es3tag: "I'm starting to get to that age where I just want to build a legacy"

Experience and the supportive element in his play were key to getting es3tag into NIP, where the Dane hopes to engrave his name in the history books.

Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen found a team in which he believes he has the potential to thrive, joining countryman Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz in Ninjas in Pyjamas with the quest of building a legacy in the Swedish organization and to "actually start winning with some great dudes."

Right now es3tag is in Sweden where Ninjas in Pyjamas have turned around a slow start with a last-place exit at BLAST Premier Fall Final, their first event with the Dane, as they're slated to go up against Major finalists G2 in the IEM Winter semi-finals, albeit with Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub standing in for Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković, who is out due to visa issues.

The 26-year-old chatted from the hotel in Stockholm where the event is being played and went over some of the specifics of his new journey in Ninjas in Pyjamas, as well as touching upon what he hopes to get out of the experience, primarily starting to engrave his name as a legacy player in CS:GO despite that task being an arduous one for someone taking up supporting roles.

"It's really hard to do that unless you win everything because you're not going to have really good stats and people will be bashing you," es3tag says. "But if you do win everything you can get that status of becoming a legacy player."

Let's go back in time to your signing with NIP, what was the approach like? There's the clear device connection, but what was it they wanted from a player like you?

The entire essence of it was that they wanted some experience to fill out the support slot, which is where I fit right in. I played in Astralis taking Xyp9x's roles, a lot of which were very supportive and anchor-ish, which is what I think was really needed. They needed that experience and the connection of me playing with devve earlier I think is the reason why NIP was interested or thought that I would fit in. I think he really talked me up.

I've heard before that you're seen as a good support player by teammates and as a person that can make others better. Can you speak to that a little bit? What is it that makes you that sort of player?

My strongest attribute is probably communication, I'm very good at saying what I'm doing, when I'm doing it, 'if they do this we do that,' and generally coming up with a plan and making sure that everyone has all of the pieces they need to win the round.

When I'm dead I'm also helping from beyond, making sure that all of the angles are watched carefully or something, you know. Besides that, being good at throwing utility, offering utility, and coming up with a plan, which I think is very important with the level CS is at today.

Those are the main attributes, and of course then just not being toxic, making sure everyone in the team is feeling good, hyping people up, and stuff like that. There's so much that can be done within a team if you have the right mindset.

You bring up communication as your strongest attribute, so how is playing in Swedish going? Have you noticed quick improvement or is it something that's going to take some time?

It's been going super quick. Swedish is very similar to Danish, the only thing is the way I pronounce stuff, it's a bit rough. I can tell when my teammates are imitating me in Danish, it sounds a bit funny, so I can only imagine what it sounds like going the other way, right?

I'm with them all of the time and when we practice they're only talking in Swedish, so it's soaking into me like a sponge. I'm watching movies in Swedish with Swedish subtitles. Everything is Swedish. I'm listening to podcasts when I'm just chilling and tapping into Duolingo for an hour a day. So there's a lot of Swedish going in and out, currently.

Before I even got to Stockholm it already felt like I was in Stockholm, so everything is going well in that sense and I think it will only get better when I have some time to get a one on one with a tutor over the winter break. Not much of a break, but like I said I think communication is one of the most important aspects of CS:GO so the fact that I can't really do it to the best of my abilities kind of sucks because I look at it and I say 'damn, I want to do that better.'

The first time I spoke to you, if I recall correctly, was at DreamHack Open Tours 2017, and the first thing I noticed was how good your English was. Are languages just something you get well and can learn easily?

Yeah, I think I pick up on them really fast. It has always been something I've been told by teachers at school. I'm hoping the same will be true for Swedish, but I'm not that young anymore, so who knows. Apparently you stop learning as an old boomer [laughs], but hopefully it'll go really fast.

Your first event with NIP, BLAST Premier Fall Final, was a bit tough. You had losses to Astralis and Liquid and it seemed like things weren't quite clicking immediately. Can you talk through that experience a bit?

Yeah, everything was new when I joined the team initially. Speaking Swedish is new for me, we only had a week of practice at the time and it's really hard to play six maps fully functionally with just a week of practice, so yeah, we're constantly building on our playbook.

The first match against Astralis was us just not hitting our shots and getting demolished by k0nfig, whereas our first match on stage just felt amazing and everything was going right. We were up 5-0 and we should have even been up 7-0 in the third map but then we just dropped the ball. We couldn't get anything running on our T-side and we should have had more CT rounds. You know, being on that stage and all of a sudden Liquid has a chance and it gets rough, right? It was unfortunate because we loved being on that stage, the event was beyond amazing.

Getting things going on the T-side seems to be a bit of a struggle for NIP at times. Is there a plan to tackle that and how do you fit into it?

I'm playing on the sides [of the map] and since I'm more vocal I'm going to be able to make more calls, which is something I think NIP needed. The biggest thing for me right now is communication, so once that's down and I'm able to be more vocal it's going to be a lot easier for me.

If I were able to just straight up speak English it would probably go a lot better but it will never get to the point where we're all native, so it's like a trade-off. Do I speak English and we're better for a short period or do I learn Swedish and then we'll be really good a month down the line?

Currently we're playing a bit too loose, but it's also a part of NIP's style, playing a bit loose and having very strong individuals. If we have a bit more of a rigid system in which you don't take duels unless you're with a teammate, or you get a flash, or have set-ups in which someone is ready to pounce if you die, if these kinds of things get into play in all of our maps we'll be unstoppable because we have some insane talent on this team.

There seem to be divided opinions regarding hampus from the public, some who aren't super fond and others who believe criticism isn't merited. How do you see it? You talked about things being a bit loose, is that something you think should change or it just needs some polishing?

The way hampus calls is amazing in the sense that when he calls out of spawn I can always see the point of it. I can make the connection to what he's calling and I really like that. He's not just randomly picking stuff out of a strat book and I really like the way he thinks about the game.

We have such strong individuals that they usually win the 50-50 duels, but when they don't we don't have a system in place in which a flash could have changed it or something like that. It's just about playing more together and making sure we get that little extra advantage by using our utility to perfection and right now we're more leaning on the fact that we have amazing individuals with amazing aim. We're really strong when we're on point but if the individuals don't shine through, we don't have the backup system.

So it's just finding a safety net to fall back on when things don't work out.

Yeah, it's about being able to do both things and having a fallback if we're not hitting our shots on a day, making sure we always have trade potential, that we get those flashes and that can get it done together.

Going back to the games themselves, at IEM Winter you got revenge on both Astralis and Liquid. Could you say you've seen an immediate improvement from event to event?

The stage is a bit different, right? But I would say we're doing a bit better at this event, as individuals but also as a team. I realized at BLAST that we needed a guy to hype us up so I kind of took that role. Whenever we win an important round or something I'll just take my headset off and scream like some other guys. [laughs]

We're a quiet team and if hampus isn't yelling then I'm the only one who will be doing it and I found out that we needed that. Our players benefit a lot more from it than I thought they would. If you tell REZ he's insane, which he really is, he's going to do 10% better, and who wouldn't want a REZ operating 10% better because he's just insane, right?

Doubling back on what you said about speaking English or working more long-term with learning Swedish. Do you feel any pressure to get results immediately or is it understood that things may take a little while?

We came into this event as it being a bit of whatever, we really wanted to do well at BLAST because it was an amazing event, but we came into this with no pressure. If we lost then we wouldn't be at the event for 14 days and we would go to the BLAST World Final after.

I think it's more of a personal thing for me, I want to get better at Swedish as soon as possible and not take the easy option even though I think we would temporarily be better. Down the line it'll be worth it, so it's more just for me, It's in my head. I think 'oh if I would have spoken English we could have won this round.'

There wasn't any pressure on this tournament and we're just all happy we made it to the semis. We're up against a G2 that I think is beatable with kennyS and if we do our best hopefully we make the finals. And who knows, maybe just win it in Stockholm. That would be nice, right?

Yeah, we can dip into that now, but you're having a long five-day pause between quarter-finals and semi-finals, which is there to give teams time to prepare for important playoff matches and hype things up a bit. What is it like for you, is that something you enjoy, or would you rather the more traditional and quicker bracket?

Personally I would rather just play and be able to go home for an extra four or five days before having to fly to our next tournament, but it is what it is and we just made it work. We've been able to do some team building and a mini bootcamp to get some practice in, so there's definitely some benefits to it, but having three tournaments in a row you kind of want to get home at some point. We deal with the cards we've been dealt.

Diving into the G2 match itself, they did really well at the Major, and even now playing with kennyS standing in for nexa they've also been showing up. You said they're beatable, so do you even see yourselves as favorites perhaps?

No, I don't see us as a favorite, but I do think that CS is a lot about hitting it on the day so if we can hit the ground running, win some pistol rounds and get some fire under us then anything is possible, especially because they have kennyS instead of nexa which I don't think it benefits them. I'm hoping for a win, but who knows.

Is there any particular preparation going into this match knowing they're without their IGL and so on?

I think it's just the same, and if it wasn't I probably wouldn't tell, right? [laughs] I'm pretty sure it's just going to be the same as usual. Creatures of habit. If you have a system and it works, why change it?

Our prep is going to be the way we usually do it and then we'll try to take advantage of them probably being a bit more confused with AmaNEk on a different role and having kennyS back on a new thing, so abusing those facts is probably smart but we'll see what happens.

You'll also play G2 in the opening BLAST World Final match. Is that something that's in the back of your mind, knowing you'll play them again in a few days, and does that create any sort of mind games?

Who knows. It depends on how this first match goes, right? But I do think that usually what happens is that you win initially and then the next time you play a team on the same map they've fixed their mistakes and they figure out how you punished them so it'll be like an UNO reverse.

It happens every single time, it's probably why we won against Liquid and Astralis at this tournament when we lost those maps against them at the previous one. So if G2 win against us here then hopefully we'll beat them at BLAST World Final... and vice versa. [laughs]

Hopefuly we can get two wins over them, but we are a really new team, so who knows. But I do think about this because it does happen quite a lot, that teams beat someone on a map, the loser fixes mistakes and then just UNO reverse them. So what you usually do is change your pick, that's the big brain move.

One way or another you have to switch things up somehow because if not you're a sitting duck.

Exactly. You have to be aware that the same game plan probably won't work because they'll have looked at it.

It seems like you've been floating a bit here and there as far as your career goes ever since you left Heroic. You spent time in Complexity, Cloud9 and Astralis, but at times it felt like you were just filling holes. Do you see NIP as a more stable team you can build a home in?

That was my thought, at least. Joining this team I wanted to actually start winning with some great dudes. I'm starting to get to that age where, honestly, I'm like 'screw the money.' I just want to build a legacy of my own and as a support player it's really hard to do that unless you win everything because you're not going to have really good stats and people will be bashing you. But if you do win everything you can get that status of becoming a legacy player.

I'm hoping to build my name here in NIP and see what happens down the road. I'm also a really big fan of learning a new language so that's an attribute to who I am. I love learning new stuff and I see this project as being really great and fun for me.

Before we wrap things up I wanted to tackle the end of Complexity. k0nfig reports came out and there was the announcement that poizon was being released, then the team crumbled shortly after. What were the last weeks like and what went on there?

When I came in we had four or five practice days with k0nfig before he had the incident with his hand and from there on out it was just a stand-in fiesta. And that's something they had already been doing, they called it the 'Complexity curse' because they were always playing with a stand-in and didn't have stability, that fifth man, a regular lineup. That was really rough for the players, mentally, always having to change.

During my short stint there we had to go through all seven maps three times or something like that, maybe even four times, because of all of the stand-ins. It was actually insane and the amount of pressure that puts on a team, to have to work that hard and not get any results, it's hard. That was basically it, never having that stability was really rough.

Now with NIP it's a bit different. You were covering a hole for a little while in Astralis and in Cloud9 there were also other roster issues. Joining a team that seems to be functioning must be a different experience.

Yeah, for sure, although I was really happy in Astralis because the roles really contributed to who I was as a player and all of the players on the team were legends. I feel a bit the same about the entire project at NIP as well, I think they're both ahead as organizations and I'm just really happy to be a part of this project.

Glancing ahead at 2022, anything particular you're looking forward to?

I'm looking forward to talking to my tutor, learning some new stuff, and spending some time with family during Christmas and New Year's and all of that. It's going to be great. I think it's been a while since I've seen my family so that'll be nice.