Joona ''natu'' Leppänen looking back at his time as coach for NiP

Joona ''natu'' Leppänen looks back at his time at NiP, assesses problems and wishes best of luck to the team

Recently we saw Joona ''natu'' Leppänen, coach of NiP, leave the team after poor results at ESL One Cologne and in general. It was clearly a hard, but necessary decision to make, in attempt to restructure the once dominant team. Natu departed gracefully and went to Facebook to express and elaborate on his time with the Swedish organisation and the individual players.

Posted a blog about my time with NiP on my Facebook page at https://t.co/Nmt1wwgRxB for some thoughts through my eyes #esports #esportsfi

— Joona Leppänen (@natuCSGO) August 31, 2015

Here are some quotes from his blog:

First of all I want to emphasize the fact that I would take the same decision of joining NiP every single time, even though the time wasn’t as fruitful as I’d expect – it has taught me a lot and given me very much. The team has some of the greatest fans in the industry and it was a pleasure to get to see that first hand. The players are great people and I have made new friends I can share a beer with in any given occasion.”

Later he went on to explain the issues present in the team:

What took me by surprise was the fact that there were a lot of things outside the game that unfortunately had their toll on actual playing. Things I would have no control over and most of them things I don’t wish to elaborate more on. But what I can say is there were many psychologically challenging issues. Players you have seen win it all and break records proving to be in a fragile state in terms of self-confidence is not something you’d expect to be working with when talking about NiP.
What this team badly needed was a few big wins, get over that hump and feel confident and relaxed in those situations. We could have achieved that had we taken a break early in the summer and decided to focus in practicing instead of going to events and leagues, losing more games and losing more self-confidence. ”

In conclusion the following was said:

It was best for both parties that we went our separate ways. The team has a lot of questions to be asked going down the road and I won’t be taking stance on those matters out of respect toward them. With one thing coming to an end, new opportunities arise. I’m definitely staying in the industry and I have things on the works that I’ll be involved with – together with doing casting / analysing at tournaments as well.”

Best of luck to Joona in his future endeavours!

Source of photo: Flickr