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A letter from NIP management

At the start of the fall season we had assessed the team from multiple angles and identified team cohesion as by far the factor that most acutely needed addressing. This is a factor that fans by definition cannot observe, but one which everyone who's ever played a team sport will understand: call it vibes, if you will. When vibes are bad, everything else suffers β€” you lose control of the team and are left to pray that somebody pops off, game after game. No amount of pracs, physical training, mental work or nade lineups can make up for the ability to trust that your teammates are with you when you're down 10-2 and you're losing a pistol round, or that team leadership will have your back if you lose three more rounds. Our first batch of changes addressed this factor directly, and we saw instant improvements.

The release of CS2 brought with it a roster shuffle where teams were operating with little visibility β€” the size of the changes made to the game meant that there was no way to be certain even the top CS:GO players would adjust as well as other less well-established players. This, combined with the fact that our RMR slot hinged on retaining core players who were getting along well, led to us deciding to not disrupt the roster further. Doing so would have required a massive leap of faith based on virtually no data.

When the team finally came together after BLAST Fall finals and got to practice as five, results were very promising. We saw steady improvement in pre-season, and went into the RMR with a mix of confidence and hope. More importantly, though: we came into it with a clear plan for what to do if those hopes were dashed. Today, we’re introducing further changes to help us tackle two other factors of team performance: consistency and how we utilize the AWP.

So, after taking the weekend to communicate with all stakeholders, today we're announcing the first set of changes to the team.

We are parting ways with coach Daniel "djL" Narancic, as well as our analyst Thomas "haste" Dyrensborg. Furthermore, we are moving to the bench Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke, Patrick "es3tag" Hansen and Daniil "headtr1ck" Valitov.

To fill the resulting void, Max "maxster" Jansson, Leo "Silence" Ingvarsson and Maoz "BluePho3nix" Paz will be making the move to the main team from BLAST Spring Showdown onward, on a temporary basis. Joining them, BjΓΆrn β€œTHREAT” Pers will step in temporarily as the coach.

Over the past two years, Young Ninjas, as a project, has been crucial to our ability to deal with sudden roster changes and this time is no different. Their inclusion buys us a level of flexibility that places us in a strong position for the inevitable post-RMR and post-Major shuffles.

We expect the next few months to present many interesting opportunities and we are well-positioned to capitalize: we have a strong financial position, top-tier infrastructure and a ton more data on what makes a good CS2 player. Most importantly, though, we have an established philosophy of practicing and managing all the things that constitute vibes, and a player mindset that fits that philosophy.

A few months from now, a new squad of Ninjas will rise from the ashes, and the whole team is working with a clarity of purpose that infuses us with hope for the future. Whether it all works out, we cannot predict β€” but we expect our fans to keep holding us to account. That is the purpose of this letter: for you all to be able to follow along as we try our damndest to make it back to the top, where we belong.

TL;DR? That's fine, you can follow @ErikWendel and @THREAT_CS on Twitter, or wait for the next episode of Roster Maniacs.

NIP

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