Simon ‘twist’ Eliasson admits that the departure of Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg came as a surprise.
F0rest, who spent nearly eight years of his career at Ninjas in Pyjamas left for Dignitas last week - a move which came as a shock to many, including his team-mate twist.
Despite having only played together for four months, twist confesses that he considered f0rest as a friend, and didn't quite expect the NiP veteran to leave.
He said: "It kind of came as a surprise that f0rest left - things were going well, we made playoffs at every tournament but I understood his decision.
"I really like him as a player and as a friend, he's a really genuine guy. Him wanting to leave obviously hurt us because he was a big part of the team, he was one of the OG members.
"I had my suspicions from before I joined NiP - the team were having problems before I joined so I kind of knew a bit about it but since it was going quite well I didn't expect it."
In the wake of f0rest's departure, NiP Bjorn 'THREAT' Pers was promoted to coach and they also picked up Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson - a 22-year-old hybrid player who has been making a stir in the Swedish scene.
Twist believes this new roster has what it takes to go far at the BLAST Premier spring season as they take on FaZe Clan in their opening match.
He said: "nawwk is a really good player - we're coming into this tournament as a new team with a new set up and a new structure so I'd say that's our advantage. No one knows how we'll play.
"I have a lot of confidence in my new team - we'll have to see how it goes. In the beginning, admittedly, we looked shaky but after our Bootcamp, it's looking quite promising.
"Of course we can beat FaZe Clan again, they have some of the best players but us coming in as a fresh new team can beat them for sure. We're just going to do our thing, see what they're doing but not adapt too much because I still believe we're the better team."
