Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson, founding member of the best team in history, Ninjas in Pyjamas, announced his departure from the team a few days ago. He retires at 26, after having experienced everything. The most beautiful victories but also the biggest disappointments… His eight year long career gave him nice surprises. Let’s come back together on his history, starting with his key role in the golden age of Sweden on CS: Source.

The climax of the CS:S Swedish scene

Coming from 1.6 where he never really played competitively and approaching his majority, Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson starts to play on Source at its release. It’s one year later, at the beginning of 2006 that he creates his very first team named Adastra, a tag that will become mythical. He surrounds himself with Jonas “nordQvist” Nordqvist, Joacim “majk” Kroon, Ted “haunted” Svensson and, last but not least, Erik “HaZ” Holm who will be very important in his evolution as a player. Four players with a very similar profile: old 1.6 player who directly switched on Source.

It’s after only two weeks of practice in April 2006 that Adastra start their adventure offline, during the ninth edition of the Slap Lan. This Danish event was a must for the European CS:S scene with a pretty appealing cash prize. It gathered the best teams of the continent, including the recent winners of the NorthCon 2005, the Germans from animosity (dav1d, disruptor, JLN, doN, nimrod).

Their first offline event goes perfectly well and Fifflaren leads his teammates to their first victory, and what a victory! Beating the favorite team in the grand final and taking home 2,000€ permits them to be considered as one of the best European team. It’s then no surprise to see an American organisation called zEx getting interested into Adastra in June. The agreements were signed on the 7th and Fifflaren joined his first team with Fredrik "vizzion" Nilsson instead of HaZ.

This first organisation allows them to travel once again, to Finland this time to one of the biggest lan of the country : the Assembly Summer. The new zEx defy their Finnish peers on their ground, including the Insigna Cadre of aNGeLdusT (Jonssen, gRiLLi, Eversor, albbis, aNgeldust), here again, one of the best team of the old continent. And there again, the Swedes manage to reach the final against the favorite team, thanks to a victory against Logitech.fi (Kankeli, Toku, topsikrt, Dsltr, odiouz) on the final of the lower braket. The Insigna Cadre will end up winning 10-16, 16-14 leaving zEx second and with 700€ of cash prize. This final will actually stay, according to aNGeLdusT, as one of the best moment of his huge career.

Four months of existence and already two very good results. Fifflaren, leader already filled, impress together with his teammates. Next to its main competition, the Assembly Summer host the first lan final of the EuroCup XIII, the only competition organised by ClanBase, ancestors of the ESL Major Series. They will manage to win this final by beating the second best Finnish team Logitech.fi after an epic match ending on a 22-20 on the third map!

Nevertheless, communication problems with the American managers lead the swedes to leave the structure. zEx is willing to focus on their North American 1.6 roster which will later welcome da_bears.

Fifflaren’s team finds its old tag back, Adastra. Even with no  sponsors, they will still travel to the four corners of Scandinavia. It’s with Mathias “maths” Eneström-Jönsson  that they will take part to the HardWare Lan in Norway. After challenging the Finns, Fifflaren’s team takes care of the best teams in Norway. Favorites in this tournament, they will fall in the lower bracket against the surprising Danes from Ministry of Defence (vnG, krogh, h0lm, rytme, Lundze). Far from being despondent, they will climb up to the final, and at the end of a marathon game, they will bow to the best norwegian team at that time, multiGamer (dROzo, snipealot, effeCt, OppY, PROEY).

Adastra put his title back in play a few days later during the Slap Lan 10, but once again they are lacking that little something that could have make them win a new title, and they will finish the event on the third place. The Germans from n!faculty (dav1d, disruptor, JLN, ludicrous, xiu) take their revenge against the Dutch newcomers who will one day dominate the scene. We are of course talking about the future Fnatic line-up playing at that time under the tag Synergy (proph, darky, AirRaid, xertion, neonice).

Without any doubt the best Swedish team and one of the most efficient in Europe, Adastra attracts greed and it’s the rising structure, thanks to its 1.6 team, Volt Gaming that will show the most interest. We are in December 2006 and Fifflaren enters, for the second time, a new clan. Yet, internal problems will lead to his departure together with his teammate, majk, before any lan attempt. For the story, Volt Gaming will bounce back in the best possible manner by winning the huge shgOpen 2007 and finishing second at the EuroCup XIV which will lead them to join the British structure, Dignitas.

Fifflaren used the agitation created by the CGS strict rules regarding nationalities to grab some players for his team. He contacted two players who were recently dismissed from the  English team Reason to complete his roster. These players were his ex-teammate Erik “HaZ” Holm and a young player named Markus “ferus” Stenmark whose age will later become a problem. CheckSix then consisted of : Fifflaren, HaZ, Ferus, haunted and majk.006 to May 2007

Check6 vs. Fnatic at Lan79

This new Swedish team, a rival of Dignitas, will satisfy all the community’s expectations in only two months. their first LAN event will be the regular Slap Lan, in which a big amount of talented teams usually takes part every year. And once again, it’s in the grand final that Fifflaren’s team lost to the number 1 Danish team h2k (h0lm, eXce, orga, inCre, rytme).

And the same happens again, a few weeks later at the Lan79 in 2007, the biggest event for all top European teams in France. CheckSix will move on to the grand final with two victories on Dignitas. But the final boss’s name is Fnatic (pr0ph, AirRaid, Blaze, darky, xertion), the best team in Europe. They will end up on a 11-16 defeat and end second of the tournament. His last second place.

CGS are coming, the european scene is boiling and a new chapter in Fifflaren’s career is about to begin.

2006 to May 2007

 Adastra :  Fifflaren, nordQvist, majk, HaZ, haunted
 zEx :  Fifflaren, nordQvist, majk, Olander, vizzion
 Adastra 2.0/VoltGaming : Fifflaren, nordQvist, vizzion, maths, Olander
 CheckSix : Fifflaren, HaZ, Ferus, haunted et majk

Slap Lan 9   Assembly Summer 2006   EuroCup XIII

HW Lan   Slap Lan 10

Slap Live 11   Lan79 2007

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