THREAT: This is why, we are not going with a full Swedish lineup
In a big interview with Pley.gg, General Manager of Ninjas in Pyjamas, Björn "THREAT" Pers talks about the future of NIP’s CS2 team, and how he finds inspiration from the work done in MOUZ in recent years.
It’s the second day of the PGL Copenhagen Major, and for the first time in many years, Ninjas in Pyjamas are not among the teams fighting for glory and another place in the history books. The General Manager of Ninjas in Pyjamas, Björn "THREAT" Pers is waiting patiently while Pley.gg’s journalist is trying to connect the right microphone to the online meeting. As a player, coach, talent, and now part of an Esports Organization on a management level, it is clearly not the first time, that the experienced 35-year-old Swede has dealt with tech issues.
Technical problems are however not the only things, that the relatively new GM for NIP has had to work with since he was hired at the end of September last year.
- We had a team that had stopped believing in itself. The cohesion was just very, very poor. So, I sort of had to make the call. I do think it was going to be very, very bad to keep it going forward, even though I would still like to know more what's going to happen in the future, Björn "THREAT" Pers says.
Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin and Hampus "hampus" Poser were the first players, who were cut from the team after Björn "THREAT" Pers joined the organization. A while later the trio of Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke, Patrick "es3tag" Hansen, and Danyyl "headtr1ck" Valitov were also removed from the active roster to begin a complete rehaul of the Ninjas in Pyjamas core.
- Brollan is an excellent example of a player who can be so good in the right environment. And I wasn’t sure that I could create that environment in a very short period of time. I felt it was such a waste to keep him here, while we were still trying to manage things, with the offer from MOUZ coming in, THREAT explained the decision to transfer one of the most talented Swedish players away from NIP.
Inspiration from MOUZ
As our talk moves along with the General Manager of NIP, the MOUZ organization comes up several times. The academy project from the German Organization has been the most successful in the business and is currently a big part of why MOUZ is one of the best teams in the world.
- MOUZ has a very good talent system. Four of their players, everyone excluding Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin, has been in MOUZ NXT before, so they have been schooled in the MOUZ system, so it’s basically just for him (Brollan) to slot in, and that is my end-term goal with NIP to have the same system, Björn "THREAT" Pers explains.
- That is why we put a lot of effort into Young Ninjas last year. We put a lot of hours into vetting players, trying to find the right fits and do a lot of scouting. And I do think that it shows with the results because they have been playing really, really well.
With a very solid rating of 1.23 in 2024, Max "maxster" Jansson has been one of the players, that has impressed the most. The 19-year-old rifler was rewarded last week with a permanent promotion to the main roster.
No full Swedish lineup in sight
It’s hard not to think NIP and Sweden in the same sentence. The organization is rooted in the history of Counter-Strike with the magical core of Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson, Adam "friberg" Friberg, Richard "Xizt" Landström, Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, and Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg who won 87 maps and 10 events in a row from August 2012 to April 2013 before finally losing to Virtus.pro. A record that will most likely never be broken. In recent times we’ve seen fewer and fewer Swedes on the roster, and at the last roster shuffle, one of the survivors was the Spanish in-game leader Alejandro "alex" Masanet, who is still held in high regard in the NIP camp. The decision to keep the former Movistar Riders captain is also an indication of the international path, that Björn "THREAT" Pers has set his sights on.
- To me, it’s quite clear where we are heading as a community in the future. We are getting less and less national teams. So, it’s not because I don’t think that you can’t build a strong Swedish lineup, it’s more a way of future-proofing, so we are not caught in one or two years, where we have to go international to keep up. I mean, I dream about it, but it’s probably as likely as Manchester United playing only with players from Manchester in their lineup. I’m just trying to be pragmatic, and I might be wrong. I hope, I’m wrong, but I don’t think that is the future.
Tomorrow you can read more about the future NIP roster, what kind of budget the Swedes are working with, and how THREAT’s own experience as a coach has influenced the way he works with the NIP coaching staff and roster.
