Heading into the new season, Ninjas in Pyjamas unveiled their revamped 2025 lineup, featuring no fewer than four new players.
Among the fresh additions is Rasmus “sjuush” Beck – widely regarded as one of the best anchors in the game.
We had the chance to speak with the former HEROIC profile about his move to NIP, his impressions of the new roster, and the challenges the team faces due to their lack of VRS points.
Want to build something from scratch
When asked what drew him to NIP’s offer, sjuush emphasized the chance to create something new.
A team that won’t get “picked apart,” the Dane says.
– I want to build something from scratch. I want to build something great. Not a team that can easily be picked apart or players getting sold, where you have to start all over again. I had a feeling that if I stayed with HEROIC, it would be like that.
– I had a lot of meetings with NIP before joining, and in general, I think the way they do things is more professional than most organizations. The only thing I have to do is basically just to live and breathe CS.
sjuush on the new NIP roster
The rebuilt NIP squad blends seasoned veterans like sjuush and 34-year-old in-game leader Snappi with three young prospects: r1nkle, ewjerkz, and arrozdoce.
– r1nkle has an insane amount of talent. With the right tools, he can evolve so fast. And then we have the young Portuguese duo- They don’t have that much experience, but they are open-minded – r1nkle as well. And if they keep their mind open, Snappi and I can teach them so many things, sjuush says about his new teammates.
He continues:
– It’s insane the amount of experience that Snappi has, and he has built great rosters of more unknown players before. So, I have a lot of trust in him further developing r1nkle, arrozdoce and ewjerkz.
What will your role be on and off the server?
– I think I will have a good partnership with Snappi, where I can take some charge of the server as well. Make mid-round calls, take some initiative and build up their confidence. I think I have a lot of qualities I can give to the young guys.
– With Snappi’s and my help, I don’t see why it should be a problem to bring these players up to a level that they probably didn’t even think of beforehand.
Tough climb towards the top
sjuush joined NIP after four years with HEROIC, a period during which he regularly competed at the game’s most prestigious tournaments.
However, that won’t be the immediate reality for NIP.
Due to their lack of ranking points on Valve’s global leaderboard, the team is likely to miss out on most tier-one events during the first half of 2025.
– We definitely have to perform already from the start to get as many Valve points as possible, so we can get invites to some bigger tournaments. Then we have to do good at these tournaments to get even bigger tournaments. So, we have to start from scratch, playing some qualifiers and play-ins to smaller tier events. But it doesn’t matter if it takes three or even six months to get to a big tournament as long as we just get there.
– As said, we have to do good from the beginning. There’s not really that much room for failure. It’s rough [missing all the big tournaments this season]. But I know I’ll be there at some point again.
This was the second part of our interview with sjuush. Read the first part here.
