Counter-Strike: niko out and zyppe in for H2k

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NEWS

By Duncan 'Thorin' Shields

Dec 27, 2009 22:01

H2k have announced the departure of niko and his replacement in the form of Zyppe from Coldfrag/Begrip.

With Niklas 'niko' Johansson stepping down from his position in H2k Gaming the Swedes have looked to ex-Coldfrag (more recently known as Begrip) player Samuel 'Zyppe' Martinsson to fill his shoes.

The outgoing niko said on the H2k website:

"I no longer have the time to play CS professionally since I got a fulltime job so it feels kinda sad to quit playing. I would like to thank everyone for the support and to my family and friends that have stood out with me when I was playing instead of hanging out :) Peace out!"

New man Zyppe provided the following words:

"I'm very grateful for this opportunity to join this team. All of the four guys are really good players and I have played with them a lot. I have not played with Snajdan so much but for what I’ve seen and heard about him it’s great and I like his game plans. I think all of the players together are a really good team with great skill. By time I think we will get together as one of the top teams in the world."

H2k Gaming:
Jim 'zneel' Andersson
Emil 'FYRR73' Karlsson
Mattias 'Snajdan' Andersen
Abdisamad 'SpawN' Mohamed
Samuel 'Zyppe' Martinsson

niko (once known as nikolaus) also played for Speedlink, Begrip, EYE and Blank. With Speedlink he took 8th at WSVG ISC in 2006. He joined Begrip, ironically, as one of the replacements for the outgoing face who would of course later be his team-mate in Blank and H2k. niko was one of the players in the Swedish team whose career was plagued by his team's having their best players cherry-picked by the elite sides.

In Blank it was GuX, in H2k it was first face and kHRYSTAL but then later on threat. All of these players then went on to bigger successes while niko and the others had to rebuild. Throughout his career niko played with a whole host of the current top level new blood including GeT_RiGhT. He also played with a really old school player in Rwa.

While a member of H2k niko was able to help the team to seconds at the IOL Season 1 Final Four and the WCG Sweden qualifier. At the Grant Finals of the WCG the team team 9th-16th after losing to the eventual champions AGAiN. At DreamHack Winter they took 5th-8th but lost to France's Millenium.

Zyppe has made his name over the last few months for his play with Coldfrag who pulled off a couple of big time upsets at DreamHack Winter and Arbalet Cup Europe on train as they defeated mTw.int and EG.US at those events respectively. Coldfrag then became Begrip and looked to be the next team to take their shot at rising up to the next level as a complete unit.

Source: H2k-gaming via HLTV.org
(Photograph copyright of fragbite)