djL: "We built the team around alex"

Ninjas in Pyjamas's coach discusses the team's recent moves, his dynamic with Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers, and expectations at CS Asia Championships, where they are playing without their new in-game leader.

Ninjas in Pyjamas arrive in Shanghai fresh off the surprise signing of former Movistar Riders in-game leader Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet, who replaced Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser on the team earlier this month.

With the finalization of the signing coming too close to the event, the Spaniard is however not in attendance at the CS Asia Championships. Instead Max "⁠maxster⁠" Jansson continues to stand in for the team for the third consecutive time, having previously played with them at Roobet Cup and Thunderpick World Championship.

Nonetheless, the most recent move in the Ninjas in Pyjamas camp was one of the main topics of HLTV's interview with the coach, Daniel "⁠djL⁠" Narancic, as well as the other two parts of the team's rebuild, the return of THREAT in a new position and of Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen from a year on the bench.

The coach also elaborated on the status of Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke, who has fallen ill after traveling to Shanghai, and spoke of his high hopes for the tournament despite the stand-in situation.

---

We're here at CAC, you've had a busy day, REZ said a lot of fans are around. Tell me about the experience for you, seeing the team interact with everybody here.

It's amazing, as soon as we came to the hotel there were a lot of people. It's super fun for the players and me as well, of course. In general you can't go to the lobby without seeing anyone, so it's super nice.

We were just talking about it, k0nfig is not at the media day, but he should be back tomorrow?

I mean, if he's not back tomorrow, I'm ready to play (laughs). No, but I really hope he will be ready to play, he's been lying in bed all day today, but I think he will be fine.

Talking about the context of NIP coming into this, maxster is here, but you announced alex is joining recently. Can you walk me through that decision from your side, I know THREAT was involved as well but just on the discussion from your end.

One thing we discussed when THREAT arrived was that we wanted a new leader. alex was the first signing, we built the team around him. It was just that he had some obligations with Movistar Riders that he and us respected, so he just couldn't make it for this tournament. He will be back at BLAST when we play, and meanwhile, maxster is super professional, as everyone is.

What led to alex being the choice for you?

I think he has always been a bit underrated I would say, especially with what he has done with Movistar RIders. Just how he thinks about the game, he's a super humble person, and yeah, just that.

Read more

alex: "That a team like NIP shows interest and ends up signing me, that's a dream"

You said that when THREAT came in, you knew you wanted a new IGL, and he's also talked about that on the Pyjama Party broadcast. hampus did an interview recently with Dust2 Sweden where he said he felt his voice wasn't respected, can you tell me about that from your end?

I don't like to speak about old players and things like this, but if he felt like that, he felt like that. That's his own opinion and I have my own opinion, but I'm not going to sit here and talk about it. You know, I really like hampus, I really wish him the best, and that's it.

He also said in that interview that the team knew that changes were coming after EPL anyway, so has it just been a state of flux since then?

Yeah, I mean when THREAT arrived he basically told us that we can change pretty much everyone. He had talks with me, with the team and all that, and here we are.

This is the lineup we are going to go with, with es3tag and alex. Basically, just a lot of meetings discussing what we needed in the team, and I would say that the main thing was the team culture in general that he was trying to fix.

Read more

hampus: "There were some players who did not respect my voice on the server"

Another move that was made at the end of October was Brollan's benching. He'd been around for a while, was this also part of this whole team discussion with THREAT?

Yes. Once again, I don't want to sit here and talk about my old players, but Brollan is super young still, he has much to prove, and I honestly wish him the best. He's a super sweet guy and very good at the game.

Can you tell me more about how it's been working with THREAT for you personally, and that dynamic?

It's of course different because when I joined NIP, he was more like my analyst or assistant coach, and now he's my boss. He just builds the structure around the team and I think that was something we really needed, like all these small things, the structure, the culture, how we act, what we do, all these things. Just trying to improve things and it's way easier for me to work.

You weren't originally at this event, you got invited to replace Liquid. You also have BetBoom Dacha closed qualifier coming up, you have the Fall Final, so it's a busy end to the season for you with alex coming in. Bringing that all together, what's the mentality like for the team will all of these events scheduled?

Of course you always want to practice before you play these tournaments and all that, but once again we have to stay professional, we probably have to grind more than other teams do and just be smart about it.

Even though we might have an official, one day we might also have to do other things so it's just about the grind. As long as the team is willing to do it and we enjoy our time with each other and so forth, I don't see an issue.

Your group is the slightly more stacked one in this event, how do you feel going into that? Obviously, only one win gets you into the playoffs, but what's your perspective, especially with all these teams rumored to be making changes?

We feel very good for this event, actually. I said it to the guys yesterday, that I have a very good feeling about this. We've been working very well with each other, we had a pretty long bootcamp and it was a very good one. I don't want to jinx anything, but it's been looking very good and the synergy in the group is very good.