HeatoN: ”We won’t make any roster changes”
avESWC was not the biggest tournament of the year, nor was it the most appreciated by the players and viewers alike.
Yet, after the dust had settled, a French reshuffling will commence as well as a Ukrainian team looking to disband. Though Ninjas in Pyjamas dramatically lost their quarterfinals, the Swedish side will remain the same.
– It is sort of like taking morphine when you shuffle the squads as soon as things don’t go to well – you don’t fix the problem, Emil ”HeatoN” Christensen told Aftonbladet Esport when asked what will happen to the famous Swedish team.
Ninjas in Pyjamas experienced a disheartening loss at the hands of Flipsid3 Tactics during the quarterfinals of ESWC. Their opponents would later lose to Na’Vi and are seemingly looking to do a roster change.
At the same time, the former number on Team EnvyUs, once again fell to Cloud9. Shortly after the loss, Mike ”Hastr0” Rufail, took to Twitter acknowledging that a new, though still only probable, French reshuffling was on the horizon. Emil ”HeatoN” Christensen, the manager of Ninjas in Pyjamas, will not make the same decision.
– It feels like everybody is looking for easy solutions. In terms of our team, the problem is a bit deeper than just the need of a new player or any other major change. Seemingly, after loosing all the finals we have played in have put up a mental barrier for us, and we need to overcome that, HeatoN says to Aftonbladet Esport.
– We have reached so many finals in an obviously competitive scene where a lot of good teams compete, so we have the talent on the team – we just need to win one final in order for the ketchup effect to hopefully start rolling out.
The core of Ninjas in Pyjamas have remained the same ever since August 2012. Coming up on three years together, Adam ”friberg” Friberg, Christopher ”GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, Patrik ”f0rest” Lindberg and Richard ”Xizt” Landström have only seen two roster changes. First Robin ”fifflaren” Johansson was replaced by Mikail ”Maikelele” Bill, who later was cut in place of Aleksi ”allu” Jalli. And according to HeatoN, there are no plans to remodel the team.
– I’ve been saying it a long time, for several months, that all we need is one win in a tournament and then we will be a force to be reckoned with. We will have our confidence back and everybody knows what it is like playing against us when we believe in ourselves.
– The guys are extremely motivated and are trying to improve their game every day. There are a lot people complaining on the internet all the time, but we who work with this know what needs to be done – and we are all in agreement in terms of those aspects of the game.
What would you attribute the rise and dominance of Fnatic and Team SoloMid?
– TSM used to be known as a team who choked on the biggest of stages in the playoffs, but I always knew they had the talent to be a top 3 team in the world. And as soon as Finn ’karrigan’ Andersen came in, they took a step over the hurdle and are now one of the best teams out there.
– When it comes to Fnatic, they have several players who are simply beasts and the form they are having make them a unstoppable force right now.