With all the recent rumors flying around forums and various websites about SK.swe and the reformation of NiP, it seems as though the news has surfaced. The Legendary clan Ninjas in Pyjamas, NiP, has reformed.

Many of the older CS Players remember NiP from their famous performance at CPL Winter 2001 which many consider the best match in the History of CS between them and X3. NiP has now returned with three of the member from the old lineup of these 6 players.

Emil 'HeatoN' Christensen *
Tommy 'Potti' Ingemarsson *
Michael 'ahl' Korduner *
Christer 'fisker' Eriksson
Daniel 'Hyper' Kuusisto
Abdisamad 'Spawn' Mohamed

* former NiP members

Trevor "Midway" Schmidt has conducted an interview with NiP-HeatoN

Midway : So first off, looks like you're on a new tag, tell me a little about the new/old team?

NiP-HeatoN : Yup, our contract with SK ran out yesterday and we chose to not renew it, so here we are now starting back up NiP with a strong organization behind us and the exact same team.

Midway : You say the exact same team, there was rumors that some of the guys may stick around, such as Spawn who signed a contract later this isn't the case?

NiP-HeatoN : Nope, none of us have a contract with SK anymore and the team is going to be exactly the same as before, but with Potti active again.

Midway : What would be the time schedule for seeing the new NiP team in action, would Opihack be your first event or would the team hold off until Summer CPL?

NiP-HeatoN : Well, we have some big news coming up, but unfortunately we will not be attending Optihack due to lack of time to preparation. I guess the CPL World Tour events and some smaller lans in Europe are the things we are going to attend until the Summer CPL.

Midway : Well I have to ask about SK, when did the team first start to become unhappy with their contracts and the organization?

NiP-HeatoN : Well, we had felt for a long time that we weren't as big a part of the organization as we wanted to be and got in some problems about the contract for 2005. When they decided not to send us to CPL we made up our mind to leave SK and reform NiP.

Midway : There were rumors that SK didn't send you to CPL because you wouldn't renew your contracts, is this true?

NiP-HeatoN : Yes that is true, they sent SK.Ger who already had won a CPL qualifier so it didn't cost anything to send the team.

Midway : Some people also had the opinion that BDS was double dipping your prize money, making money as a manager with an equal cut and salary from the SK organization, can you comment on that?

NiP-HeatoN : Well, it's true that he got just as much as the players from the prize money, but a salary from the SK organization I don't know since they never told us anything about it. The only thing I knew about this was that he owned a part of the SK company.

Midway : SK seem to really have a company built around you guys with SK Insider and sponsors based off of you, can you say what your official pay was with them and can you talk about what led to the final break up with them?

NiP-HeatoN : Yeah SK Did a great job around building us up with PR-tours, Insider, etc.. but unfortunately for us we never got a piece of that. I would rather not talk about our salaries but lets just say you can get better elswhere. The things that probably made us break up with SK was that there were a lot of small problems and when the CPL issue arose, we decided to leave.

Midway : What new management do you have setup for NiP and lots of people want to know do you have the old NiP url/website that we can expect to be put up?

NiP-HeatoN : We will have a brand new website coming up in about 3-4 weeks and when it will be realeased there will be a lot of more information and some big news!

Midway : Can we expect to see a new title sponsor for this team, getting sponsors is tough for a team most people don't know about considering it's over a couple years old?

NiP-HeatoN : Well lets just say there isnt a normal Manager that stands behind us so if things goes as planned, we should see some really big stuff for the CS community which will make the game become even bigger and more proffesional.

Midway : There was rumor that SK would be going to WEG, the Korean 8-week league, would NiP be replacing that team?

NiP-HeatoN : Yes, we were invited to go there with SK but now I feel it is a little to soon to go, it would have been great if the league was in a couple of months.

Midway : Does NiP plan to play CS Source like its CS or are you guys planning to play at ESWC with 1.6 instead?

NiP-HeatoN : We haven't made up our minds about that yet, but if the Pro-mode for CS:S will be out then, we will most likely go for Source.

Midway : Do you have any idea what the future holds for SK, would you be willing to speculate, are they going to pick up a team like EYE because Insider was based entirely off of you meaning its pretty empty now?

NiP-HeatoN : Well of course SK will pick up a new team and try to start insider with that. I feel really sorry for our fans who bought insider to see us but there might be something for you guys to come!

Midway : Well my final question involves seeding for CPL, you have three members from the old NiP if i'm correct (ahl, potti and you), do you think CPL will give you guys a favorable seeding and are you concerned with maybe getting SK.swe's seed transfer to NiP?

NiP-HeatoN : Yeah I think we might at least get a top5 seed for having the whole SK Team and using the old NiP name but the seeding isnt so much of a deal for us. If you are the best team there you have to win all games, no matter who you play!

Special thanks to Emil 'HeatoN' Christensen for conducting this interview with us. We wish them luck with their new future.