Heroic Xizt: “Jabbi is the biggest talent in Denmark.”

It’s been less than three weeks since Heroic surprised fans by signing former Copenhagen Flames player Jakob “⁠jabbi⁠” Nygaard, however, it seems that the team’s new addition is adapting quickly. 

Following a disappointing 5th-8th finish at  PGL Major Antwerp, Heroic decided to bench Ismail “refrezh” Ali and replace him with Jabbi. Since then, the 18-year-old rifler has helped the team defeat Sprout and MOUZ to win the play-in stage of the ongoing IEM Cologne 2022.

Levelling up with Heroic 

As a part of the Copenhagen Flames, Jabbi built his reputation in the CS:GO community by delivering many remarkable individual performances. However, signing with Heroic — currently the top 10 CS:GO team in the world’s rankings — meant taking things to the next level. 

During a recent ESL Gaming press conference, Jabbi touched on the biggest differences between the two teams that he noticed so far: “There’s a lot more structure around the team, with all the management we have and with the mental coach. It’s a new thing for me and I think it’s really good. We only had a few talks yet but I feel like it’s going to be good for me.”

Indeed, in order to secure the best results possible, the most prominent esports organizations often come with systematic management and a whole support structure for the team members. For really talented players like Jabbi, signing with such an organization might ultimately help them to develop their potential to the fullest. 

This naturally goes both ways and according to Heroic Coach Richard “Xizt” Landström, Jabbi’s confident playstyle might do the same for the squad. “Obviously, Jabbi is a huge talent, the biggest talent in Denmark”, said Xizt. “The best qualities in Jabbi that I’ve seen so far are communication and the fact that he’s very cocky when he plays — that’s good for the team.”

It seems that Jabbi is a good fit for the team and that the management knew what they were after when looking for refrezh’s replacement. “When we saw that he was available, we acted on that,” added Xizt. 

Is Jabbi also talented in football? 

Besides some top-tier CS:GO, Heroic are also known for their liking of football matches. Of course, this means that Jabbi too started developing his football skills with the team. 

Martin “stavn” Lund, who likes to call himself the “Danish Messi”, commented on Jabbi’s football performance so far: “Obviously we have introduced Jabbi to some of our football games and I was surprised by his level. I think he’s pretty good, he’s a left-footer — the first one in the team.”

While stavn thinks Jabbi needs to work more on his right foot, he’s positive the young Dane will get on the team’s level quickly. “He will get there for sure,” he said. “We had some fun playing with him and I think he likes playing with us as well.”

Jabbi sees things a bit differently. “You guys have been playing for a year, but I have been only playing for a week now. I’m improving but it’s not very nice,“ he concluded. 

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