Emil ”HeatoN” Christensen has watched the official aftermovie of ESL One Cologne several times now. In spite of that, it still moves him every time he thinks about that moment in Cologne.

How does it feel to watch this again?

– Honestly, it still brings tears to my eyes. I love the team, they are such amazing guys and it is my personal opinion that they deserved this more than anyone. I have never been as nervous or as happy about a victory as I was that day. It was a tremendously important victory on an individual and organizational basis. This is the legacy of the original NiP, an organization that grows together and supports every individual person. We are not just a team, we are a family.

Why was this specific victory so important?

– Obviously, we came into the ESL as the ”underdogs” and no one really believed in our chances. It is hard to have that pressure on you, as an individual player as well as together, that everyone is constantly watching you through a magnifying glass and expecting you to mess up. The team could have been crestfallen by that pressure, but instead they chose to use that as a motivator to win and crush all doubts about them being the best team in the world. And that is what matters in the end, not how you perform on random online tournaments, but being able to perform when it truly counts. And that’s what they do, time and time again.

Some people have suggested line-up changes, do you have any comment on that?

– Every player in the team has a certain role in their game play that is equally important for the overall win as a team. Why would we want to break up a winning concept? It would make no sense. My ambition with NiP is to offer the players a role that they enjoy within the organization. Right now that role is to be a professional CS:GO player, but in the future they might have other ambitions, as did I when I left the scene. I hope that they will want to stay with us and help build the next generation of NiP when that time comes.