Fifflaren to combine coaching and General Manager roles in Dignitas

21-1-2020 22:24

After the initial announcement of the new Dignitas team, it has been revealed that, on top of coaching, Robin "⁠Fifflaren⁠" Johansson will take on the role of their General Manager.

Initially, it was only announced that the 32-year-old would take up coaching in the new Dignitas project, where he has reunited with four of his teammates from 2012-2014, but a separate announcement has revealed that Fifflaren's job would also include a managerial role.

Along with the second announcement, the organization has released a video embedded below, in which Dignitas' CEO, Michael Prindiville, sat down with the Swede to discuss his transition to the two roles and how the new lineup came together.

Fifflaren will take on two leading roles in Dignitas

From the video, it is clear that Fifflaren had been heavily involved in building the team from the start, as he explained that the idea came from himself and one of his former teammates Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg, who had just departed HEROIC at the time, and shared details on the thought process behind each individual player.

Shifting the focus to the team as a whole, Fifflaren compared his vision to Vitality's approach of putting together four experienced players behind a star AWPer — a role 19-year-old Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli will play in Dignitas —, noting that the former Ninjas in Pyjamas quartet has performed the best when they had a fifth player dedicated to the big green gun.

Fifflaren played alongside the Swedish quartet for over two years at the beginning of CS:GO as part of the legendary roster that went on a 87-map winning streak and won a plethora of events, including the game's third Major, ESL One Cologne 2014. He retired later that year before becoming on-air talent in 2015 and relocating to Los Angeles to join Twitch, where he worked until mid-2019.

Related video:

thats sick

2020-01-21 22:24

32 replies

imagine his salary

2020-01-21 22:27

24 replies

probably pretty huge

2020-01-21 22:29

23 replies

Player salaries are reaching US$30,000/mo for top orgs like TSM (should they still have had a roster), Cloud 9, North, Complexity, Fnatic, etc. Some teams probably even better (Astralis). I would imagine a dual role like that he'd probably easily make the same if not more given the time investiture two significant roles will take him. Coach is already a time-consuming post - let alone having to manage everything in the background. Personally, I think it's idiotic. The two should definitely be separate roles in order to properly focus. Two minds would combine better in terms of scouting, trades, etc - than one individual mind. In addition, he needs to focus on overall team strategy, understanding each player's role and capabilities, demo reviews and analysis of other teams, etc. He shouldn't REALLY be concerning himself with things like hotel and flight bookings.

2020-01-21 22:35

22 replies

Dont forget the fact these guys can “multitask” They cant even “coach” like a real coach should do. Looking at ynk lmao. Zonic does it 200%. If u do it properly u cant add the role of general manager to it so im guessin fiffy wont do it properly afterall. Not doable 😂

2020-01-21 22:34

20 replies

There are numerous coaches that also act as a defacto GM. It's not for everyone but it's doable.

2020-01-21 22:40

11 replies

There is the saying in Agile Development where you have SCRUM Masters to coach teams through: A good Scrum master can handle 2-3 teams at the same time. A great SCrum master only handles one. Same goes for coaches. As soon as you split their attention / job their work as coach suffers. That being said - I don't think it matter in this team. They are not aiming to be Top 1 or even Top 5

2020-01-21 22:50

8 replies

Agreed. They aimed for easy paychecks and dignitas aimed for a big fanbase and hopes to sell alot of merch and jerseys now

2020-01-21 23:11

3 replies

as stupid as it is - I'll watch their games more than any team in the top 10 most likely.... not gonna help them, I have never bought CSGO merchendise in my life

2020-01-21 23:13

2 replies

I dont really watch csgo anymore. I like to watch the big tournaments but even then i find it rather boring. I quit playing myself, maybe thats why. But csgo is getting stale imo

2020-01-21 23:19

1 reply

NIP TOP1 MIBR TOP 2 FURIA TOP 3 INC

2020-01-22 00:54

I mean I am talking the best of the best and idk if Fiff can get there. People like Bill Bellicheck can juggle both. If you're really really good at what you do and live and breathe by that job it's possible. Not everyone has that kind of ability though,

2020-01-21 23:44

tbh that Bellicheck example is a really good point.

2020-01-22 11:31

Agile talks in hltv, I really have seen everything here lol Even though your example is good

2020-01-22 08:58

Sorry - that was just what came to my mind :D

2020-01-22 11:30

If you're not popping off and dominating teams like Astralis, then you have work to do. The last thing you need to do is be worrying about the backend support for the team. It'll be a few months before any of these players gets the ax. It's an AMAZING composition of experience, leadership, and individual skill all rolled into one. Dignitas WILL be the juggernaut that Jason Lake promised lmao. You talk about "coaches and gms". These guys have massive support staffs and involvement from higher up. Given CSGO teams are a small collective of 5-6 players (if you include benched players), the coach should be focusing on what he needs to. There's no reason there can't be backend support to cover off the intricacies of what players need. If f0rest has a mental breakdown, let the manager assist with that (and the support staff that comes with it) and the coach can focus on his replacement and ensuring the team composition isn't destroyed. These things NEED to be separate in my opinion. What's good about Fifflaren is he's a great dude.

2020-01-21 22:55

> doable > being actually good in your job Pick one bruh. U need 200% attention and focus to do one properly. U can do both “good” OR u can do one job at a time “perfect” If it was my dig money i would know what to do

2020-01-21 23:07

There's really only a handful of coaches that I think bring the ACTUAL coaching side of things. The most ideal transition for me is a guy like zonic: He's the highest grossing (and most successful) Danish CS1.6 player in history @ $116,000 in total earnings over nearly a decade of play. He's in his early-mid 30s, while his entire team is like 20-25. He's had the esports experience twice as long as any player he coaches and he's also had the experience to understand what is expected of a professional player and the things they should be concerning their time with in order to succeed. Without a doubt, zonic has a direct and influential impact on his players. They undoubtedly look to him for inspiration and guidance. THAT is the ideal coach that an esports team needs. And he's responsible for 5 players and their individual in-game development. Managers aren't responsible for that. They're responsible for ensuring their players are psychologically and physically looked after and to ensure the coach has all he needs to make his team successful. Dual-rolling it is actually a degradation of both roles and to be frank, doesn't show the outside world that esports is a serious thing. If they want CSGO to be taken seriously as a front-line esport in the global view going forward, there needs to be clearly defined administrative roles like in any professional sport. I mean for fuck sakes, Cloud9 has had a Coach, Manager, Analyst, "Head of Data Science" (which now works for EG), and now ASSISTANT coach. That's 5 roles to back up the team and we're not even talking physiotherapists, psychologists, cooks, physicians, etc. The coach needs to do what the coach needs to do. His role is already integral as a part of player development. It's actually a disservice to Fifflaren, the players, and the fanbase to not have the two separate. That's my analytical opinion. Administrative roles: Coach, Manager, Analysts (very beneficial for crunching time-consuming data collection into consumable information for the coach and players), and shit then assistants if they need it. This is rather silly and actually slights the seriousness of CSGO's backends as a proper esport. This isn't fucking NiP in 2013. These orgs are backed by multi-billion dollar franchises now. Complexity is owned by the fucking Dallas Cowboys - the most lucrative franchise in the world worth over $5 Billion. A few hundred thousand a year for a valuable position is NOTHING now in esports for these orgs with their financial backings. I'd be hiring fucking 3-5 1.6/GO pros to analyze and assist - just so the players and coach can focus directly on their main responsibility: to win. In particular, Dignitas. They're owned by the fucking Philadelphia 76ers lmao. A billion-dollar NBA team.

2020-01-21 22:46

5 replies

+1. Shame its all for nothing since dig wont get too serious in this game..

2020-01-21 23:05

Agreed. Orgs and their owners doesn’t look at e-sport the right way right now. Many already existing management methods can be applied to this branch but owners are yet to see that esport teams faces the same needs as many other sports or businesses

2020-01-21 23:18

Haven’t seen such an argumented and wise comment on HLTV yet, bravo.

2020-01-21 23:42

Well look at c9 with their 20 managers, analysers etc... they are a fucking bot team..

2020-01-22 23:58

TL;DR The consistency of teams comes down to the management that's enforcing proper results to match their level of play and compensation from said orgs. You got kids who are not winning trophies, or being the top performers on their squads are the ones sitting in FPL all night streaming for clout when the real expectation should be to have them grinding until they're consistently winning. I fervently believe that a good squad without proper managerial support will not stay on track and will not perform at their optimal level. If orgs care more about advertisement revenue built off their brand from 8 other top-performing esports, then they don't really care about their results in CSGO, do they? C9 is the wealthiest org in the world. They can afford the best squads in the world. Why haven't they hired a few guys to scout around the player base of millions and find 5-6 guys who would dust a player like Stew on a regular basis? Recycling the same inconsistent pros is getting stupid, now. In recent years, some of the most consistent performers came out of the woodworks and performed almost immediately. Players like ZywOo, coldzera, etc. Those are the hidden gems that orgs need to focus on finding, signing, and developing. Players like Shahzam have had ample time to be the best and just can't optimally perform. They don't deserve the opportunities. Too much FPL goofing off, not enough direct practice... It's funny, you don't see Astralis players sitting in FPL all day streaming and goofing off. But look who's winning trophies at the end of each month? The longer explanation: It comes down to the players. You can slap a jersey on a group of 5 free agents, but if they're just plainly not as skilled as teams like Astralis, Liquid, and Fnatic, then they'll never really break into that tier - despite their org repping tier 1 squads in 8 other games, or even having a major under their org belts. That's the hard truth. Letting autimatic go, for example, was not a wise decision. They should have maintained him and picked up the ATK squad with the exception of whichever of the 5 they could sacrifice. In no way were they going to replace that specific position with a better player. It just was not going to happen with ATK. The unfortunate thing for C9 is that of their major roster, they quickly fell apart and dispersed afterwards. And it just deteriorated from there. Stew had a prima donna fit and moved. tarik went to a direct rival, RUSH had a ridiculous performance drop, and Skadoodle couldn't make his goddamn mind up on what he wanted to do with life. It was a real unfortunate series of events that cost them their entire roster with the exception of their best player, auti. You can put 20 support staff behind the bench, but if you cannot adequately replace a bunch of top performers, you'll never get the same results from a makeshift roster. Now, let's talk support staff. Imagine teams investing in actual scouting programs. I'm talking guys watching for the uncut gems from the semi-pro or even global elite level who are not discovered yet. With millions of players, it seldom makes sense to me that all these teams are vying for the same recycled pros, over and over again. Their team switch histories are astounding. There NEEDS to be consistency in esports for it to be taken seriously. I'm talking more players like f0rest making a 20-yr career out of esports instead of 2 years. Fanbases are almost non-existent in CSGO. IF you're not the #1 team, or within top 10, you pretty much have no fans lol. It's not like that in the professional sports world. Even non-EPL teams have mass followings in football - despite the fact they're not even competing at the highest level of comp. Most of the NFL hates the patriots. But in CSGO, Astralis is probably the most beloved team out there, for the simple fact they succeed and they've proven their consistent with their roster and results. And half their fans were fans of North when North beat Astralis last year to clinch a premier tourney... Or fans of C9 when they won a major, or fans of Fnatic in 2015, or fans of NiP in 2013. The amount of bandwagon hopping in esports is a direct result of the lack of continued consistency of orgs during that time. Think of you and your buddies. Would it even be tolerable for one of them to switch teams due to a shitty year of performance? No. But in esports, everybody wants to cheer for the best team. "Fanbases" are a literal joke for the majority of esports fans that pick their teams based on who's successful in that era, lol. I never personally liked that about esports and I blame the orgs first and foremost for being more interested in revenue generated from advertisement revenue (most of the money funding esports teams) that's guaranteed if you have a global brand in 5-6 other esports, and even if your CSGO squad is shit, you still have the money from those sponsors to make bank - despite sacrificing performance because it's more work than just making bank off your brand's success in other sports. When you have a team win the ECS Finals one month and then drop off the next 6 months, how can an organization expect fans to get behind them if they are not even doing their best to ensure consistent results and a climb forward in performance? It's blatantly unacceptable for a team to go up and down constantly. Lock in to long term contracts, replace problems one-by-one, spend the millions it takes for an Astralis roster, and get the results your fanbase wants. It's wholly unacceptable for example, that Liquid can win premier tournament after premier tournament, and then perform poorly in the biggest tournaments of the year. It's just not an acceptable result. For sustainability of direct fanbases and more importantly, the prestige of titles, orgs need to be more diligent in ensuring they are on top of their squads and getting the most out of them. Underperforming needs to be scrutinized immediately and dealt with accordingly. These guys are making $30,000/month now. This isn't 2013 NiP where the players are making $1k/month and getting $5k penalties for having girlfriends. No, these guys are making legitimate salaries to perform well. Get your ass out of FPL and into a practice server and work until you CAN beat Astralis 3x in a row. Then again, it all comes down to org management and what they want out of these guys. It's funny, you don't see Astralis players sitting in FPL all day streaming and goofing off. But look who's winning trophies. I'm going to assume I'm in a very small minority of mindset in this, either way, lol.

2020-01-23 02:29

There are different types of coaches. Some are the hype man, some are the analyst, some are there to offer up ideas when the igl gets stuck, etc.

2020-01-21 22:45

There definitely needs to be multiple roles filled at an administrative level for Tier 1 orgs. Not only is this good for the teams themselves - but it also creates opportunity for former pros (like Fifflaren, zonic, etc - who are in coaching roles). Managers, analysts, etc, are IDEAL for retired pro players. Once they lose their edge clicking pixels, they can use their experienced minds to help propel a team forward. We're of course making strides in that direction - but these kinds of decisions are definitely a disservice to the team in general. In my humble opinion.

tsm gonna pay tier 7 na pros, 30k/month. lol

I dont think thats sick... This is just squeezin out the milk Bad move by dig. Ex nip dino’s happy to get free paychecks. Ur playin for fun and get paid lmao 😂

2020-01-21 22:33

I wouldnt consider it a bad move to give actual power to a GM/coach to manage the roster to avoid players taking bad roster decisions themselves based on friendships or feelings. However, Fifflaren in a roster with GTR, forest and friberg doesn't seem to quite fall into that scenerio to be honest. I wouldnt imagine him cutting friberg for example if he starts playing terrible. So yeah, weird move by Dignitas.

2020-01-21 22:42

4 replies

the whole point of this is they dont cut anyone

2020-01-21 22:48

They wont cut anyone. Thats the whole point. Play for fun with good ol friends And dig thinks they will play serious and get into majors?? Huge topkek😂😂

2020-01-21 23:02

Nah I don't think they believe that. I think this is just an easily promoted team which will atract several sponsors since they'll have tons of fans watching every game and they'll get invited to a lot of top tier tournaments because of that. I want to believe they are not that naive to think this roster will be copetitive in tier1

+1 this team would get like 7 rounds max per map vs teams like liquid, astralis and mouz

2020-01-22 14:26

Fiffffyyyy!!!

2020-01-21 23:00

LOL

sick

Cool

Nice

2020-01-21 22:25

NICE

Cant Wait for this

2020-01-21 22:26

They will win the fall Major!

2020-01-22 06:25

too far

2020-01-22 07:29

haters gonna hate... GO ON MY BOYS... WE GREW UP TOGETHER

thats a lot of tasks at once. gl fiffy

That would be two

ye but biig tasks

2020-01-21 22:36

They literally copy pasted the old nip roster xd

GOAT

2020-01-21 22:30

Robin "MoneyMens))" Johansson

someone remembers the "fiffi" song where he is flying around as a bee and cares about everything? I dont find it anymore and it`s quite fitting since former nip players reunite there

if he is as good coach as fragger than this team can maybe beat defusekids

Who Kappa

2020-01-21 22:31

lol hahaa

What happened to ODEE the other ceo from dignitas???😭😭

2020-01-21 22:32

Didnt he join Rogue?

2020-01-21 22:49

Dignitas vs pasha, NEO, TaZ, byali and Snax pls <333

dig vs arcy

2020-01-21 22:38

fuck arcy, only 2 players of old Golden Five

yeah but the two best ones

Imagine coaching your teammates

You mean like devilwalk did with Fnatic and won major?

And Adren with liquid too, but they never won major tho

2020-01-21 23:38

Yet

2020-01-21 23:58

Wow

daily dignitas related news starting from today.

I am still confused. Hes gonna stay in NA as a coach and the rest will be in Sweden/Norway? lol

2020-01-21 22:37

What's the problem? they don't need to be together in the same place

2020-01-21 23:55

ITS COMING HOME

Oh my god friberg are you kidding me

wow Pog!

Hallzerk speaks swedish since its similar to norwegian right?

2020-01-21 22:56

I was about to ask that question

2020-01-21 23:32

all these nordic people are well educated so they might aswell just talk in english

2020-01-22 01:30

Fifflarens' 3k in Cologne 2014 grand final map <3

2020-01-21 22:59

Can some1 tell me what the salaries are for someone in a top clan like Faze or fnatic/nip per month?

2020-01-21 23:03

7 replies

Now waaay lower than people mention Only teams like astralis with head2head wins and new sponsorship deals every freakin time u can talk about several 10k’s. I truly think all others float around 4/5 (and thats not even after TAX)

2020-01-21 23:09

6 replies

4/5 that was 2k15 , now the lowest is around 15k

2020-01-22 08:37

Confirmed by who?

2020-01-22 10:30

astralis and liquid players definitely make 30k+ a month lmao, astralis gets new sponsors every month and liquid is a massive org and prob the most prestigious org in esports with an incredibly successful merch line much like 100t c9, a tier 2 team that came fresh out of mdl gets like 20k a month per player lmao

2020-01-22 14:28

Yeh? Repeatin me? How bout 90% of other teams? Faze mibr navi mouz. 10k my ass xD😂

2020-01-22 19:08

thats a no brainer with the last sentence i said. if an mdl team gets 20k a month, those teams get 20k+ easily. expected from flag hider tho

2020-01-22 20:00

astra liq c9 bigass orgs behind em, dig also now with the football team, nrg as well (michael jordan), but the rest gets peanuts cuz they be mon..🙈 ur welcum n3rd 😘

2020-01-22 23:15

Yessas

2020-01-21 23:08

hope it's not too much work.

2020-01-21 23:10

meme team 6 superbad players

2020-01-21 23:14

Hahhahaahaha

2020-01-21 23:20

Fifflaren to steal paychecks for a couple of month

2020-01-21 23:22

They are really bringing it back, aren't they...

This is fuken huge

2020-01-21 23:43

so dope

2020-01-21 23:53

next allu leaves ence and joins dignitas

2020-01-22 00:06

actually when hallzerk gets kicked fifflaren will play, then maikalele joins, and only then allu can join

2020-01-22 00:12

True they need to go through the whole cycle again. Problem is that fifflaren is like C on esea and wont be able to play well, but they should do it anyways

2020-01-22 00:18

I don't think allu would join or be picked probably draken? or pyth. Idc what you guys say I do enjoy the meme cycle but its old.

2020-01-22 13:02

Nice!

2020-01-22 00:30

Nah they all too old i don't see they are going too far with this lineup. We are too attached to the past fr

2020-01-22 00:47

and what? who cares if they go far they just want to have fun still they retire u ppl are so arrogant and stupid. They gave everything to CS, why they need more to show so ppl respect them more, cuz titles? u people are disgusting

2020-01-22 04:15

+99

2020-01-22 05:35

OOF

2020-01-22 01:34

team will be a marketing powerhouse, and a very underwhelming actual team

2020-01-22 04:26

OHOHOHHOHO 2020 YEAR OF DIGNITAS !

2020-01-22 07:52

I'm sceptical it will work, but damn I want them to blow up and get into tier 1!

2020-01-22 08:44

Old nip - Dignitas Old vp - ???

2020-01-22 10:21

At least we know the players aren’t getting screwed over by the org they represent anymore

2020-01-22 10:25

go dig? lol

2020-01-22 10:31

bravo bravo!!)

2020-01-22 10:53

Dignitas top1 2020

2020-01-22 11:16

goddamn. the old nip back to play my youth is back XD

2020-01-22 11:17

Well, I am not surprised at all but I am glad that happened. GL

2020-01-22 11:19

expected

2020-01-22 12:55

NIP 2012 in 2020 lol EZ major 4 dignitas

2020-01-22 13:00

Pls give dem Major pls

2020-01-22 13:03

team: Whats the strat now? coach: fifs laugh (with hight pitch sound)

2020-01-22 13:25

Wtf?... I have a bad feeling

2020-01-22 15:39

why not awp role?

2020-01-22 17:31

letz gooooo foooorp!

2020-01-22 19:26

Wait so this means even when are complete trash and are losing to tier 3 teams in online qualifiers they will still be able to collect pay checks with no roster change because Fiflaren is the GM, this is like next level IQ shit here from the Swedish boys honestly.

2020-01-23 04:09