When NIP signed Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen and Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov, it seemed their roster troubles of the previous two years were finally over. With Hampus “hampus” Poser no longer burdened by the role of in-game leader, he was free to be a star and maximise his impact on the game.
However, since then, roster instability has continued to trouble the Swedish organization, with hampus stepping back for personal reasons and controversial Dane Kristian “k0nfig” Wiennecke coming into the squad in his place.
Initial results were less than impressive, but afternow having more time with k0nfig, how are NIP shaping up as a team? We spoke with their coach, Daniel “djL” Narancic, about the development of the roster and their expectations for the next few months.
BLAST.tv: The lineup has been changing for a while now; how much of a benefit is it to the team that it now seems to be stabilizing?
djL: "We haven’t had a stable roster for a while now, which did hurt us alot in the long run.Having a stable roster now feels good, even though the results haven’t gone our way yet and we’ve lost against teams we shouldn’t have, I’m still confident that we will be a strong team in the future if we keep on working on the important aspects of the game."
BLAST.tv: You struggled in the team's first outing with k0nfig at Katowice; what's changed since then?
djL: "When we played in Katowice k0nfig had only played 3-4 practices with us, and I remember we had to show in some callouts before the games. We were definitely not ready, but I think the experience with each other was good, and we could see what kind of player k0nfig is and also how he is in official games. I would say what changed the most is the roles in the team, to get the five players we have in the positions it makes the most sense."
BLAST.tv: How well is headtr1ck adapting to tier one CS? Where does he need to improve?
djL: "headtr1ck is like a sponge, he really wants to learn and I still think it is early days for him, he needs to fail and he needs to learn from his mistakes from the games he is playing. I think that in the future, he will be one of the strongest AWPers in the world. He is young, he grinds alot and it’s easy to talk to him about his mistakes. We’re still trying to make him as comfortable as possible."
BLAST.tv: There are a number of aggressive riflers within the team; how did you go about deciding upon roles for the team?
djL: I won’t lie to you, it was hard. We had alot of talks, I had alot of talks with people and I think the roles with have now are the ones that make the most sense for our team.
BLAST.tv: Spring Groups were a difficult experience for the squad; how disappointed were you with your time there?
djL: I always want to win, I’m always disappointed when we don’t, and I always think about what I could have done better to help the team. Even though we’ve had alot of changes and we had to start all over again so many times I still see the hunger in the players and they want to win.
BLAST.tv: What are the expectations for Showdown?
NIP: Our expectations for Showdown is to play the CS we want to play, if we do that we will be fighting for the spot at Spring Finals.
BLAST.tv: Looking ahead to the RMR, what are your expectations for that?
djL: Qualifying from the RMR is the only thing, we have had like 3-4 weeks now with k0nfig so we still have few weeks to improve, and I think we did that alot so not qualifying would be a failure.
BLAST Premier Spring Showdown begins today. The Ninjas will face off against OG at 16.30.
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