Brollan: "I feel like this is my home, playing with Swedes again"

Ninjas in Pyjamas are now 2-0 after their first day with their new signing, Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin, whom we caught up with following their final best-of-one match.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are cementing their positions as one of the favorite teams vying for a Legends spot at the PGL Antwerp Major's Europe RMR B, as they won their two opening best-of-ones soundly against Endpoint, 16-8, and Bad News Eagles, 16-11, both times on Ancient.

We sat down with the Swedish squad's brand new signing, Brollan, as Ninjas in Pyjamas ready themselves to get into the best-of-threes. We asked him about his adaptation, what made him make the jump from fnatic to Ninjas in Pyjamas, his first sensations in the team and how the first day of play at the RMR went.

We haven't spoken since you transferred to NIP. What was that like, making what must have been a big decision for you. What made you take the next step in your career?

In general, I think that our performance in the whole of 2021 was not good enough. We saw that easily on the rankings and in our results. I want to be in a top team, I want to fight for titles, and I didn't see any future in that fnatic squad.

It wasn't a home for me, that lineup, compared to others with like JW and stuff. But I think that the reason I changed is to find myself again because I feel like I lost myself as a person and a player. It wasn't that fun to play in that fnatic squad.

When I saw fnatic bring in the UK guys I thought it could maybe be dangerous because it could split the team into groups, the Swedish side, the British side. Were there any problems in that regard?

Not really because in the past Swedish squads we also had groups, like me and Golden, when we had flusha and them, we were one of the groups, and flusha, KRIMZ and JW were the other group. In some situations I thought they were my best friends, we played for three years together. It wasn't a problem at all,

I just think that personalities between the Swedes and the UK guys were kind of different. Then it was maybe the UK guys and me and KRIMZ, but it was nothing personal against them, we were just good friends and that's going to happen if you play together for a long time.

Jumping into NIP, how has that been. How's the adjustment?

I'm feeling really good at the moment, it's really fun to have a new playing structure. In the first days I saw that I really need to work with stuff because NIP and fnatic play in such different ways, with so many different things, things I didn't even think about when I was in fnatic.

I was struggling a bit in practice on the first day, but when the time came it went well for me. I started to get a better level in practice and I think es3tag is doing a good job with the AWP. Everybody else, too, but I knew them all from before and they've been very welcoming.

You and Plopski were the big names of the new generation of Swedes a couple of years ago and now you're finally on the same team together. What's that like?

It's really fun to play with Plopski, finally. We talked and joked around about playing with each other, and I think it's really nice to play with him because I met him like five years ago in Master League — we were grinding it together and we were just dominating everyone. It's really fun to play with him now and it was one of my goals, to actually play with him. So yeah, it's really nice.

First day over for you guys, 2-0. How much do you love Ancient? Run me through the day.

When it comes to Majors I'm really nervous because my past Majors have been so rough. From Katowice, to Berlin, to Stockholm, so it was really nice to actually go 2-0 today. That was a goal for everyone, but I knew in the back of my head what happened before and it's really rough.

I'm really happy that we got to play Ancient because we really like to play it. hampus is doing a great job as an in-game leader and the B site suits me and Plopski very well. We like to come up with ideas and stuff, it's very nice to play Ancient in that regard.

That last map against Bad News Eagles got a bit close in the end. It started 13-2 and they made a little comeback until you stopped it 16-11. How was that T side? I saw DjL call a few timeouts almost back-to-back. How was it?

We knew that we made so many mistakes. We weren't staying alive when we should, we didn't play off of each other at all, and they had a really bad economy during half of the CT side, but it was really nice to close it out. We said after the match that we didn't play that well on the T side, so we're going to work on it after this.

You mentioned es3tag on the AWP, but it hasn't always been his main role. He played it at different points, but it's not someone you maybe think of as a main AWPer. Is this a long term thing?

Yeah, of course. At the moment it's just us five. That's all I can say about it, really.

Up 2-0, are you feeling good about your chances now?

Yeah, for me, I really don't like best-of-ones, so it's really nice to play best-of-threes from now on. This day was very important for me to actually see that I can play BO1s, it's very nice. Now I'm looking forward to the BO3s and hopefully we can go 3-0.

If you had to pick the best thing or the most surprising thing of joining NIP, what would it be?

I feel like this is my home, playing with Swedes again.