NIP’s Gnaske on “passion”, IGLing and loving the crowd

Gnaske is one of Apex Legends most iconic players, with so many memorable moments. These come not just as a result of his huge mechanical skill and in game leadership, but also his fun personality. At LAN, Gnaske visibly loves a crowd and is often seen feeding from their energy.

The Dane announced he was taking a break from the game after the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs. Now he is back, recharged and ready to bring a new perspective to his Apex Legends career. esports.gg spoke to Gnaske on the media day of the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs.

You can watch the full interview below:

There are countless LAN clips of Gnaske playing up for the LAN crowd. This has sometimes even cost Gnaske his life in game. He feels he is incapable of ignoring the crowd and staying locked in.

"I don't think I'm able to stay focused. I mean, a lot of tournaments, thinking back on it, even my best tournaments, I see myself at least lose one game because I get super overzealous. But then again, the games where I do play good, it's completely because I'm fired up and because of all of that. It's a double-edged sword, but it definitely leans towards being better than worse."

That energy feeds into Gnaske's teammates, Zaine and Amphy.

"I have really fun teammates. But when it comes to stuff like that, emotions, I'd say they're a little bit stoic. I definitely think it's net positive for sure because if you have a happy teammate, then you're going to be more happy subconsciously, you'll play better because of it.

"So you'll feel more confident and a lot of times confidence is all that matters between the top team and the second top team is who has the most confidence. Happiness just directly correlates into confidence too. So you will feed off each other. If one person is happy, you will become happy. So it definitely is a net positive.

"I think I'd say that they benefit more from a crowd than the average Apex player too, just like me."

Gnaske is also responsible for one of the most iconic Apex Legends moments in recent history. In a heated endgame, he expressed his frustration with the lack of coordination amongst his team. "You say jump, I say how high" will be a forever remembered quote.

Since then, Gnaske says lots of work has gone on to balance out communication. This has included Gnaske not having total responsibility for their teams "macro" calls in game.

" It's been working out really good. I had this epiphany a few weeks back where I was like, what if I teach Amphy macro? What if I teach Amphy to be an IGL if I'm not doing it? Because a lot of people have actually said, like, oh, NIP needs a more direct voice to follow. And where there's no confusion, if you ask my teammates too, it will always be my voice that's followed.

"But I've always had this very open mentality towards comms. And if a teammate makes a assertive enough comm, then that's what we follow every single time. So if I say, let's go east, and Amphy or Zaine screams, go west, go west, go west. That's what we do. But if I say, go east, he says, go west. And I say, no, go east. And again, it's just assertiveness.

"But then I thought about what if I teach Amphy macro then I have someone to bounce ideas off and stuff like that. So I actually like having a more open forum in that type of regards because three brains thinking is better than one brain thinking. I'm a human and I can easily make mistakes.

"But then again, we've also focused, I mean, after that clip also, it's been a massive topic within the team to follow my calls when it is made. And I think I've also become a very, I think a small issue, not the major one, but a small issue was I became a little bit more relaxed in terms of calling. And it's because Zine specifically makes really good calls. So it's very easy to just sit back and like, when Zaine does do a calling, I'm like, I agree with it and just sit back and relax."

"Passion" is a phrase thrown around a lot in Apex Legends, sometimes in jest. However, for professional players it can be a struggle. Playing Apex for hours and hours for so many years isn't as simple as just playing a video game. For Gnaske, that is why he is taking a new approach mentally to his career.

"My passion is good, but I came to the realization a while back, it's a job, right? So it's okay not to absolutely love it, right? I love the fact that I'm able to play games, I love the fact that, you know, all of this stuff, yes.

"But I'm not a little kid playing his favorite video game anymore, it's a job. And that comes with a certain level of acknowledgement and like being able to... you have to view it in a different way. And I think I have a good realization in terms of that. So that adds to the passion."

Stay tuned to esports.gg for full coverage of the ALGS Championship in Sapporo, Japan and all things Apex Legends.