Ninjas in Pyjamas’ campaign at the Thunderpick World Championship ended after two straight group losses, to Falcons and Aurora. After the elimination, HLTV spoke with newly minted in-game leader Karim “Krimbo” Moussa about the run.
NIP came to Malta in the middle of a hectic schedule, with another event waiting right after. Krimbo is also adapting to a new role while chasing a return to the Major stage.
A Crazy Schedule Between Stockholm and Malta
NIP won their Stake Pulse Beat III group in Stockholm before traveling to Malta. Three days later, the team had to fly straight back to Sweden to finish the playoffs from Friday. As a result, NIP had almost no time to prepare for the Thunderpick World Championship.
Krimbo described how tight the trip was.
It’s a crazy schedule for us right now. We arrived Tuesday evening here, played yesterday morning, and we are going to go straight to the airport now and play tomorrow against, I think, Liquid.
This was NIP’s fourth event in a row. According to Krimbo, the player’s own wishes are simple: he always wants to play the biggest tournaments against the best teams. However, he says the choice of events belongs to the coaching staff and management. He also believes the travel makes the team stronger.
Two Close Games Against Falcons and Aurora
In Malta, NIP lost to Falcons and then to Aurora. Krimbo felt the team had a good game plan on Ancient against Falcons and on Cache against Aurora. However, NIP could not close out either map.
He pointed out that the Ancient scoreline looks worse than the game felt. NIP lost two ecos and had weak money, and the team also lost two clutches. Moreover, against teams of this level, rounds often come down to mid-round and late-round skill. In his view, NIP know what they did wrong. They had only one week of pure practice before this, because the team mostly played officials.
Krimbo also spoke about the Dust2 map. Stavn had a rough game there, but Krimbo called him one of the most self-critical players he has played with. In his words, NIP were in good spots every round and did not hit their shots. Meanwhile, XANTARES hit many good rounds and shots on the other side.
Why Krimbo Wanted This Experience
Even so, Krimbo saw value in the trip. He wanted the team to gain experience at a tier-one event. Stavn and sjuush have played a lot of tier-one matches, while adamb and xKacpersky have not played so many years at this level. Therefore, Krimbo wanted to see how the team reacts under pressure.
Of course, we wanted to make them sweat a bit, Falcons and also Aurora. They are, I don’t know, the fourth- and fifth-best teams in the world right now. And yeah, I think we should have at least won a map. But we just have to learn from this tournament and keep going.
Learning the IGL Role
HLTV also asked Krimbo about his first impressions as an in-game leader. HLTV had spoken with him a month earlier in Belgrade, at the 1win tournament. Since then, NIP have won two trophies under his leadership.
Krimbo says he really likes the role. However, he admits the team has not found its style yet. There has been little time to talk through many things. He is still proud of how NIP learn from their official matches.
He also has to change as a player. Before, he was an anchor, a lurker or more of a supportive player. Now he sometimes sacrifices for the team and plays rotator positions on the CT side. Even so, he feels comfortable and thinks the team simply needs more time.
Two Trophies and a Major Race
Krimbo explained how it feels to lift trophies as an IGL compared with playing as a regular player.
Yeah, it’s more satisfying because you put in so much work, you analyze this team, then this team, especially when you play these smaller LANs, you play game after game after game, you don’t know who you play soon, and everything is so stressful.
At the same time, he does not overstate the results. The titles are not the biggest ones, and he feels the team has not achieved much yet. Still, the two wins have changed the Major picture. Krimbo was told a day earlier that NIP had a 3% chance in the Major race. He does not know their chances now. For him, going from “They’re not going to do it” to “Maybe they’re going to do it” is more satisfying.
A Major return would mean a lot to the German, since it has been two years since Shanghai. He calls Majors, along with Cologne, the biggest tournaments of the year.
But in general, it’s not only about this Major. It’s not about qualifying for this Major and then our job is done and we can relax.
Why This Matters for NIP
In short, NIP leave Malta without a map win against two top teams. However, Krimbo takes clear lessons from the event, and the team has little time to dwell on it. Next, NIP return to Stockholm for the Stake Pulse Beat III playoffs, with a match against Liquid expected on the following day. If the team keeps learning at this pace, its first Major in two years for Krimbo may be within reach.
