hampus: “Aleksib is a great IGL, I don’t know why G2 didn’t want him”

Ninjas in Pyjamas became the second European team to qualify for the IEM Rio Major following a 2-1 victory over Cloud9, completing their flawless run through the Road to Rio RMR qualifier that started with best-of-one victories over Bad News Eagles and Astralis. The majority-Swedish side joined FaZe among the list of teams who qualified for the Major in Rio, with Evil Geniuses, Liquid, and Natus Vincere all adding themselves to the list by the time the day came to a close.

Following NIP’s win over Vladislav “⁠nafany⁠” Gorshkov‘s troops, HLTV spoke to hampus to get some insight into how things have changed in the Ninjas in Pyjamas camp with Aleksib at the helm. The 23-year-old also spoke about the freedom he has in his new role, and discussed how the switch to speaking English is going in the team so far, stating that “it’s going okay” but “it can still be a lot better.”

hampus, congratulations, you’re through to Rio. How are you feeling after getting that win over Cloud9?

It feels good. In my opinion we played very bad on Inferno, we should have played better and closed it out there. We gave them some easy rounds, like for example we knew they were going to apartments pop and we had an anti-apts pop setup and we just choked, we knew they were going to come B and we just choked.

So yeah, I think we played very bad on Inferno, and then on Vertigo when we’re down 9-1, I can say in my head it didn’t look so good, you know? But then we took some tacs, got four rounds in a row in the end I think, so we got the 10-5 half, won the pistol and then everyone started feeling good. We played Bad News Eagles yesterday and didn’t lose a single T round, and the first one Cloud9 got was with pistols which we kind of fucked up a little bit as well — HObbit is just better than me when he killed me mid, I have nothing to say there. Yeah it feels good, it feels great to do the comeback. I can’t really believe it yet.

In this match, but also in general in the event you’ve been having a pretty good performance individually, free from the leadership reins. How has it been for you, not needing to manage the team?

Thank you! It’s super nice. Of course I want to be an IGL, but I also don’t want to be an IGL if that makes sense. I remember when I played with Ex6TenZ in GamerLegion for example, it was super nice being able to just sit there, hold my position, I’m getting information, he does a call ‘two are B, they’re here on B’ and I just go and kill them.

It’s super easy to not be IGL in my opinion, or do the role I am now. I don’t really have to take many gambles, I never go first, so I can know where they are when I come out. If I know where they are it’s easy to just go kill, and of course sometimes I still go first when I need to. It just feels super nice, I don’t have to think for everyone, I just have to think for myself and tell myself what to do, and it’s been working good I would say.

That Aleksib move came out of nowhere, it was kept under pretty good wraps by you all. What’s it been like playing with him and having him take over leading from you?

It’s been nice. I didn’t know him from before, I’ve only said hello to him at events and not really even had conversations, but I’ve always played against him. Even in tier two before, when he was in HAVU, I was in Passions, Red Reserve, all this stuff, so I’ve know him for a super long time as a player and I know he’s super good when I’ve played against him.

He’s just so smart, he brings structure which I think we need. And yeah, he’s just a great IGL, I don’t know why G2 didn’t want him.

One thing that was a question with him coming in was how you might be utilized, do you feel like you’ve been unleashed a little bit by the way he’s calling or is that just your own ability to go do as you please now?

I think it’s more my own ability to be honest. I think in my heart, I’m not really a full IGL, this is my role being in like a second caller, lurker, having a bit of freedom to do what I want, do some calls midround, things like this. I love to have this role I have now, and yeah, I’m aiming to win the Major [laughs].

Okay [laughing]. You weren’t the only one who had a role change though, you also had REZ go on to the AWP. There was a Swedish interview with djL that talked about how he has the mechanics for it, how do you feel about how he is performing in it?

It was expected. I knew how good he was with the AWP. I remember when we had nawwk or even device, I remember especially on Inferno we were down 7-0, 8-0 on the CT side, I was IGL and I was like, ‘okay nawwk, or devve [device] go B with AWP, Freddy [REZ] buy AWP on A,’ and every time he always killed three, so I always knew he was good with the AWP.

Already in the summer I talked with him about this, maybe you should be the main AWPer you know. It didn’t happen back then, but I’ve always known how good he is. He’s just a robot, doesn’t matter what weapon you give him. He’s just a skilled individual, mechanically god. Whatever you tell him to do he will do it good, if he needs to be a support player, rifler, AWPer, it doesn’t matter for him, he’s just a good CS player overall, a good gamer. If he plays another game he’s insane as well, so it’s just… a gift from god.

You said you talked with him about picking up the role before, why didn’t that happen back then and what enabled it now?

I don’t know to be honest, I don’t remember exactly. I think it was just me and him talking about it, nothing really set, it wasn’t an official meeting just two friends talking. I was like, ‘I think you can AWP right?’ and he was like ‘yeah,’ I think like this.

We changed now in Pro League when we sucked, when we lost all the games and then we were just like, let’s try something new because we were out of the group already, right? Yeah, and he played AWP the last two games I think, and we all saw how good it was.

Let’s talk about that EPL result quickly. Was that the final nail in the roster that caused the change, or were you already considering adding Aleksi before that?

I don’t know, I have no idea. It’s NIP who does these changes, like the management. I’m just a player, I’m here to do my job. Of course I have input, like they asked me what I think and all this, but in the end this is NIP’s decision.

Also, the way we played in Pro League was kinda on me, like I lost my luggage and I’m a bit of a freak with my mousepad, I got it and I’ve had it for so long. Then I had to play with a new mousepad so it felt like I had four sensitivity, and then I lowered my sens and everything was just bad for me in Pro League. When I had bad games as I did, we used to all have bad games or play like shit as a team, so yeah, Pro League was just on me I was shit.

Do you travel with your mousepad in your backpack now?

Yes I do [grinning]. I used to do it as well! I dunno, it was just… I don’t want to talk about that okay [laughing]. Air Malta’s fault, not my fault.

I had to ask! A better time in Malta for you this time around anyway.

Yup, yup!

You’re also speaking English [in the team] now, how is that change going for you?

It’s going okay. I mean it can still be a lot better I feel like, so… yeah, we just need some more time on this, like there is still some rounds where we do some call, someone doesn’t hear, someone doesn’t understand, like in these hectic stress situations. Sometimes a Swedish word pops up here and there, so yeah, we just need time, but we won 3-0 right so we’re doing good enough on that.

Not a problem for Brollan either? I know he’s previously said he wanted to speak Swedish.

Yeah, it’s going well for him as well. Like of course his English wasn’t the best, we knew from before, but he’s still young, he can still learn. He’s doing good, there’s not really a problem I would say.

Ending 3-0 here and going through early takes some stress off your shoulders. What is your plan until the Major starts now?

I don’t know actually. We have the Swedish cup to play in a week or whatever it is, next weekend maybe, so we’re going to do that, hopefully win it. I think we’re the favorites, we should be. Play against JW, flusha those guys, going to be nice. I wanted to play against them on LAN since I was a little boy you know, so… going to beat them.

After that we probably have a bootcamp, like nothing special in my opinion. Even if it’s the Major, it’s still just a tournament, and you just play Counter-Strike right? Even if it’s a Major and we’re in a Major final, Major group, doesn’t matter for me. We will just prepare as usual as any tournament, and go in to perform.

Do you think with the form here you can fight for the top five, like that NAVI-FaZe-G2-Vitality-Cloud9-Liquid area?

Yeah. I mean, we beat Cloud9 right, which is there, and we beat Bad News Eagles and Astralis pretty comfortably I would say. Still, we’ve only played five maps here and we don’t really know how our map pool is yet. Of course it’s one thing in practice, but there’s another thing when you play officials, so I can’t say anything about that yet, I don’t know. Of course I want us to be and I hope we are, but we’ll see it in Rio.