NiP’s Forthcoming Future Post IEM Katowice 2019

The last time NiP was in a Major playoff was three years ago at the MLG Columbus Major in 2016. After that event, it was all downhill for the legendary roster.

With no other option left, they began rebuilding their team from the core. That process has finally paid off. Three years later, NiP made it to the playoffs of a CS:GO Major.

Where it all began- the fading of the NiP touch

NiP is a legendary name. Their dominance dates from the beginning of CS:GO to 2013. They conquered the scene, became the world’s best, and set the record of the longest unbeaten run (the 87-0).

The lineup that achieved this was: Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson, Richard “Xizt” Landstrom, Adam “friberg” Friberg, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, and Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg. They were the first to scale the heights of CS:GO competition and in this way set the standard for what it means to be the best in the world.

Post 2015, NiP were slowing down. They were still the juggernauts, but faced competition from new  guns like Fnatic, LDLC/EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro and TSM/Astralis were in the race for the #1 spot

After IEM Oakland 2016, the team had dropped to the utter pits and there was no coming back for the legendary roster. The team began cutting players from their roster and added two new players called Fredrik “REZ” Sterner and William “draken” Sundin.

This did work well for the team but was no where close to their old level. The team finally understood what was on the cards; another roster change

The Rise

In early 2018, the team announced Faruk “pita” Pita as their new coach and the arrival of  Dennis “dennis” Edman from Fnatic. Lastly, NiP traded draken for Jonas “lekr0” Olofsson to Fnatic and had rebuilt their roster with lekr0 being the IGL. The changes got NiP back to life, the lekr0 and pita partnership was successful. The team finally began seeing some light at the end of the tunnel      

IEM Katowice 2019

The IEM Katowice 2019 Major is the first tournament in the 2019 circuit. For NiP, the run to the Major playoffs shows their efforts in coming back from scratch . In the Challengers stage, NiP came strong and qualified for the Legends Stage by going 3-2.

In the Legends stage, NiP made it to the top 8 but were knocked out in the semi-finals by Astralis thus putting an end to the fairy tail.

Read more on the journey of ENCE.