KC Extra on Karmine Corp's season: "I’m really proud of all of them."

Alexandre "Extra" Paoli joined Karmine Corp ahead of RLCS 2026. With only half a season of experience coaching under Team BDS, the former Rocket League World Champion was a relative newcomer to the role. He has since presided over a Karmine Corp squad that has won the Kick-off Weekend and Paris Major this season, while driving the team to be a constant contender for events as vocal and animated coach on the stage. Having won the First Touch Award for Coach of the Year, Extra joins a long line of successful Francophone coaches who also achieved much in their careers as professional players.

Sheep Esports spoke with Extra following Karmine Corp’s exit from the World Championship Playoffs. The Frenchman reflected upon the tournament as a whole, his development as a coach over the season and how easy it was to coach this squad.

Alexandre "Extra" Paoli: “Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed with the result but I feel like the whole tournament was great for us and we fell short in the semi finals. It happens, I can’t blame my players for stressing a bit, these are really stressful games obviously. I know we had what it takes to be World Champion this year, but it's going to be better next year.

Extra: I don’t think there is a mental block especially for any teams, but there might be for the top four to be honest. There is a big difference between being in the semi finals and the grand finals of a World Championship. Maybe there is a bit of an unconscious block mentally that we might need to fix to go further into tournaments. But there are no issues regarding any other teams.

Extra: I’ve enjoyed it a lot to be honest. I’m really proud of myself because I feel like I’m a way different coach from the beginning of the year compared to now. I’m very experienced now. For my skill set I would say I’m quite strict to be honest and that makes the players want to push over the limits all the time. I’m also a nice human being, which makes the players really comfortable to have fun around me, talk to me and be comfortable with me. It creates a nice group. They also know the switch from being funny to: ‘it's time to work and it's time to be serious’. I like listening to them and I also like to play the role of…I wouldn’t say psychologist but ‘okay you can talk to me’. I also have an amazing view of the game, I have been a top player myself and I know the game so well, that it's great for players to have me. I’m proud to coach top players like this because it's impressive to see them play.

Extra: To be honest, it's really easy to coach Atow and Vatira. They’ve been playing for so long together that they know so much about each other without them saying anything. This is really easy. The most difficult part was bringing Juicy (Charles Sabiani) into the roster at the beginning of the year. It was difficult for him and difficult for me as well because I was replacing Ferra (Victor Francal). It's different types of coaching and playing, so we have to get used to it throughout the season to get to this point and I believe we did a great job. Coming back to your question, they have been the easiest to coach, Vatira and Atow; Juicy as well. I don’t want to discredit him [Juicy], he’s been mentally strong all season. Everybody critiques him so I’m really proud of him and I’m really proud of all of them.”