natu joins NiP as coach

Last week, Joona "⁠natu⁠" Leppänen called time on his long career as a professional player to focus on his family, which no longer allowed him to put in the necessary number of hours of practice with his team every day.

In his official announcement, natu stated that he would remain involved in the scene in a different capacity, which led the speculation that he could embrace casting full time after working as a commentator for PGL during the CCS Kick-off season, including last weekend's offline finals.

However, the Finnish veteran has instead decided to coach Ninjas in Pyjamas' team, who finished third behind Team SoloMid and fnatic in Bucharest.

In the Swedish team, natu will work with countryman and former team-mate Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli, who joined NiP in February as a replacement for Mikail "⁠Maikelele⁠" Bill.

"A new chapter begins in my eSports career, a challenge I'm very much looking forward to taking and to give my all," he said in a statement.

"It is going to be great to work with some of the most talented CS:GO players on the planet.

"Winning in Counter-Strike on the very top is about limiting your mistakes and looking into every detail thouroughly.

"I'm here to make sure we are always ready for our battles in the game and mentally."

The arrival of natu means that the Swedish organisation will be parting ways with Faruk "⁠pita⁠" Pita, who was hired in August as a strategy adviser to the team. During his first months in the job, he actively followed the team to offline events, but work commitments saw him become less and less involved over time.

Everything always come to an end. Thank you @NiPGaming for an awesome experience. Unfortunately I couldn't focus on the team due to my work.

— Faruk 'pita' Pita (@farukpita) April 27, 2015

natu should be making his first official appearance as NiP's coach later this week as the team will attend the FACEIT League finals, in London.