CSGO legend friberg leaves Heroic, seeks new challenge

Adam ‘friberg’ Friberg, former Ninjas in Pyjamas legend, has let his contract run out with Heroic, and is seeking a new competitive opportunity.

“A hypeman, a joker and The King of Banana,” said teammate Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen about friberg. Now the king is looking to conquer a new kingdom.

• Read more: How to watch StarLadder CSGO Major New Legends Stage

Friberg made his decision on his Heroic contract weeks ago, and now the contract has officially ended right between stages of the StarLadder Berlin major. Heroic’s journey to the major ended early, as they failed to qualify for the European Minor, losing to NoChance and CR4ZY.

After being eliminated in the EU Minor qualifier, Heroic went on to have some okay results at ESL Cologne and IEM Chicago. One week ago, Heroic released their in-game leader Niels Christian ‘NaToSaphiX’ Sillassen after only a few months with the team, having signed him in May. 

NaTo was originally brought in as an AWPer, but was switched over to IGL, and was just starting to perform in that role well before he was let go.

In a twitlonger post, friberg acknowledged some of Heroic’s triumphs and shortcomings:

“We started to do better in the last few big tournaments but unfortunately didn’t make it to the play-offs in any tier 1 tournament. Now I want a new challenge.”

In his post, friberg said he is looking for opportunities with a Swedish or international team, and is willing to relocate to either Asia or North America for the right situation. 

In the team’s goodbye post, he even acknowledged the amount of Danish he as learned, so another Danish team isn’t out of the question.

In that official team goodbye post, Heroic CEO Erik Askered said of Friberg:

“Having a player like Adam Friberg on your team is not just having any other experienced player. His calm and solution oriented way of dealing with things, whether on- or offline, has helped both team and org during this period. 

Adam is a great guy, and I together with the rest of our management sincerely wish him the best of luck. Heroic will always keep an open door for you, Mr. Friberg.”

Friberg’s legendary status comes from his historic five-year tenure with Ninjas in Pyjamas. NiP retained the four man core of friberg, Richard ‘Xizt’ Landström, Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg, and Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund until friberg’s departure in July 2017. 

• Read more: NiP address player mistreatment allegations after WESA investigation launched

The NiP core four appeared in the grand finals of the first five majors, winning one of them in ESL Cologne 2014. 

Since then, the core four would consistently switch out their fifth and decline and recover several times over the next few years. After Berlin, only f0rest will remain on NiP from the original core four.