NIP unveil Xizt as new head coach

8-3-2024 19:00

The Swede will once again don the Ninjas’ colors, this time as a coach.

Xizt is NIP's new head coach

Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström has been named the new head coach of Ninjas in Pyjamas’ Counter-Strike team, the Swedish organisation announced on Friday. He will fill the vacancy created by the recent departure of Daniel "⁠djL⁠" Narancic, who was relieved of his duties as part of a major overhaul of the squad.

The 33-year-old has been tasked with rebuilding a team that has been depleted to just two players, Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet and Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner, after a run of dreadful form. A 0-3 run at the European RMR was the final straw for the Ninjas, who moved Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov, Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen and Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke to the bench.

This is the second coaching stint for Xizt, who served as HEROIC’s coach between October 2021 and December 2023 after transitioning from an analyst role within the Danish organization. He led the team to deep runs at three Majors - including the final of IEM Rio 2022 - and won the BLAST Premier Spring Final in 2023.

NIP: "We have to be on the top by January 2025"

Xizt returns to Ninjas in Pyjamas after six title-laden years with the Swedish organization between 2012 and 2018, winning events like the ESL One Cologne 2014 Major, DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016 and the IEM Oakland tournaments in 2016 and 2017.

Xizt will work with THREAT and Troels Robl once again

On NIP, he will reunite with REZ, who was his teammate during the second winning run in Oakland, and with his former 1.6 teammate and then coach Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers, who is serving as the organization’s General Manager. He will also work again with Director of Performance Troels Robl after their time together on HEROIC.

"Over the last few years, it hurt to see NIP CS struggling, even when sitting on the rival side," Xizt told NIP's website. "It feels great to be back and working with Björn and Troels again. I'm ready to set the foundation for a new era and pour my heart into bringing us back."

With Xizt’s arrival, Ninjas in Pyjamas are now:

Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner
Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet

Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström (coach)

Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov (benched)
Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen (benched)
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke (benched)

good choice, but man why did Xizt choose to go back :(

2024-03-08 19:01

7 replies

Maybe no better offers

2024-03-08 19:03

Close to Home probably

2024-03-08 19:05

3 replies

good point since nip wont play lans its nice homeoffice job

2024-03-08 19:29

2 replies

coming back to this comment in a year to laugh at how wrong you were

2024-03-08 20:50

1 reply

but dont count t2 lans ok?

2024-03-08 22:41

Cause he needs to make a living I’d say. Also his name and experience will atract talent after the major, with alex and rez already on the team with there is enough potential

Cuz it's close to home, I guess?

2024-03-08 19:08

expected

nice

+f0rest +GeT_RighT LFG

2024-03-08 19:02

top 8 at major guaranteed

2024-03-09 05:29

+ olofmeister + f0rest + get_right + friberg And kick this paëlla eater and Ty again nip destroying movie star rider again ( they struggle to rebuild after sunpayus)

2024-03-09 10:10

olofmeister krimz get_right f0rest twist just for all the 2014 boomers who fantasized 🤣

2024-03-10 16:59

why did heroic kicked him?

8 replies

Wanted to avoid snake fights there .

2024-03-08 19:04

I believe he himself decided to step down

2024-03-08 19:10

sAw is an upgrade over every coach in t1 rn, maybe kuben and NEO are close fights but he's legit

2024-03-08 19:14

5 replies

+1 great coach, chill presence and not talked about enough

NEO? He has a lot to prove though

2024-03-08 19:30

You're not wrong but I think he has potential

2024-03-08 19:31

Ah okey, then I could agree. Would love to see Robban there in some role as well

2024-03-08 19:35

Yeah Robban definitely has experience, a lot actually. I just couldn't see much of his impact on the in game stuff. I think he'll be a terrific manager, just as THREAT is doing for NIP rn

2024-03-08 19:38

Now -NIP +Young NIP

either make the team work and become one of the best, or have yourself exposed

NIP doesn't deserve him

6 replies

Truuuue

Doesn't deserve him? They made him

2024-03-08 19:22

4 replies

I thought they said that Sweden had no talent? Imagine thinking that the "team" makes the players, and not the other way around haha

2024-03-08 19:26

lmao no the prime nip roster made nip

2024-03-08 19:43

Exactly

2024-03-08 20:29

Did you know xizt was pro player before nip ? And btw their result make nip possible

2024-03-09 10:07

Nip last big trophy was with him , hopefully he gonna bring more in future, gl .

Carried them in that final map too. A treasured memory for a much younger me.

2024-03-11 02:49

good start.

NIP might make it out alive?? No way

EZ FOR NIP

Good news.

watch them sign jks and blameF next and stay in tier3

Rare w for NiP Sign a strong swedish core now please

2024-03-08 19:06

Yes pls

pls

Get Nilo please. I watched him during his YN days and he's great. I'm just not sure as his currently studying.

I hope Nilo doesn't ruin his career by going to NIP

Are you trolling? NiP is a legendary org with no recent success. Xist as a coach + decent young talents like Nilo will definitely get them far. Just remove Alex as your IGL and get some Swedish IGL i.e. hampus who has also fragging ability.

2024-03-08 22:37

I mean sure, Nilo to Nip would be nice. But at the same time, they got something really magical going over at Metizport, would be a shame to ruin it by signing one or two players from there.

2024-03-08 21:09

Xizt pog

2024-03-08 19:07

Poor xizt but gl trying to sort things out there

2024-03-08 19:09

This is the last thing i hoped would happen.. He could go anywhere besides astralis and nip :(

Wow, NIP finally doing something good wtf

REZ nilo hampus (IGL) isak (support) joel (awp)

The saviour of swedish cs... I kneel...

2024-03-08 19:11

2024-03-08 19:13

I dunno what to think about this. He waste his career or will help bring NIP to glory

Go all swedish, there's no point in going international if you can't spend a lot

with who tho? all the golden boya are locked in and on top of that literally all of them werent treated well in the arms nip (nilo,phzy,brollan,nawwk)

2024-03-08 19:16

youngsters who are talented and have potential to succeed in right circumstances (under xizt) we just got to a new game and many of the old fellas bare already washed

2024-03-08 19:24

you have to put so much effort into that kind of project and you will get few for return i think at this point they already missed all those talents (which were all were once under their org) you go international with players that have good potential and make that work

2024-03-08 19:28

+ jobab,silence,maxster and an igl

you really think that trio has potential? im not fully oblivious but never saw them do anything in their tier3 tenure and even with different squads like 7am

Wow that video is so cringe...

2024-03-08 19:15

I thought it was funny. Though I get the reference :)

2024-03-08 20:53

They will win a major now, 3 majors in a row, to be honest, I see the future!

At least something positive on the NIP front

They tryin to make this promo look bad ass… but its hard when ur dealing with nerds… 6/10

2024-03-08 19:17

-alex rez nilo ztr maxster isak

No chance of -alex. They recently signed him, makes no sense financially. Althought I dont know how long they can wait if there are no good results.

2024-03-08 19:49

Joel>Isak as a awper or Nilo for now because Nilo can't go full time cs until the summer and he's just renewed his contract

2024-03-09 23:05

okay thats actually fair

2024-03-10 01:23

great now you have no awper

2024-03-10 16:47

rez awp

2024-03-10 16:48

LETSGO!

why is alex there lmao

2024-03-08 19:18

Xizt is gonna build a superteam, but they need to get alex out of there and go full Swedish.

2024-03-08 19:20

Yep, sweden stronk

2024-03-08 19:21

Welcome back boss, lets go ninjaaas

I'm actually excited for once. This is huge! I really hope they build around a swedish core since there's a lot of potential out there.

Xizt u son of a gun

2024-03-08 19:23

Just don't let THREAT make any decisions and NiP will comeback next year

As long as THREAT has anything to say whatsoever he will keep drilling this team into the ground, he's the most delusional and incompetent GM in the history of cs

2024-03-08 19:25

Go Xizt!

nice. they should build sweden roster and kick alex

now kick rez and alex and start over

Nilo hampus Oakland 1998 mvp f0rest joel

Then please come up with a decent lineup again. This is not working!!!

Good for NIP, bad for xizt

Okay guys they actually might be onto something here

2024-03-08 19:33

truly meh

2024-03-08 19:36

well gl Xizt this aint gonna be easy

2024-03-08 19:41

NiP needs to get rid of THREAT. hes a threat to the org. pun intended

2024-03-08 19:42

"The Swede will once again don the Ninjas’ colors" AKSCHUALLY when xizt on NIP, their color was brown, not neon green, so he has never donned this Ninjas color

☝️🤓 (Content)

Kkkkkkkk

2024-03-08 21:03

goat

i dont think coach matters when NiP likes shitty rosters with rez again and again

2024-03-08 19:48

Lol Lul LMAO

2024-03-08 19:52

Xizt as coach actually gives me hope for this roster

2024-03-08 19:53

extremely rare W

2024-03-08 19:54

massive W for NIP, absolutely the best option for them right now.

2024-03-08 19:56

WE ARE SO BACK

2024-03-08 19:57

Great news for nip, sad to see how bad they have become.

2024-03-08 19:58

W for NIP L for Xizt

okay so the rumours are true, +jks +blamef coming

2024-03-08 20:04

yo prodka - theres no way blamef and jks are jumping on that nip ship...

2024-03-08 20:11

If they want to win something, changes need to be huuuuuuge

2024-03-08 20:10

good choice for sure

Probably the ONLY good decision they could have made. My suggestion for a good cheap roster would be Nilo Adamb Ztr Nawwk Rez with Xizt as coach this would actually be a potential top 20 roster at least but maybe even better provided that rez and nawwk perform as they should and the metizport core stay on their trajectory.

2024-03-08 20:26

Xist is the best at working behind the shadows. He never attracts attention but always brings the results. He won so many trophies as a player, and I also suspect he was a big part in heroic's meta changing playstyle. Good luck to the legend.

2024-03-08 20:27

Now bring back cache so xizt can teach his team how to dominate

2024-03-08 20:34

GOAT seXIST

2024-03-08 20:36

Go get a full Swedish lineup. It will save your fanbase.

2024-03-08 20:57

Good signing. Crap video. Pointless and unentertaining - just like a the benched nip team.

2024-03-08 21:15

Some good news from NiP after a long time. GL Xizt!

2024-03-08 21:29

Expected but happy for NiP, at least they did one thing correct.

2024-03-08 21:44

Xizt good coach, look how well he built up Heroic few years ago.

2024-03-08 21:46

Definitely. I'm sure he will sum up to the ninjas.

2024-03-09 07:20

GOAT

2024-03-08 22:17

2024-03-08 22:20

Welcome back hopefully can actually do something which needs roster change

2024-03-09 00:04

Noooo run away man it’s all downhill from here, NiP is cooked

2024-03-09 00:21

Coaching doesn't fix skill issues unfortunately. NIP needed to bench or sell off REZ and build up completely from the ground up. REZ gets a free ride every damn time.

2024-03-09 00:31

I never watched a gay porno but I am sure they start exactly like NIPs reveal videos

2024-03-09 01:35

brov da fuck 😸

2024-03-09 10:02

Interesting

Good luck Xizt!!!!

2024-03-09 02:04

Recruit f0rest thanks

2024-03-09 04:35

now to complete the roster we need: -alex + GTR +Forest +friberg +brollan

2024-03-09 05:30

Original comment

2024-03-10 01:28

Good Move GL Xizt

2024-03-09 07:07

Good news for Nip and good luck, legend.

2024-03-09 07:19

gl xizt always in shadow but always productive

2024-03-09 10:00

Wont win anything with fucking Alex anyway.... Stupid managment.

2024-03-09 09:54

Operation Health is in full swing. Now, we wait for maxter getting promoted

2024-03-09 10:01

There is hope afterall?

2024-03-09 10:04

Please give Xist full control of the roster

2024-03-09 10:23

this

2024-03-10 16:50

this, again.

2024-03-11 14:36

good choice

2024-03-09 14:28

Welcome back Xizt

2024-03-09 21:12

POG

2024-03-10 01:46

+ blameF + s1mple + sdy

2024-03-10 07:54

i REALLY hope this is not just a paycheck gig for xizt, i want him to be fully sovereign and FUCK SHIT UP at NiP, if NiP roster is not 100% swedish before Shanghai , i will call this move a grift. This should be Xizt first meeting with the team: "come here guys, i just wanna talk" static.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images.. **** media.tenor.com/UdWQYTuF64kAAAAM/explosi..

Finally a great signing.

2024-03-10 17:04

The superteam: ztr nilo avid brollan phzy right now nip has REZ and alex. so i guess, realistically speaking.... :::: --------------------- Phase 1 ---------------------- Sell Alex and sell all the bencheds. REZ support get ztr to igl get phzy keep maxster keep silence --------------------- Phase 2 ---------------------- Step 1) Kick REZ Step 2) Make Maxster support Step 3) +avid , give avid as much space as he wants, he's going to become the main character Step 4) playout the rest of 2024, hopefully get to playoffs at Shanghai --------------------- Phase 3 ---------------------- It is January of 2025, Nilo has graduated from Highschool, It is the year of the viking bear in Sweden. The roster right now is ztr-phzy-avid-maxster-silence Step 1) Kick silence Step 2) Buy Nilo at all costs, you should have sticker money from Shanghai major, do NOT let him go international Step 3) Nilo will be the 2ndary star, avid is still the main character, but now Nilo will be his sidekick, but not like Robin, if avid is Batman, Nilo is Nightwing. Step 4) First major of 2025 is coming up and NiP is ztr phzy nilo avid maxster , obviously they qualify for the major, more sticker money. --------------------- Phase 4 ---------------------- It is mid 2025, the playerbreak is coming, NiP reached semi-finals at the major of 2025. Step 1) Kick Maxster Step 2) BUY BROLLAN Step 3) Brollan displaces both Nilo and Avid as stars, Brollan is Dr Manhattan, Xizt and Threat must harass him 24/7 to find out how to set him up to perfection, not too different from what Ex6TenZ did with Kenny in Titan. Step 4) Change back the NiP Logo to a mix between the 3 logos they had between 2000 and 2017: lemondogs.com/news/2474/logo-history-of-.. Step 5) REALLY lean into the Swedish vibes, now you're Mr. Vibes, Captain Sweden, this is a real superteam, have players give interviews in Swedish, talk to normies if you can on TV or smth, monetize the hype. Step 6) Label these few months of 2025 as the "Rebirth Era" or something (in Swedish ofc) and make a good documentary like Astralis did with "to the stars" Step 7) Win the second major of 2025 Also im sorry, but some of the managerial staff probably has to die [in minecraft ofc] , there's gonna be a serious shake up in staff.

2024-03-10 17:31