Emil ”HeatoN” Christensen was a part of the generation that put esports on the map in both Sweden, Europe and to some extent the entire world. The time after his pro days have been as least as hectic, and now it takes yet an other turn.
– This was something I never thought would happen 15 years ago when I was playing computer games in my room, the star says to Aftonbladet Esport regarding his new found career in modeling.

For football players and sports stars in generally it’s not uncommon to be modeling on the side of their usually lustruous careers. Now the esport community also becomes a place where tailors and bigger retail-clothing companies can find people wearing their clothes in front of the cameras. Ninjas in Pyjamas HeatoN is now perhaps the first model to spring from the eSports world as he’ll pose for Stayhard’s new collection.
– I really could never imagine this happening, but at the same time I didn’t think that esports would become this huge this quickly. And the fact that we see esport-profiles becoming models is only a testiment for how big the sports we love have become, Emil ”HeatoN” Christensen says to Aftonbladet Esport.

”It has worked really well with Natu”

Today, HeatoN has become a jack-of-all-trades outside of esports, he is also responsible for the success of Ninjas in Pyjamas – something we’ve seen fairly little of the last few months. But the team recently acquired a coach in Joona ”natu” Leppänen who the organization hope will bring back the team to the top. A few weeks have gone since the former captain of 3DMAX joined the team and HeatoN gives his opinion on the new formula in the CS:GO-team.
– It has worked really well, he have been given the team structure during training sessions and he is very dedicated on improving our own game as well as analyzing the opponents.

”We need more structure in terms of tournaments”

Ninjas in Pyjamas have started out in the new gigantic ESL ESEA Pro League a bit above par.After four games the famous Swedish side have only managed one victory and at the time of writing have a -17 round difference. With that being said, many games still remain in the league, and NiP are going all in on the competition.

– It have been really positively for CS in general that this league came to be, so that feels great, HeatoN says and continues:
– Regarding the question whether it would have been a good thing if the league have locked the greatest teams, I’d say that wouldn’t have been optimal. But at the same time I believe we need more structure in terms of tournaments and not the wild west we have right now, Emil ”HeatoN” Christensen says when asked about the discussions prior to the statement from ESL that the new super league would not lock up the biggest organizations.