friberg: "Our only goal is to win"

Since winning the last major, ESL One Cologne, Ninjas in Pyjamas have been going through a slump in form, which has seen them miss out on places at the LAN Finals of both FACEIT and fragbite Masters.

NiP's last LAN appearance also ended in frustration as the Swedish giants bowed out of DreamHack Stockholm in the group stage after finishing behind Titan and LDLC.

With DreamHack Winter's $250,000 in just a month's time, NiP will approach the ESWC finals hoping to get back to winning ways and reclaim the title they won in 2012. At last year's ESWC event, the team's road to glory was cut short following a 0-2 defeat against VeryGames in the semi-finals of the tournament.

In this interview, Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg talks about NiP's preparation for the French event, the team's current form and also their biggest threats in Paris, among other topics.

How have you prepared the ESWC finals? Do you feel adequately prepared for this tournament?

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg: We have been changing a lot of stuff recently, so most of our time has gone to preparing tactics and getting used to this new way to play. We have been bootcamping for a few days and it feels like we are getting back to the level we want to reach.

Last year, you could not defend the title you had won in 2012. This time around, the tournament will have a lot more teams and a much bigger prize pool. What are your expectations going into the event?

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg When we go into a tournament our only goal is to win. It is good for the game that teams are coming from all around the world, CS:GO is growing a lot!

Your recent results have been somewhat mixed: you could not qualify for the FACEIT Finals and you crashed out of DH Stockholm in the group stage. What seems to be the issue and what is the team doing in order to tackle it?

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg We have been playing a lot recently, bootcamping and analysing our own game and we asked ourselves how we want to play the game. We are trying to make the game style fit our players, which is something we have lacked recently.

Sometimes, even if the team is not playing at its best, it seems that you still manage to overcome a lot of obstacles. That was the case in Cologne, for example. What is the secret behind this?

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg I think that has a lot to do with our mentality and experience. We have been in those situations for a long time and we know that every game can always be won.

Your Swedish rivals fnatic just came out on top of the FACEIT Finals. Do you think they will be your biggest threat in the tournament? If not, who then?

Fnatic have been looking strong recently, but I am not sure if they are the biggest threat. I think both Titan and LDLC will be performing well in the tournament since they have the home soil advantage.

What do you make of the results in Milan? Were you surprised by anyone? What comes to mind when thinking about the event?

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg Of course I am suprised by the results of iBUYPOWER, they looked really solid and I am looking forward to seeing them play at ESWC to see if they can repeat their performance.

Do you think that not attending the FACEIT Finals could turn out to be an advantage for you, since you had time to study those teams closely and they will not have much time to change their stratbook?

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg I think it's both positive and negative, the teams that attended FACEIT are just coming off a LAN so they have time to change what did not work out well for them, which means that they could potentially be even stronger at ESWC, while we have spent most of our times focusing on our own game.

Many were surprised to see your team quitting ESEA Invite. Is a packed schedule really becoming an issue for professional teams? Is this league not attractive anymore? Or a little bit of both?

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg We decided to drop out of the league because we wanted to prioritize other tournaments and improve our own game.

You have been placed in the same group as the ESWC France winner, HellRaisers, CPH Wolves, KaBuM and E4US. Can you go through each team one at a time, and tell us what you think about them, and your chances against them?

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg HellRaisers are looking really strong with the addition of s1mple and are really tough to play against. We know we can beat them and we have done so many times before.

CPH Wolves are a bit of a question mark, since they changed their lineup recently and brought in a lot of talent. Their players want to prove themselves and I think they will suprise a lot of teams.

KaBuM have experience in the form of FalleN so you can never count them out, but it will be interesting to see how they play against good european teams.

E4US are a question mark as well, I am not sure how well they can compete with the other teams but I guess time will tell. 

You can never count any team out at a big LAN tournament, anything can happen in a bo1!

It has been more than two months since you added pita as a strategy adviser. What do you make of this move so far and how much has it changed the team’s playing style?

Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg We have gained a lot from adding pita. Playing with the same players for a long time might cause you to run out of ideas on what to do. Adding pita has been really good for us since he has brought in a lot of new things we have been working on and he's a really smart player so he gives us a lot of feedback on situations, etc.

Ninjas in Pyjamas will play their first match of the ESWC finals on Friday, against Copenhagen Wolves, at 09:30 . Stay tuned to HLTV.org for full coverage of the French event.