NIP are officially starting a new stage of their rebuild: Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer left the active roster after a mutual agreement with the organization. The Danish captain spent more than a year and a half with the team, helped it get through a difficult reset period, but now the club is preparing to pass leadership to a new IGL.
Snappi leaves the active roster
The decision does not look like a sudden breakup, but rather like a logical change of direction. NIP directly thanked Snappi for his work, emphasizing that he played an important role in rebuilding the roster and helped the team go from unranked status to Stage 2 at a Major.
For Snappi himself, this step may also become an important moment in his career. He is 36 years old, with almost two decades in professional Counter-Strike behind him, so a transition into a new role after such a long period as a player looks like a completely natural scenario.
A year and a half of rebuilding
Snappi became NIP’s captain at the start of 2025, when he replaced Alejandro “alex” Masanet. His task was not just to lead the team in matches, but effectively to build the foundation for a new project that was supposed to bring the organization closer to a stable level.
The most noticeable major result during this period was reaching the quarter-finals of PGL Astana. In addition, the team won several smaller tournaments, including Fragadelphia Las Vegas, HyperX Roman Imperium Cup VI, and Stake Ranked Episode 2. This did not make NIP a stable tier-1 force, but it gave the roster a certain foundation.
Why changes became inevitable
The main problem was that NIP still could not establish themselves among the strongest teams on a permanent basis. For most of the period with Snappi, the team remained outside the top 20 in VRS, which seriously limited its tournament prospects and the stability of invitations.
Another factor was the individual form of the captain himself. Snappi was once considered an IGL who could provide decent fragging, but in matches against top-20 opponents, his average rating during this period was 0.83. For a team that wants to return to the elite, this became an additional argument in favor of an update.
NIP are looking for a new leader
After Snappi’s departure from the active roster, NIP effectively open two questions at once: who will become the new captain and how the team will close the current roster structure. In addition to searching for an IGL, the club also needs to decide on the position currently occupied by stand-in Roman “n0te” Hamze.
At the moment, the active roster looks like this:
- Denmark Rasmus “sjuush” Beck
- Poland Kacper “xKacpersky” Gabara
- Denmark Martin “stavn” Lund
- Belgium Roman “n0te” Hamze (stand-in)
- Sweden Richard “Xizt” Landström (coach)
- Denmark Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer (benched)
A new stage for NIP
For NIP, this is not just the replacement of one player. It is about changing the leadership model, on which the entire next stage of the team’s development will depend. The roster has experienced players and strong individual resources, but without a stable captain, this potential is difficult to turn into regular results.
Snappi leaves behind not a trophy-winning era, but an important transition period. He helped NIP build a foundation after a deep rebuild, and now the organization has to take the next step — find a new leader who can not only maintain the structure, but take it to a higher level.
