How Ninjas in Pyjamas hit the reset button

Old teammates Xizt and THREAT have linked up again to rebuild a struggling squad. Now NIP's road back to the top begins.

Since late last year, Ninjas in Pyjamas have signaled a shift in direction for their Counter-Strike division. The personnel changes in management alone make that abundantly apparent: The organization phased out former COO Jonas Gundersen, made Erik Wendel the Director of Esports, and established Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers as the new General Manager.

The new chiefs have repeatedly gone on record ever since to stress that things would be different. Upon taking over the division back in September, THREAT acknowledged he had been left with a team with several role clashes and got to work to rectify the foundational issues. Eight months later, only Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner remains from the previous lineup, with four new players and a coach having joined him.

That part is not new — Ninjas in Pyjamas had been a revolving door and players were being thrown around left and right for a while. But it often seemed it had happened without regard for chemistry inside the game, and this is where the new management has been doing things differently.

"A problem in the past was that it was more of piling good players instead of getting players that fit together," THREAT says as he begins to go over the steps the organization went through to rebuild the team's core.

Immediately after failing to make it to the PGL CS2 Major, Ninjas in Pyjamas benched Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke, Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen and Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov and parted ways with coach Daniel "⁠djL⁠" Narancic, and they got to work to set the new foundation.

After Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet was brought on late last year as the new in-game leader, the first step was to bring on Xizt as the new coach to work in tandem with the Spaniard.

It was a steal. Not often does a proven coach with a consistent record such as HEROIC's fall into your lap, and Ninjas in Pyjamas had the fortune that Xizt's talks with Astralis reportedly broke down. Considering his and THREAT's history from several joint ventures dating back all the way to 2010, and adding to it that the coach has his former performance man from HEROIC back at his side, the move was a "no-brainer" for Xizt as well.

"The new staff is very capable, and I think I'll have the support I need to do my job," Xizt says. "I respect THREAT a lot, I've known him for a very long time and I know what he's capable of. Troels Robl was with me in HEROIC as the mental coach, and he's now the director of performance at NIP."

The second move was to give the new coach power over the roster. "I would never have a coach on a team that he doesn't believe in. We can't just force players on him," THREAT explains. "It is me and Xizt who have full control, and we are fully responsible for the team. Xizt has the biggest say over who goes in and out of the team — I have the final word, but I just make sure he doesn't make any crazy decision."

"It's important that people that know CS should be in charge of the roster and everything around it," Xizt adds. "Me and THREAT, we have that knowledge."

With the staff behind the team in place, Ninjas in Pyjamas set out to fill the three vacant positions on the lineup. The management had made claims earlier in the year that they had the money on hand to make a "superstar signing" if an opportunity presented itself, but that didn't happen, and it seemed a far-fetched prospect in the first place. After all, given their recent failures and drop to a borderline top-30 team, it would have been an impossible task for Ninjas in Pyjamas to try to pull off a Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz-like coup.

Instead, they turned to fresh talent. First came a promotion from within, as Max "⁠maxster⁠" Jansson made his way from the Young Ninjas team to the main roster. The 19-year-old youngster had made an impression on the junior lineup, enough so to stand in with the main team late last year when the changes began and to eventually get the call up.

"It just felt like maxster really propelled himself in CS2, where he really started to shine. Young Ninjas' coach, spray, also really pushed for him, that he's so good and to give him another chance," THREAT explains.

"What really brought maxster over the line was his work ethic. He's grinding a lot and he's also taking care of himself outside of the server, and he's being a real pro in general," Xizt adds. "I think CS2 fits him better because he's a very aggressive player. He doesn't shy away from wide-strafing and taking duels, and we see a lot of that in CS2 compared to CS:GO. Plus, he's still very young."

Xizt and THREAT said the choice between various AWPers was the most interesting one of all the roles due to a larger number of options. In the end, Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz was chosen due to his play-making mindset, and that also clearly separates him from the overall passive-style sniper headtr1ck.

"I saw something extra in r1nkle when he's playing. He can have that X factor. He's not shy to make plays when needed. He's super explosive, and he really wants to be the difference-maker. That's very special," the coach says about the former B8 AWPer. "In modern CS everyone needs to chime in with mid-round calls, and as CT especially the AWPer has to come with a lot of initiative."

The final piece was the anchor, and it was the one that took the longest to pin down. After a long wait, in May Ninjas in Pyjamas locked down Isak "⁠isak⁠" Fahlén from GamerLegion, balancing out the unproven talent in the team with some more experience.

"isak has proven himself on LAN, which is a very big thing for us. A lot of players in the team know him very well, he's a very relaxed guy, a typical role player that fits any role and makes everyone around him better, which is something we sorely missed," THREAT says about his compatriot.

"We had a few different options for the fifth position as well, but isak just fits the bill on everything. He has experience, he's still very young, very calm as well, takes care of himself on the server, and is just a confident anchor," Xizt adds.

With the addition of the Swede, Ninjas in Pyjamas once again feature with a Swedish flag on HLTV thanks to fielding a core trio from the country. The organization however notes that, while it is a "nice" bonus, nationality wasn't a key factor in the decision and stresses that the team will remain international in the future.

"When we look at pieces we will pick the strongest player regardless of nationality," THREAT reiterates. "Obviously, if two candidates are exactly the same, being a Swede is a plus, but we would have picked [isak] even if he was from Denmark. But it is still nice to get the Swedish flag back," he concludes.

Looking at the new roster as a whole, you'd be hard-pressed to see it as a contender for deep runs at the moment considering most of the team has to go a long way to prove they belong at the top level. In the past, Ninjas in Pyjamas often publicly set the bar high, that they are aiming for titles, but that has changed — at least for now, while they have the time to build themselves up again before ranking becomes all that matters in 2025. They realize that this is just the beginning of the road back to the top.

"Step one is to get to the LANs, and then the main goal is to make playoffs and try to do it consistently. Eventually, we could become a contender, but first we need to take care of the basics," Xizt says.

"It truly feels like a full reset. That means we need to play online tournaments, we need to play anything that comes our way," THREAT shares. "We know these open qualifiers are a blood bath. We'll probably jump into some of them and have good results, jump into some of them and have poor results, learn from the mistakes, and just keep grinding ourselves back. That is our goal.

"We have a lineup now where we feel like the roles fit very well, we also have a coach that we truly believe in and that works with this group of people, and we're just gonna use all of our previous knowledge," the GM concludes.