Ninjas in Pyjamas is one of the oldest and most known multigaming organizations in Europe. The club was founded before the esports flourishing, in 1999 and since then it has gone through closing down, reopening and rebranding. Ninjas in Pyjamas rosters play in different popular disciplines including Counter-Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, and others.
The most famous subdivision plays CS. This is the roster we want to introduce to you today.
First Appearance
Ninjas in Pyjamas first appeared at the dawn of esports, in 2000. In the times when the Scandinavian Counter-Strike ruled supreme, the NiP roster got assembled. It included:
· HeatoN
· Hyb
· Medion
· Potti
· XeqtR
Those five players won a major tournament of those times пятеркой – CPL Europe London 2001. In that year, they won CPL Europe Berlin 2001.
Despite the great results, the NiP roster was changed. The team dismissed the Norwegian XeqtR, and his post was taken by ahl. The changes in the roster did not stop NiP from winning the biggest tournament of those times.
In December 2001, NiP became champions of CPL Winter 2001, achieving the position of the best team in the world. The title would remain with NiP for a long time.
Glorious Victories Before CSGO
The victory at CPL Winter 2001 was not the end. NiP became constant guests of the best championships. The Swedes demonstrated good results at competitions. They won DreamHack Summer 2002, GameGune 2005, WWSVG DreamHack Summer 0206, WEF 2006, NGL-One Season 1, KODE5 2006, DreamHack Winter 2006.
The last won championship in the old versions of CS was Spixelania, after that Ninjas in Pyjamas disappeared from radars. They returned only in 2012 году, in a new version of the shooter – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Transfer to CS:GO and NiP’s Era
In August 2012, the esports world was shaken by breaking news — NiP returned to the professional stage. The newly-made roster was made up by:
· f0rest
· Get_RiGhT
· friberg
· Fifflaren
· Xizt
These five players were destined to become the kings of the European and International Counter-Strike. But at that moment the esports stage was only preparing to meet with the Swedes.
The players from NiP achieved good teamwork swiftly. In August 2012, the team started an unreal streak of victories that went on till April 2013.
In that period NiP became the champions at 14 tournaments including the qualifiers for various tournaments. The championships were 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 #2, TECHLABS Cup 2013 Moscow, Copenhagen Games 2013 and others.
Then NiP lost only twice with 3rd-4th place at EMS One Spring Cup #1 in February 2013 and 9th-16th place at EMS One Spring Cup #4 in March 2013.
Before April 2013, NiP had a series of 87 wins at LAN-tournaments. It was interrupted by StarLadder StarSeries V when NiP lost the final to Virtus Pro. However, it did not break the gamers.
In that month NiP continued winning major championships. After the finals of the fifth StarLadder, the Swedes won ESL Major Series One – Spring 2013 and ESEA Global Finals Season 13.
June continued the series. NiP won ESPORTSM 2012/2013 and DreamHack Summer 2013, however, the players made a mistake at ESL Major Series One – Summer 2013 where they took 3rd-4th place.
In July, NiP won StarLadder StarSeries VI, and in August the players won ESEA Global Finals Season 14. The domination went on in autumn too. In September the team won EMS One Fall Cup #1, ESM One Fall Cup #2 and DreamHack Bucharest 2013.
The streak is replaced by bad performances at ESM One Fall Cup #3 и #4 where NiP took 5th-8th and 9th-16th place respectively.
2013 finished well for NiP but it wasn’t enough. In October, Ninjas took third place at StarLadder StarSeries VII, then they finished second at ELS Major Series One – Fall 2013.
In November, NiP became the fourth at Electronic Sports World Cup, and also the second at the first Major tournament in the history – DreamHack Winter 2013. The victories happened in December when NiP won Fragbite Masters Season 1 and Svecup 2013 Grand Finals.
2014 again started with top places. In February, NiP got defeated by Titan at the final of DreamHack Invitational I, and in March they took third place at GSL Egamingbets Cup 1.
In March 2014, NiP again made it to the final of the second Major tournament but they faced a misfortune there: they stopped one step away from the desirable championship. After the failure at the final of ESL Major Series One Katowice 2014, NiP failed Fragbite Masters Season 2 taking 9th-12th place there, However, the Swedes recovered fast and they returned to their normal level.
In April, they won the Copenhagen Games 2014 and took second place at StarLadder StarSeries IX. In June, the finals were not so easy for NiP. The first month of the summer brought them a victory at DreamHack Summer 2014, however, they lost the finals of less prestigious tournaments – ESPORTSM 2013/2014 and Team Dignitas CS:GO SCAN Invitational. The rock and roll started a bit later.
At the end of June, NiP took 5th-6th place at ESEA Season 16 – Global Invite Division, and in August 2014 the finished at the 5th-8th position at Gfinity G3. NiP seemed to give up, however, everything changed ESL One: Cologne 2014.
Cologne 2014 brought Ninjas in Pyjamas a long-expected win at the Major tournament. At the grand final the team defeated the opponents from Fnatic. After that the results declined at other tournaments.
At the end of 2014, NiP failed all championships including ESWC 2014. This was the last performance of Fifflaren as a member of NiP. He was replaced by Maikelele.
The renewed roster took second place at DreamHack Winter 2014 at the end of November 2014, and also at MLG X Games Aspen Invitational in January 2015.
In February, NiP won Assembly Winter 2015. Those good results did not help NiP to keep the roster and Maikelele’s slot was given to allu.
With Allu Ninjas took second place at ESL One: Katowice 2015 in March 2015. Later NiP won several qualifiers and tournaments but they were unlucky at title championships. They failed Gfinity Spring Masters 2 with the 5th-6th place and ELS ESEA Pro League Season 1 – Europe with the fifth place there.
In July, the series of failures continued. NiP finished 5th-8th at Electronic Sports World Cup 2015 and got placed 5th-6th at FACEIT 2015 Stage 2 Finals. In August 2015, they did not get to the final of a Major tournament for the first time: they took 5th-8th place at ESL One: Cologne 2015.
In September, they partially rehabilitated with the third-fourth place at ESL ESEA Pro League Invitational and Gfinity Champion of Champions. In November, NiP finished third-fourth at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015. However, it did not help to save the roster and at the end of 2015 the team lost allu. His slot was taken by pyth.
Search of the Departed Glory
In 2016, NiP tried to return their previous power but they managed to do it only rarely. They failed the MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016 and ESL One: Cologne 2016. However, the team were able to win lower-ranked tournaments: DreamHack Masters Malmo 2016, ESL Pro League Season 3 – Europe and StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2. At the end of the year, they also won Intel Extreme Masters XI – Oakland.
The problems appeared in 2017. That year was the worst in NiP’s history. In 12 months NiP managed to win only one titled tournament – Intel Extreme Masters XII – Oakland. In that year NiP for the first time could not make it to a Major tournament. In 2017, friberg quit the roster and was replaced by draken.
Starting with 2017, Ninjas in Pyjamas were unable to achieve their previous results for a long time.
Dark Times
In 2018, the situation did not change. The team failed one tournament after another, taking top places occasionally, like at ESL Pro League Season 7 – Europe. In February, the team lost another player of the golden five – Xizt. His position was given to dennis. This roster played unsuccessfully at FACEIT Major: London 2018 which resulted in the 9th-11th place for the team. It led to new changes in the lineup: Lekr0 and REZ joined the team.
In March 2019, NiP took 5th-8th place at Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Katowice Major 2019 which became a real breakthrough for the team in last several years. In the same year they took 15th-16th place at StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. It happened in August, and in September the last veteran left the team – GeT_RiGhT was no longer a member of the organization.
The team took on Twist. However, the promising young player did not make any difference.
2020, Coronavirus Pandemic and Young Blood
In January 2020, NiP lost the last player of the golden five, f0rest, left the team. His place was taken by nawwk, and in May the team completed the roster with hampus. The renewed roster of NiP looked in the following way:
· REZ
· Plopski
· twist
· nawwk
· hampus
This team managed to take third place at BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown, 3rd-4th at ESL One: Cologne 2020 Online – Europe and 4th at DreamHack Open Fall 2020.
In November 2020, NiP finished 9th-12th at Intel Extreme Masters XV – Beijing Online: Europe and 9th-16th at BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Showdown.
Organization and Awards
NiP’s CEO is Hicham Chahine. The captain position is given to hampus, and the coach slot belongs to THREAT. Panasonic LUMIX, Xtrfy, Betway, Republic of Gamers and EPICS Digital Collectibles are sponsors of the team.
Since the moment of foundation of the CS subdivision, the rosters have generated over $3,000,000 of grabs.