k0nfig: "After my time in Astralis, I didn't expect to be at a Major for a long time"

Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke is excited to be back on the Major stage a year after he attended his last in Antwerp.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are ready to start their campaign in the BLAST.tv Paris Major Challengers Stage. They come into the event off the back of some improved form, when compared to the first months after k0nfig joined the roster to replace Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser, having placed in the top eight at IEM Rio and making it through the RMR.

Less than 24 hours ahead of the kick-off of the tournament taking place in France, k0nfig spoke to HLTV.org about how prepared Ninjas in Pyjamas are for the Major, why role clashes still exist in the team, and their tough opening round matchup against MOUZ.

Busy first day at the Major even just for media day, can you tell me how you're feeling coming into this given how busy the schedule is before you've even gotten into matches?

I mean yeah, it's of course a little bit stressful at the moment, also with the delays and all these kind of things in the media day, but I'm really excited to just get started with the Major and actually playing — that's why we're here. The media day is fun and all, but you kind of want to just get into the games already.

And in terms of getting into the games, can you tell me how your practice the last two weeks or so have gone, was there a bootcamp?

We went to Rio, then we got back home, we had an off day, then we started practicing and we went to a bootcamp for five days in Stockholm in the NIP office. We've just been playing maps, talking, grinding, doing all the things we need to do to be prepared for the Major, and I think that we've done everything that we could with everything that we have.

I'm just really excited to show the way that NIP is playing at the moment, I think it's really good for everyone in the team, everybody has the potential to drop a 30 bomb and I think that's how it's supposed to be.

Some teams have had a really busy schedule coming into this, others have had up to three weeks off. What has it been like for you, do you like how much practice you've been able to get in and how many officials you've had, or do you wish you had less or more time off?

Coming into NIP there was a lot of things to fix and a lot of issues, role-wise we had a clash. Of course it's nice to spend time in practice, but I think we learn way more from official games and going to tournaments, so I'm really happy that we actually went to all these tournaments that we've played already even though we might have not gotten the confidence and results we thought we would get.

The way that we have done it has been the perfect way because you need to play the game in official games to learn, like you can learn from practice as well but your opponent is also practicing, they're not playing to win, and you need to learn your strats and all these things. I'm just thinking that I hope we show who we really are, and I think we did that in Rio, we did that in the RMR, so I hope we can replicate it.

Can you tell me more about that role clash, is it resolved now?

No, I think we still want to split it up a little bit. We have me as a map control guy, and I was scared that I was going to join the team and be a lurker because I've tried to do it and it's not really my thing, I'm too ADHD for it I think. I need to get moving and get some kills, I like to push on timings and all these things. But no, I think we still have a little bit of a role clash, especially on CT. Our T sides have been working way better than our CTs, so I think we still have some work to do.

Would that primarily be with you and Brollan then, because he has a higher opening kill percentage than you on CT and you're known to be a bit more aggressive. Is that what you're talking about specifically?

No, I think it's more position-wise and how we should structure our CT sides, that's the bigger issue. I don't really care that my teammate is doing more work than me, that's good for him. I of course also want to be a part of that, but you can't just do it every single round and expect your teammates to just stay and hold angles, they also want to do stuff. We have a pretty active team and I think that everybody should get the benefit of being active.

Do you feel like you're playing yourself into form individually?

Yeah, I think that when I'm comfortable in a team, when I think that the team supports me and I'm not scared of doing my thing and pushing on these timings, playing the style that I'm playing, if I feel like my team is backing me up then I'll always play better.

I was a little bit scared to do it in the beginning of the team because I didn't have the structure of how they wanted to play the game and what they wanted to do, so I didn't want to just be like, 'I'm doing this, you just have to follow otherwise you're going to be left behind.' It's a good thing by Aleksi that he has given me the faith and he has the faith in me that I want to do this for the better, for the team.

Coming into the Major, you haven't been at one since Antwerp, so having missed Rio how does it feel to be back even though it hasn't quite kicked off yet?

This is the most surreal feeling I could have. After my time in Astralis, I didn't expect to actually be at a Major for a long time and I didn't expect to be at tier-one tournaments, I was thinking that I was going to tier two, tier three and maybe be lucky at a tournament and go to a big one. I'm just really appreciating that NIP has taken the chance on me and believes in my change and believes in my change, believes in me as an individual and as a player. I love being here, this is what I've been doing for so long so I couldn't see it go away, like I couldn't think of it, so I'm really excited.

Actually looking into your first matchup, it'll be against MOUZ. In terms of your preparation and that game, how are you feeling?

It's going to be a hard game versus MOUZ. They are a really good team, they have really good players taken up from the talent team and they made the team so much stronger individually. They have a good team around them, I know sycrone is also a good coach, I know that they will come with firepower and strategies and a lot of things that we don't like as a team. But I think that if we show up and we do the NIP things that we need to do, then I think that it will be a really good match. I'm not scared, but I"m saying that we could have had a better matchup.

When you say they are going to come in with strategies and things that you don't like, what do you mean?

I think that they will have a pretty good grasp around how we like to play, but we've talked a lot in this bootcamp about how we could change our style a little bit and I'm hoping that it shows. I can't really say too much about it.