way from being that unknown french guy, into playing for one of North America's top teams? Was it hard to break onto a scene where you didn't know anyone or did your skill do the talking for you?

I made the transition part by part, like I said previously I started playing with some French Canadian friends and eventually made it to ESEA-Invite, so we were playing against all the top US teams and I think we were not doing that bad for being such a big underdog at the time, then some American teams from the same league started approaching me with offers, since I wanted to become more competitive and attend more LAN tournaments, I joined up with them. It wasn’t that hard for me to fit in the scene, I think some people already knew me for some of my achievements with my French teams and as far as the others who didn’t know me I think my skill did a little bit of talking I guess lol.

Recently many people in the e-Sport community have stated that CS is on the verge of dying in North Ameirca, due to the lack of sponsor support, LAN tournaments and general support. Do you think that CS is on the downfall and what do you feel needs to be changed to the scene in order to achieve "success" in the eyes of the community and players?

That is kind of true, CS has really slowed down in North America but it will never die, I think we're always going to see US teams going to Europe such as EG and coL, to compete against the best. The main problem is the lack of sponsorship support from the organizations who for most part, cannot send their teams to LAN events, even if the LAN is in the US is it still too expensive to travel because the country is so big. So I think the US scene needs more sponsors all over the place so we can have more LANs, and more chances for the organizations to send their teams around the world to compete. It's always question about money!

With the recent success in ESEA-Invite of new up and coming teams like Excello US and 9StorM , do you think that this gives hope to the North American scene and proves that teams can still break into the top tier of professional play? Or do you feel that the top tier is still dominated by the same teams season after season? Who do you think will be the breakout team at the LAN Finals next week?

Yeah it’s always good to see new teams climbing their way to the top and trying to compete against the best, but that doesn’t prove anything for me cause the regular season of ESEA takes place online and the format is different than the LAN Finals format (mainly talking about the bo1, pings etc...) so when it comes to the LAN tournament it's normal to see the top teams on top cause they have more experience, more preparation, and they know what to do to not get upset by those underdogs. It still makes the scene more intense and if they keep going like this one day they will be considerate a top team too and fighting for the 1st place will be even harder. About the breakout I hope we will be the upset at those finals like we did last season because I don’t consider myself as a favorite.

With the recent roster upheaval for compLexity, the only team that stood in your way from first place last season, do you feel that this is your season to win it all? Who do you feel is the top team in North America right now and why?

Not at all, I think compLexity will still be strong and ready for the event since both them and EG went to the IEM World Championships this week, so I’m pretty sure this event was a good preparation for them. This season is going to be much more difficult than the previous one and I think EG is going to be stronger than ever if based on their recent performance at the the IEM. It looks like their boot camp in Germany as well as the addition of Ediz 'goodfornothing' Basol was really good for them, so I definitely think EG will be the team to beat at this finals.

As always I like to make the last question completely random and partially embarrassing, If you were stranded on a deserted island, with your essential needs such as water and food taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?

I will definitely take some shaving cream and a razor to shave my big beard lol.

Just wanna do some shootouts , to all the Loaded staff one more time thanks for their support. Specially Rx31 and freytag, my current teammates, all my friends and you for the interview!