UB Pasameelcelo: "Before UB, GIANTX contacted me to be their academy toplaner [...] I replied too late"

In a difficult split for Universitat de Barcelona in the LES, Jordi “Pasameelcelo” Franco has become one of the most interesting faces of the project. The Andorran toplaner reached the competition through a very unconventional path: amateur teams, soloQ, streaming, and an unexpected call from Xavier “Xixauxas” Fluxà that eventually brought him to the top division.

In this interview with Sheep Esports, Pasameelcelo talks about the team’s current situation, adapting to competitive play, his unusual journey to the LES, and the atmosphere inside a rookie roster that, despite the results, still believes it can surprise people.

Jordi “Pasameelcelo” Franco: “First of all, the passion. The passion behind the project and everyone involved in it. I think the words that define us best are passion and commitment. And then, on top of that, everything we have available to us is insane. The commitment from the people in the project is to make sure we’re as comfortable as possible. The facilities, the support, everything they provide us with… honestly, I only have good things to say about them.

Pasameelcelo: Yeah, well, I’ve actually lived here for many years already. I live in Girona, specifically. I’m from the Girona province, not Girona city itself. And honestly, it was pretty random. I was playing a solo queue game on a Saturday when I got a call from a number I didn’t have saved. The guy tells me: “Bastard, pick up the phone.” And it was Xixauxas. He called me and asked: “Do you want to compete?” And I was like: “Sure.” Then he started explaining the whole plan: that I’d have to properly play in a team environment, leave behind the soloQ player lifestyle of only spamming K’Sante, and fully commit. And I was like: “Full commitment.” He explained everything the project offered, and honestly, I joined the ship instantly.

Pasameelcelo: During the pandemic, I played for several amateur teams, and things started going pretty well for me. Later, some teams contacted me to be a substitute, QLASH, and things like that, but once the pandemic ended, I started university and mostly stopped competing. I still played League, but on and off. When I finished university, since I had always been good at the game and had played for many years, a lot of people told me to start streaming. I finished my thesis and internships and went for it. Honestly, it went pretty well considering I literally came out of nowhere, and opportunities started appearing. Actually, before UB, contacted me to be their academy toplaner. But since I didn’t use Twitter, I took three days to answer, and when I finally replied, Th3Antonio (Antonio Espinosa) told me they already had a toplaner. Then I slowly stopped streaming as much, and right after that Xixauxas contacted me for UB. And now I’m adapting because a lot of players who reach the top division come from years of competitive experience, and that gives you experience I simply didn’t have. I came from basically a year and a half of only playing SoloQ, one-tricking K’Sante, and that’s it. So right now I’m adapting.

Pasameelcelo: I think it depends a lot on the team. Against teams like Falke, or GIANTX, honestly, I don’t think we’re far away at all. Obviously, every team has its own level and strengths. Against Falke, we completely shit the bed, and it was a really rough loss. And then of course against teams like Heretics or KOI… yeah, that’s rough. But against the lower-table teams, I really don’t feel we’re that far away. They’re completely beatable.

Pasameelcelo: It depends a lot on the loss. The Falke one hurt a lot. Like, a fucking lot. Catastrophic levels. The second game against GIANTX also hurt because we basically had it won and trolled it pretty hard. Although it was also our first day, and we were still super green. Still, after a few days and looking at things more calmly, you end up being happier with the work done. But the Falke loss definitely hit hard. Personally, it affected me a lot.

Pasameelcelo: I’d give him a 10 out of 10. Honestly, he surprised me a lot because he understands the game insanely well. The explanations he gives make a ton of sense, and the reviews are really well managed. And beyond that, he manages the team really well. He flames us when he has to, and he does it properly. But he also encourages everyone individually and keeps track of all of us. His level of commitment is insane. Some days, he doesn’t even stream just to do individual sessions with us, look for scrims, or prepare reviews. For example, with me, he’ll spend hours watching LPL toplaners’ VODs even though he’s not a top laner himself and technically doesn’t have to do it. He’ll sit there analyzing matchups and discussing plays with me. Honestly, I only have good things to say about him.

Pasameelcelo: I think it depends a lot on each player. For me personally, I need more experience and more stage games. At the beginning, I was super nervous and now less so, but when you keep losing over and over, sometimes you even start doubting yourself. You think: “Am I really this bad?” And then, as a team, we simply need a lot more work and time. Even though we already work quite hard, we need better coordination, better understanding between us, and more games together. But that’s normal. We’re a really new team. For me personally, even playing a long game against top teams already feels like a win. If against Heretics or KOI a game lasts 35 or 40 minutes, I leave satisfied because I learn way more. Losing in 15 minutes barely gives you any experience.

Pasameelcelo: A lot of things. Individually, I’ve improved a lot since our first scrims. I understand the competitive League way better now. I came from SoloQ, and at first I saw things and thought: “What are these openings? What are these wards?” Now I understand the game much better, even though I still have a ton left to learn. And as a team we’ve also improved a lot, even if it doesn’t look that way from the outside. Our first scrims were an absolute disaster. And outside of competition, I’m really happy because there’s zero bad blood. We all get along really well. Obviously, we get depressed when we lose, but there’s no toxicity or weird shit. If someone has to call somebody out, they do it, but always reasonably. And little by little, we’ve become better at talking things through instead of bottling them up.

Pasameelcelo: It’s definitely been a difficult moment, that’s true. But it’s also true that nobody expects anything from us anymore. And honestly, I think we can absolutely surprise some people. Because we’re not lacking passion. We’re not lacking motivation either. And we’re working really hard. At the end of the day, when you have passion and motivation, everything else eventually comes through hard work. Right now we’ve already hit rock bottom. So either we stay there or we start climbing back up. But motivation and passion definitely aren’t missing, that’s for sure.”