For XERXIA Esports XERXIA Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #26 , consistency has been the name of the game. From their first international appearance at the 2021 Stage 2: Masters Reykjavik, then known as X10 Esports X10 Esports Inactive Vera Rodman Yap Tempz Pierre Heng RedKoh Danial Hakim wayne Wayne Chang Egoist Javier Chua , to victories over LAN champions, XERXIA has always given fans a reason to watch out for them.

The team has made their mark as multi-time Challengers Thailand champions, and are even APAC-wide champions as the winner of the 2021 Stage 2: Challengers SEA Finals.

The roster had solidified themselves as one of APAC's best teams, if not within the entire world. Even with their absence in 2021 Stage 3: Masters Berlin, the roster who was still under X10 shocked the world even further during Champions, upsetting Envy Envy Inactive Marved Jimmy Nguyen Victor Victor Wong crashies Austin Roberts FiNESSE Pujan Mehta yay Jaccob Whiteaker (now OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive ) in their group stage decider match, just before pushing eventual finalist Gambit Esports Gambit Esports Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Chronicle Timofey Khromov d3ffo Nikita Sudakov sheydos Bogdan Naumov nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin in a nailbiting 2-1 loss, resulting in their first top-eight finish at an international event.

X10 (now XERXIA) at Champions 2021 After Champions, XERXIA (then X10) were the darlings of SEA. (Photo: Lance Skundrich/Riot Games)

Coming into the 2022 season, it looked like XERXIA was set to continue the trend of consistency and domination. Coming into Stage 1: Challengers Thailand, XERXIA went on a near-flawless run that set them as Thailand's first seed in the APAC Playoffs. However, their road into Reykjavik wasn't going to be as easy as it was the first time - Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #5 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov was the talk of the town, beating XERXIA cleanly in their upper semifinal match which saw them sent to the lower bracket. They eventually clinched their spot in Reykjavik and met Paper Rex again in the grand final, where a hard-fought Paper Rex became APAC's first seed at the next LAN by beating XERXIA 3-2. The team was to fight from the group stage.

XERXIA was then grouped together with KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #2 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro , Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #12 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak , and OpTic, whom the Thai team would eventually be facing in their opening match. Many saw the Champions rematch as the birth of a new international rivalry, where both teams obliged the call by putting on a great show for the viewers, with XERXIA beating OpTic 2-0 off the back of Nutchapon "sScary" Matarat's performance proving himself as one of the best Controller players in the world.

The team continued on to face Team Liquid, which after a heartbreaking third map overtime loss, put them in the lower bracket, where they once again faced OpTic for the final slot to the playoffs.

Unlike in their previous matchup, OpTic wasn't throwing words and fooling around - they dispatched XERXIA easily and returned the favor with their own 2-0 victory, eliminating XERXIA in their worst international performance yet.

While OpTic did become the Reykjavik champions, XERXIA's thunder as APAC's best team was once again usurped by Paper Rex's fourth-place finish, the highest ever from the region, off the back of some spectacular victories and only marred by a loss from another amazing story in ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori .

Returning from their international excursion, it was once again business as usual for XERXIA, completely dominating Challengers Thailand on their way to becoming the region's first seed once again. After a relatively easy group stage qualification to the playoffs, XERXIA met an old face that was missing from Stage 1 - Team Secret Team Secret Asia-Pacific Rank #8 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes JessieVash Jessie Cuyco Wild0reoo Brheyanne Christ Reyes 2GE James Goopio Jremy Jeremy Cabrera . The other SEA representative in Champions last year had a downturn during the last stage and were red hot coming to the playoffs. It was proven by them surprising everyone, beating XERXIA, and sending the Thai champs to the lower bracket.

Deja vu struck for the Thai roster as they clawed back through the lower bracket, eventually meeting Team Secret once again in their qualification match to Copenhagen - and revenge was served by XERXIA. They then met their old rivals Paper Rex in the grand finals, but by then, XERXIA were all out of gas. Paper Rex beat them cleanly as they became APAC's first seed and XERXIA were sent to the LAN's group stage once more.

XERXIA at Masters Reykjavik Consistency - is it a blessing or a curse? (Photo: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

XERXIA will be grouped alongside DRX DRX Korea Rank #3 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) and first-time competitor NORTHEPTION NORTHEPTION Japan Rank #14 , with FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks set to be their first adversary in Copenhagen.

At this point, nobody would argue that XERXIA is a world-class team with an international rapport that can produce awe from spectators and fans alike. However, behind the happy, go-lucky attitude and entertaining, sharp playstyle that we all know and love from them, the team has shown cracks in their once shining armor. They weren't the APAC team to talk about anymore.

Will they redeem their Reykjavik mistakes or will their consistency turn into regular group stage eliminations?