Hi Fifflaren, you made a name for yourself early on thanks to the various teams you played for including Adastra, Volt Gaming, Dignitas or Check Six. You also participated to the CGS with Berlin Allianz. After all those years, what keeps you motivated?



Hi! Well it’s hard to say really, I was really de-motivated during 2010-2011 due to the Swedish scene, we really did not have that many great players to choose from which was sad, because I’ve always wanted the Swedish scene to be strong internationally so I was on the edge of quitting until CS:GO came out and the 1.6 players decided to go over, that actually gave me the drive to play and compete again, and also to know that my teammates are also very motivated to succeed helps a lot. No one of us wants to have a poor event or a poor performance, so it’s always easier to have 4 other individuals pumping you up, so I owe a lot to them for the motivation I have today. Since NiP was reborn, you have been playing with guys who won virtually everything on 1.6. Who's got more to teach? What tips did you give and what tips did you receive?



Well when we first started CS:GO the 1.6ers needed a lot of assistance in regards to the Source engine and how it works in general. I think this was one of the main reasons why they brought me in as the in-game leader, if you just look a our first event together (IOS Stockholm) You can really tell that we we’re not that great, and obviously it takes time to adapt to a new game with new physics involved, so I think that the 1.6 players that we do have learned a lot from both me and also friberg in the beginning, as for what tips I got from the 1.6ers is obviously a variation on how to play the economy a little bit better as well as how to control certain situations, in Source it was always a little bit easier just to hold in your mouse 1 button and hope for the best, even at the peak of my career I still find myself learning new things every day and how people think. I think that the 1.6ers have a more hands on thinking style, where as to Source we have a more planned out style on what to do on rounds, where to throw those smokes and flashes, I think that’s why our team is so good at the moment, because we are really mixing these things up and it’s really paying off!



In August of 2012, your teammates and you decided to switch on CS:GO, with Heaton as a manager. You made your come back under the legendary name Ninjas In Pyjamas. What compelled you to play CS:GO, and what do you think of the game today ?



Well to be honest, the first time i tried CS:GO I wanted to throw my keyboard out the window, but it’s been improved a lot since then. I think the main reason for me to switch over so early was because of the offer I received, due to my lack of motivation at the end of Source, I felt that I needed a change if I wanted to keep playing competitively. As for what I think oft he game today, well I feel that they have improved it a lot. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the CS:GO devs twice already to give feedback and also to get information on how their mindset is to the game. There are still some minor things that needs to be fixed, but I really do enjoy this game and it’s fun to play! Which is something that’s really crucial for me, if I didn't enjoy playing then I probably would have thrown in my towel already. So I really want to give a big thanks to valve for really trying to make the game big, something that they failed to do for Source!



Since DreamHack Valencia, you won all the events you attended to. Each time you played against VeryGames in grand final. What do you think of this team ? What do you think they lack to be able to beat you ?



I really respect VeryGames as a team and organisation, they are a great bunch of people and they are worthy opponents for us, they were a power house in Source for the last few years of Source, being pretty much unbeatable at every single event they attended. I think that they were that one team who was always motivated to come back with a win and they put the time down to make sure that it happened. Which is something that pretty much everyone else was lacking, that drive and passion to be the best. As for for them not being able to beat us, I think that it’s hard to play us in general, since our style of play is something that most people are probably not used to, it gets quite hard to counter us and to read what we might be doing, and of course don’t forget that we have 3 of the worlds best 1.6 players who’s been known for their insane rifle aim as well as friberg who was undoubetly one of the best source aimers at the end, he didn't get enough credit in Source, but it’s really not that easy to be in a team that expects him to drop 30 every game and if that doesn't happen they lose and suddenly he’s a poor player.. doesn't make that much sense! Like NBK told me after the DHW finals, he said that he felt like CKRAS in Source, they also came second a bunch of times behind VeryGames and I think it gets harder to play against a team that you constantly lose to, like a mental block. But I really do feel that they are also improving every single time we play them and I think that they just need to have patience and to keep playing, they have 5 great players and I think that they are adapting to CS:GO well, I do however feel that they are worrying too much about us and not taking into consideration of other teams, which might hurt them in the end.

A lot of 1.6 players, such as ESC, Fnatic or Na'Vi are switching on CS:GO. Mixing 1.6 and CSS players seems to work for you. Do you think this is what made you reach this level today ?



I think that it gave us an edge in the beginning, since we were able to teach each other a lot of things, and fort he teams switching over: I don’t think it’s NEEDED to mix 1.6 and Source players, but it does help a lot. Will most likely just take a little bit of extra time if you chose not to, but it’s the same thing here, as long as the teams have patience and are motivated to improve and to go in with the mindset that this is not 1.6 or CS:Source anymore, this is a new game and you need to keep that mindset, otherwise you will just end up being disappointed and will probably lose some of motivation you had before in 1.6 or Source.



Your will go to Northcon the 15th of December, which would be a nice way to end 2012. There are rumours that you will go to Northcon withou GeT_RiGhT, is it true ? We are indeed going to Northcon, that will be the last event for team NiP this year, there’s a lot of teams attending so it’s going to be a great event to end 2012 with. As for us going to NorthCon without GeT_RiGhT, that is not true. He will indeed be attending the event with us, so we will have the same 5 as the other events we’ve attended. He will however have a break after the event to prepare and undergo his Surgery, which we all know will go well!



All of you are experienced players, with good individuality's; how do you train personally ? How much do you train as a team ? I think it varies from player to player how much we practice outside of regular practice hours with the team so I can only speak about myself, but I try to practice individually as much as time allows me to, which is normally around 1-2 hours per day, I usually try to death match, since I’m AWPing for the team now, which is not something I‘m accustomed to, so death matching to get my zoom_sens in order and to sort out my reflexes a little bit is what I do on my spare time. As for team practice, we practice Sunday – Thursday every week, especially now since there’s been a lot of events recently, and we normally start at around 18:00 CET and finish at 23:00-24:00 CET, so as you can see, we play quite a lot!



Year 2013 looks promising for the cs:go scene, as all the teams are now familiar with the game and gained in experience. What teams do you think will do well ? I really think that ESC, Na’Vi, fnatic and VeryGames will do well, if mousesports keep playing I also see them as a threat, it really just comes down to which teams keep practicing, but I think that any one of these teams will do do good during 2013.



You won 4 international LANs this year, and you seem motivated to win more events in 2013 : which events will you attend next year ? What are the plans for the team and the structure ? Well the only thing we got planned for 2013 is ESEA if we qualify. I believe that the LAN playoffs will be in March, so that is definately something that we want to attend. As for other events, we will just have to see what comes up and if we have the time to attend it. But hopefully there will be some nice big events coming up. Then you will for sure see us there! We have two last questions for you : the technical one and the bonus one. 1.6 players often use to crouch when they are moving. Your players, both from 1.6 and from css do this, why ? What is the real utility of this technique ? Haha, well we used it a lot before Valve decided to Nerf it. We felt that it gave us an edge coming into a duel to spam the crouch a little bit extra to get the model moving, but after the update we can’t really do that anymore, so now we tend not to use the crouch that often, obviously it does happen on occasion that you end up holding down crouch and mouse 1 and hope for the best



Bonus question for our French readers who follow the CS scene since the beginning : does Heaton plays cs:go from time to time ? If so, does he still have what it takes ? Haha! Well HeatoN did actually step-in for us for a week when xizt was away, he actually plays a lot of matchmaking and pub games, but he can still shoot some heads for sure!



Thank you for your time, good luck for Northcon and if you have anything to add this is time for it !



Thanks for the interview! I just like to give a big shout out to NiP-Gaming and the management. Without the work that these 3 guys put in, we would not be able to attend all of these events and focus on our game. I also like to thank our sponsors, BenQ, Telia, CDON, SteelSeries, CKRAS & Orcbite. Big shout out to our fans as well, we love you a lot! And also a big shout out to my girlfriend Anita, I love you and thanks for the support