Team Information:
NiP
Ninjas in Pyjamas – Ninjas in Pyjamas is one of the oldest and most famous multi-gaming games in Europe. It was founded before Esports began in 1999 and has managed to survive closure, reopening and renaming ever since. Ninjas in Pajamas roster has been listed in most of the most popular disciplines, including Counter-Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege and so on.
The greatest fame of the organization was brought by the CS unit, which is discussed today.
First impression
The first appearance of Ninja in Pyjamas took place at the beginning of the sport in 2000. At a time when the Scandinavian backlash ruled the banquet, the NiP squad gathered. It included:
Heating up
Hyb
Medion
Potti
XeqtR
With these five, the Ninjas in Pyjamas won the great championship of the time – CPL Europe London 2001. In the same year, they won the CPL Europe Berlin 2001.
Despite the excellent results, NiP’s roster has changed. Norwegian XeqtR left the squad and ahl took his place. The changes in the squad did not prevent NiP from winning the biggest tournament of the time.
In December 2001, NiP became CPL Winter 2001 champions and was voted the best team in the world. This title will remain with NiP for years to come.
The loudest victories before CSGO
The victory at CPL Winter 2001 did not end there. NiP has become a regular of the best championships. At the competition the Swedes showed good results. They won DreamHack Summer 2002, GameGune 2005, WWSVG DreamHack Summer 0206, WEF 2006, NGL-One – Season 1, KODE5 2006 and DreamHack Winter 2006.
The last championship won in older versions of CS was the Spixelania tournament, after which Ninjas in Pyjamas disappeared from the radar. They returned only in 2012, already in the new version of the shooter – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The transition to CSGO and the NiP era.
In August 2012, the esports world was shocked by the news that NiP was returning to the professional scene. The newly created lineup included:
f0rest
Do it right
friberg
Fifflaren
Xizt
It is these five who will soon become the kings of the European and global counterstrike. Meanwhile, the esports scene was just getting ready to meet the Swedes.
Five NiP played at lightning speed. In August 2012, the team starts an incredible series of victories that will last until April 2013.
During this time, NiP wins 14 events, excluding qualifiers for various tournaments. Among the championships were victories at: DreamHack Valencia 2012, ESWC 2012, DreamHack Winter 2012, AMD Sapphire Invitational, Thor Open 2012, NorthCon eSports Arena 2012, ESL Major Series: Winter 2012, Fnatic FragOut League – Season 1, EMS One Spring Cup – No. 2, TECHLABS Cup 2013 Moscow, Copenhagen Games 2013.
NiP stumbled only twice during this time, finishing 3-4th at EMS One Spring Cup No. 1 in February 2013 and 9-16th at EMS One Spring Cup – No. 4 in March 2013.
By April 2013, NiP had an 87-win streak at LAN events. It was interrupted at StarLadder StarSeries V when NiP lost to Virtus Pro in the finals. However, this ninja could not be broken.
In the same month, NiP continued to win major championships. After the final of the fifth StarLadder, the Swedes won ESL Major Series One – Spring 2013 and ESEA Global Finals – Season 13.
In June, the victories continued. NiP won ESPORTSM 2012/2013 and DreamHack Summer 2013, but stumbled over ESL Major Series One – Summer 2013, finishing 3-4th.
In July NiP won StarLadder StarSeries VI and in August the 14th – Season of ESEA Global Finals. The dominance continued in the fall. In September, the team won EMS One Fall Cup No. 1, ESM One Fall Cup – No. 2, and DreamHack Bucharest 2013.
After a winning streak, followed by poor performances at ESM One Fall Cup No. 3 and No. 4, where NiP finished 5-8 and 9-16.
2013 is ending well for NiP, but not enough. In October, Ninja finished 3rd at StarLadder StarSeries VII, then 2nd at ELS Major Series One – Fall 2013.
In November, NiP took 4th place in Electronic Sports World Cup and finished 2nd in the first major tournament – DreamHack Winter 2013. The victories came in December when NiP won Fragbite Masters – Season 1 and Svecup 2013 Grand Finals.
2014 has started from high places again. In February, NiP lost to Titan in the DreamHack Invitational I finals and in March they finished 3rd in the GSL Egamingbets Cup 1.
In March 2014, NiP reached the finals again, this time of the second major tournament, but even there they suffered a failure and were defeated one step away from the coveted championship. After being defeated in the finals of ESL Major Series One Katowice 2014, NiP failed to reach Fragbite Masters – Season 2, finishing 9th-12th. However, the Swedes quickly recovered and returned to their usual level.
In April, they won the 2014 Copenhagen Games and finished second on StarLadder StarSeries IX. NiP also rarely won the finals in June. In the first month of summer, NiP won DreamHack Summer 2014, but lost in the finals of slightly less prestigious tournaments – ESPORTSM 2013/2014 and Team Dignitas CS: GO SCAN Invitational. The “swing” started a bit later.
At the end of June, NiP finished 5th-6th in ESEA – Season 16 – Global Invite Division, and in August 2014, NiP finished 5th-8th in Gfinity G3. It seemed like NiP had already blown up, but everything changed in ESL One: Cologne 2014.
Cologne 2014 brought Ninjas in Pyjamas a long-awaited victory in the major tournament. In the grand final, the team defeated its sworn rival Fnatic. After that, the results in other tournaments deteriorated significantly.
At the end of 2014, NiP failed to win all championships, including ESWC 2014, which was Fifflaren’s last performance with Ninja. His place was taken by Maikelele.
With the renewed squad, NiP finished 2nd at DreamHack Winter 2014 in late November 2014 and at the MLG X Games Aspen Invitational in January 2015.
NiP wins the Assembly Winter 2015 in February. Pretty good results don’t help NiP keep the lineup, and Maikelele is replaced by allu.
With allu, ninja take 2nd place at ESL One: Katowice 2015 in March 2015. NiP will later win several qualifiers and smaller tournaments, but have no luck at the title championships. They fail to make it to Gfinity Spring Masters 2 and finish in 5th-6th place. ELS ESEA Pro League Seasno 1 – Europe takes the 5th place there.
The series of defeats continues in July. NiP finished in the Elect
Search for former greatness
Throughout 2016, NiP tried to regain their former power, but they occasionally failed. They failed to pass the MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016 and ESL One: Cologne 2016. However, the team was able to win tournaments with a lower ranking: DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016, ESL Pro League – Season 3 – Europe and StarLadder i-League StarSeries – Season 2. At the end of the year, they also won at Intel Extreme Masters XI – Oakland.
The problems started in 2017, which was the worst year in NiP’s history. For 12 months NiP managed to win only 1 title tournament – Intel Extreme Masters XII – Oakland. This year NiP did not make it to the major for the first time in history. Also in 2017, friberg left the team, replaced by draken.
From 2017 ninjas in pajamas will not be able to achieve their previous results for many years.
Dark time
In 2018, the situation does not change. The team fails tournament after tournament and occasionally takes high places, for example, in ESL Pro League – Season 7 – Europe. In February, Xizt, another player of the “golden” five, leaves the team. His place is taken by Dennis. With this lineup, they play unsuccessfully at FACEIT Major: London 2018, where they finish in 9th-11th place. This leads to further changes with Lekr0 joining the team and later REZ.
In March 2019, NiP finished 5th to 8th at Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Katowice Major 2019, which was a breakthrough in recent years. In the same year, they finished 15th-16th at the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. This happened in August, and in September, the penultimate veteran GeT_RiGhT left the team.
Twist joins the team. However, the promising young player did not make a difference.
2020 the coronavirus pandemic and young blood
In January 2020, the last member of the “golden” five, f0rest, left NiP. His place was taken by nawwk, and in May the team finished Hampus. The updated NiP roster looked like this:
REZ
Plopski
Twist
nawwk
hampus
With this list, NiP was able to place 3rd at the BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown, 3-4th at the ESL One: Cologne 2020 Online – Europe, and 4th at the DreamHack Open Fall 2020.
In November 2020, NiP placed 9th to 12th at the Intel Extreme Masters XV – Beijing Online: Europe 9th-12th place and at the BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Showdown 9th-16th place.
Organization and Awards
Heicham Chahin is the CEO of NiP. The captain position is filled by Hampus, and the coaching slot belongs to THREAT. The team is sponsored by Panasonic LUMIX, Xtrfy, Betway, the Republic of Players and EPICS Digital Collectibles.
Since the inception of the CS division, rosters have earned the organization over $3,000,000 in prize money.
CS:GO
CS:GO Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO for short) is a computer game from the genre of online tactical shooters. It was developed by Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment and is the fourth part of the Counter-Strike series. The game was released on August 21, 2012 for Windows, Linux, macOS, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A release for the PlayStation 3 in Europe failed to materialize for unknown reasons. Global Offensive achieved a Metascore of 83 points. Since September 14, 2017, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has also been available in China via the Perfect World client. In December 2018, the game was switched to a free-to-play model, which drew criticism.