Ninjas in Pyjamas are excited to play with Swedish prodigy but don’t want to reveal details about roster and roles.
NiP had great start at ESL Pro League Season 15. After 1st place in the group Swedish team is waiting for their opponents in the quaterfinals. But not recent games and future match-ups were main topics to discuss during NiP press-conference. After group stage of ESL journalists asked Hampus and others about Brollan's signing, changes in the roster and possible comeback of Dev1ce.
REZ: "We are obviously about to try to switch things up"
How is the practice going right now? You obviously have to practice with phzy, but at the same time, you have to integrate Brollan.
Hampus: We've been practicing with Brollan for the RMR. And now we're going to use the days we have here to practice with phzy to get back on track with the things we had before. So we'll see how it goes.
REZ, you are one of the top performers so far at ESL. How do you rate your own game lately?
REZ: It's been easy right now to get into the flow.
And I've had Hampus with me to set up stuff. He's helped me out to perform. And yeah, I'm just finding my flow at the moment. It's been great.
You have talked before about finding consistency in your game. Maybe this year you will do it.
REZ: Yeah, hopefully. Obviously, it's something I strive for, working on hard. I'm putting in hours and trying to figure it out. But you're always going to have downs and lows. But I'm just trying to put a lot of effort into finding this consistency to keep going. I'm still working on.
Talking about Hampus setting you up. Has something changed a bit in your roles or positions going into this year? Since your results, or performance has been better.
REZ: Yeah, we are obviously about to try to switch things up. We will see how it goes in the RMR in the future. But other than that, it's not anything special. He's putting in hours into the game, analyzing and working hard, pretty much.
Hampus: "I really wanted to play with Brollan ever since he left me in Red Reserve"
Hampus, from your knowledge and experience of playing against him, what kind of player is Brollan?
Нampus: I played with Brollan as well. So I know him for before. I think he's a very aggressive player. And he likes to take initiative, not afraid to make a call, even if it's the wrong one. So that's very nice. It gives me more space to not have to make the call all the time. Maybe he will be the guy running in first and I won't have to do it every time now. It's super nice. He is a super good player, the best player in Sweden, so it's nice to get him.
What does it mean for NiP as the roster itself to get Brollan?
Hampus: Brollan is the best player in Sweden. So if you want to be the best Swedish team, you should have the best Swedish player.
I know that you have been close since before. So how's it been like for you to bring him into the team?
Hampus: I really wanted to play with Brollan ever since he left me in Red Reserve. All these years back. So yeah, getting to play with him again. It's almost like a dream come true. It's super nice to play with him.
What's the team going to look like?
Hampus: You'll see!
phzy: "I'm very motivated to get back to a tier-1 team"
phzy, now with Brollan coming in, you're probably going to go back to playing for the Academy team. But pretty much you have gotten used to playing in tier-1 level by now. What's it going to be like for you to go back to playing with the academy team?
phzy: I've already played some matches with the academy just now, between the group stage and the playoffs.
It's a great confidence boost, to be honest, kind of finding my identity as a player myself. I think it will help me on the team here as well.
How motivated are you to get back to a tier-1 team?
phzy: Of course, I'm very motivated. And I'll always do my best to reach my goals.
es3tag: "I wouldn't mind facing my friends from Heroic"
There were a lot of teams with standins in your group. And a lot of teams you are inexperienced against. I was wondering, what is it like preparing for these unfamiliar teams and teams with standins?
Hampus: Of course, it's a bit hard because you don't know how they would play. If the stand-in will just take the positions of the guy who's not there, or if they would change things around. But most of the time we just do our own preparation. We focus on our own game and what we did last game. Just focus on our own game instead of trying to guess what they will do.
In the next matchup, you will go up against either Heroic or Liquid. Which team will suit you the best?
es3tag: Either team will do fine. I don't think we're worried about either one. I think Heroic is a way stronger team. And it’s also Dane versus Dane. Usually, it’s a wild match, I know that from personal experience. So it can go anywhere.
If anything, we have to beat the best to win this tournament.
So I wouldn't mind facing my friends from Heroic. I think it would be one of those matches where we'd be screaming back and forth as well because we're sitting next to each other. So it could be great fun as well.
djL is a new member. How is the team doing with a new coach?
es3tag: It's working great. I think djL has implemented a system within this team where we're doing a lot more stuff together. We're more of a unit now than we were before. He's been really good at making sure that we're all meeting up at the same time.
Also, within the game, if someone is doing stuff out of line, not what we're supposed to be practicing, he's not afraid to speak up. I think it contributes to the fact that he's Swedish, but he's outside the Swedish culture. I think that's been super important for us.
How is communication inside the team going for you personally? Keeping up with your Duolingo streak?
es3tag: Yes, I am! But I think more than anything helps the fact that I'm speaking it every single day. So every single day I'm learning something new. The more muscle memory becomes, the easier it will become for me to play CS:GO as well. It feels like I'm living in Stockholm sometimes because my entire day is Swedish. It's an uphill climb, but it's going faster and faster.
Plopski: "Brollan is gonna take most of my positions"
Plopski, you and Brollan have pretty similar playstyle. Do you worry about it with him coming in?
Plopski: Not really. I've played a bunch of different roles ever since I came into NIP.
Obviously, Brollan was playing pretty similar roles with me before this tournament, so he's gonna take most of my positions. I'm going to go back to a little bit of a support lurk-ish role, which is fine for me.
I've never done it before, but so far, it's been going pretty well for me. I'm just feeling overall confident in my own gameplay this year so far, so I can play most of the roles and feel comfortable.
Do you feel you get stronger as a player by trying out all of the different roles?
Plopski: Yeah, I've been playing a bunch of different positions. And of course, some positions are harder than others. I'm not really comfortable in all my positions yet, but after a while, it's been feeling better. I'm feeling a lot stronger as an individual player right now than I did before.
We can see that Dev1ce is back playing FPL. Has he practiced with the team after comeback?
All: No. Negative.
Stay tuned to esports.gg to see how Hampus and Brollan will play together.