Snappi: "We will try to make arrozdoce more of a star player"

Snappi gives his thoughts on his new roster in NIP and how far he can take them.

Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer arrives in Ninjas in Pyjamas having endured a "rough last year" in Falcons. Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen has admitted in a recent interview that Snappi did not get to work with the players he was expecting to in Falcons, and the team struggled to put together results with their cobbled-together roster.

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zonic: "From day one of signing this team, we knew that this roster was only temporary"

The tenured Danish IGL is looking forward to a "fresh start" in Ninjas in Pyjamas, calling it the "right place for me to rebuild my career." He has been tasked with bringing together an eclectic international roster packed with young talent, with players like Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz, Rafael "⁠arrozdoce⁠" Wing and Michel "⁠ewjerkz⁠" Pinto sporting relatively little tier-one experience.

Snappi also has to deal with an interesting roster situation, with Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug set to stand in for Ninjas in Pyjamas for "a limited time" in order to ensure the team can accept Wildcard invites.

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Official: NIP reveal Snappi-led lineup

Snappi spoke with HLTV about utilizing his Portuguese duo as the team's star riflers, how it has been working with JACKZ, and how he envisions the trajectory of the squad.

Listen to the interview here.

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How did you come to join NIP?

It happened pretty late I would say. NIP seemed interested, I think also because some of the players were interested in playing with me, and so I was obviously contacted about it. I felt it was the right place for me to rebuild my career. It was a rough last year in Falcons to say the least, and I think I can get a fresh start here with some young guys around me.

I also think the NIP guys were very nice when I had the interviews with them. So that's why I chose NIP.

What were the discussions like around the roster? When NIP came to you, did they already have four players in mind that you would play with, or did you have some input?

I did have some input, but at the same time there was already a list, which was discussed with me. At the end of the day, this is the roster that we ended up with, and I think we are really happy to have it.

What are your thoughts on the roster you are playing with? I think the general community feeling is one of pleasant surprise, it's a competitive roster on paper.

I think we have a very competitive roster. On T sides the roles fit really good. On CT, on certain maps, we will try to make arrozdoce more of a star player. He posted really good numbers on his T sides in SAW, and we will try to boost up his CT by giving him more space. He used to be an anchor, but sjuush was also an anchor, so as he is a young player that likes to maybe get a bit more movement on the map. I think this is kinda where we will try to rely on getting higher numbers, so we can have the Portuguese rifle duo be our two star riflers.

Then we have sjuush, who in my opinion in some of the last years, has been the best anchor in the world. I think he can get back to that.

How is communication going, as the Portuguese guys haven't played outside of Portuguese rosters?

I think that communication hasn't been an issue, they both have good English. I would say it's obviously going to improve with time, because coming from a Portuguese speaking team, they will probably need a transition period where they will need to learn to start thinking in English, rather than thinking in Portuguese. But I would say their English is on a high enough level that they are very easy to understand, and they also understand communication easily, it's probably just them having to process it maybe for a second. That is going to get fixed eventually with time.

I wanted to ask about the situation with JACKZ. What's it been like for you? Because coming into a new team, it's maybe a bit weird playing with a stand-in early doors.

JACKZ is a fun guy out of the server, and he's still skilled inside the server, so I think having him as a stand-in is not a problem. Of course we are not practicing with him, we are practicing with arrozdoce, but we are just trying to get the best out of the situation and have fun with him. We need him, and I think it's a good platform for him to show himself off, because I definitely think he deserves a good team. He's still a very good player and off the server he's for sure a guy a lot of teams could benefit from.

Do you know how long it will be for?

I think that's a work in progress. We will see how long it is, it might be short, it might be long. Time will tell.

What are the goals for this NIP roster, for you personally? What do you want to achieve?

The goals for me with this roster are to build it with patience. We cannot expect to be a top 10 team when we don't even have tournaments to play, so the first step is to get into tournaments. The next step is, when we get into tournaments, to start performing so that by the end of 2025, we will be near the top 10 in the world and have a full calendar year heading into 2026, with all the tournaments lined up. From there, we can be the team that we want to be.

This was kind of the same way it was done in ENCE. In 2021 it was the rebuild, we had two good results towards the end of the autumn season, which got us into the top 10. We had a quarter-final at ESL Pro League and a final at IEM Fall. I think this is the same trajectory I see for this team.

It's probably going to be even harder, because back then we were an ESL partner, and we got invites to pretty much all the online tournaments we wanted, so I would say it's tougher now to actually do it. But I think it's the same trajectory we are going for.

Is that what the organization has said as well? That this is a longer term project, and that you want to hit peak form for 2026?

I think as a team we can hit peak form way earlier, but the thing is if we don't have tournaments to play, we can't prove it. Initially the goal is going to be just to get to tournaments so we can prove ourselves. We can be as good as we want in the practice server, but if we cannot show it in official games, it doesn't matter, right? I think that NIP understands this project requires patience, because we can't show that we are a very good team if we cannot play.

For you personally, what do you want to get out of your career at this point, at 34 years old? What is keeping you going and driving you forwards?

I want to win the biggest tournaments. I got a short taste of winning in ENCE I would say, and I joined Falcons because at the time I thought I was going to get the biggest superstars. That was not the case, but I am still motivated to play CS and to win, and I am certain that it can be done here at NIP. It's a big organization, they have a lot of funding behind them, so when we then create the team that we intend to, we can stay at the top.