Fifflaren: "Probably No.1 in Europe"

We sat down with Ninjas in Pyjamas captain Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson following his team's victory at DreamHack Valencia and quizzed the former CS:Source player on the tournament.

The Swedish team, who consist of three former 1.6 players and two ex-CS:S men, proved that they a force to be reckoned with by defeating VeryGames 2-0 in the final to win their first international event in CS:GO and keep their unbeaten run.

In this interview, Johansson talks about the feeling to beat a team who were at the top in the CS:Source scene for so long, Nathan "NBK" Schmitt's comments about the advantage of having several players who can master the AWP on the team and also what this victory represents to his side.

Your team won the final two maps to nil. Did you expect a more difficult game? Were you happy with your team’s performance?

We are happy with our performance, I think VeryGames actually played really well, I think we pretty much got what we expected, they played like we thought they would. It was a tough game for us and just ended up winning in the end.

How does it feel to beat a team that has been playing together for four years?

It feels good in a way, but then again we have to keep in mind that this is a new game, even though it is run on the CS:Source engine. You have to remember that everything about the game has changed. It feels good to beat a team that has been playing together for four years, but they have only just switched to CS:GO, just like us, so we are on the same field.

NBK said yesterday that having four snipers on the team could be a big advantage on some maps. What do you think about it, considering you are pretty much the only one using the AWP on your team?

I think that on maps like de_train, for example, it is beneficial, because they can use two AWPs, which they did, and I think it worked really well for them in some cases. But as of right now, the AWP is not used that much, I barely play with it, as well. On some maps it might be good, but I think the game is at a stage in which you do not really need a lot of AWPs, maybe because of the way the flashes and the smokes are built and basically the way the game has been built.

Do you see yourselves as the number one team in the world right now?

I think we are probably the number one team in Europe right now. We haven’t played against the Americans, but I cannot wait to meet them at the ESWC.