ESL One Cologne recruits Friberg as Counter-Strike analyst

Former Ninjas in Pyjamas player Friberg has been recruited to serve as an analyst for ESL One Cologne. See what other broadcast talent will be joining him.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans are getting a treat at ESL One Cologne. A banana-flavored treat, as ESL announced via Twitter on Friday that fan favorite player Adam “Friberg” Friberg will join their broadcast team for the next big CSGO tournament.

Friberg recently stepped down as a player for Ninjas in Pyjamas, breaking up the “core four” that had been the heart of the Swedish roster for seemingly forever.

But he’s still a player that CSGO fans know and love, and ESL made a smart move picking him up for ESL One Cologne and adding to their usual solid broadcast roster.

If the analysis from the “King of Banana” is anything like the entertaining call that NIP did at the cs_summit, then the Cologne desk is going to be worth watching just by itself.

It’ll be up to Alex “Machine” Richardson to try and wrangle Friberg, the delightfully blunt Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill, and everyone’s favorite weatherman, Yanko “YNk” Paunovic. Someone should just give Machine a hug and some Advil now.

The usual ESL casting teams will be calling matches at Cologne: Henry “HenryG” Greer and Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett, Jason “Moses” O’Toole and Lauren “Pansy” Scott, and Anders Blume has his regular partner Auguste “Semmler” Massonnat back.

Meanwhile, it’s Paul “Redeye” Chaloner running things on stage and Tres “Stunna” Saranthus who takes over as the tournament’s sideline reporter.

But it’s the broadcast desk that ought to make Cologne a fantastic CSGO event. The addition of Friberg is a timely one since he’s being buzzed about right now, and it’s not just a headline grab; he’s quite good at being on the other side of the equation.

Friberg, Machine and YNk were all at cs_summit, so there’s familiarity there, and usually putting Machine, YNk and SPUNJ anywhere near each other is gold anyway. Friberg as an analyst will just be the banana-flavored icing on the cake.

For more on Friberg’s exit from Ninjas in Pyjamas and his future, which will hopefully include more analysis, he also appeared on The Richard Lewis Show on Thursday. That interview shows exactly why we should all be so excited that he’s coming to ESL One Cologne. He may not be playing, but he’s still a wonderful part of the CSGO community.

Below is the official announcement of ESL One Cologne broadcast talent, complete with banana:

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ESL One Cologne takes place from July 7-9 in Cologne, Germany. For complete coverage of the entire tournament, follow the Gaming category at FanSided here.