Counter-Strike 2’s most disappointing team project has been all but dissolved according to reports today, with Ninjas in Pyjamas hitting the reset button after a failure to qualify for CS2’s first Major.
NiP will drop three players—Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke, and Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov—just days after their failed attempt to qualify for the PGL Copenhagen Major, according to a Feb. 18 report from HLTV. Sources indicated to HLTV that the squad will be reevaluating its competitive position ahead of its next appearance at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown in early March.
NiP doesn’t look like it will pull the plug on CS2 altogether but the writing is on the wall for this iteration of the senior squad. NiP fell just short of a top-eight finish at the BLAST Paris Major last May, but captain Aleksib’s departure for NaVi spelled doom for the Swedish organization. The team failed to make waves at ESL Pro League Season 18 in September and then crashed out of several tournaments against mixed-level opposition.
Their woes continued into 2024 after embarrassing performances at both IEM Chengdu open qualifiers and back-to-back demolitions at the hands of G2 at BLAST Spring Groups. The RMR qualification failure was the final nail in the coffin for the team. Frederik “REZ” Sterner is set to remain in what is his seventh year at NiP alongside Spanish in-game leader Alejandro “alex” Masanet, who only joined the team last November.
While he wouldn’t confirm any changes at the time, k0nfig revealed the mood in the camp was dour following the team’s RMR elimination in an interview with HLTV. “I think we were just totally off, team-wise and individually speaking,” k0nfig said about the performance, adding the team felt extra pressure after the org released a video before the RMR about plans to rebuild.
The “NiP Magic” of old is far removed from the org’s modern-day roster. It has been nearly three years since NiP’s last tier-one Counter-Strike trophy, and with their RMR defeat last week, the org will miss its fourth Major in history.
NiP has until March 6 to put together its roster of five for the BLAST Spring Showdown. The team may look to its academy, with Max “maxster” Jansson one option. A returning Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin, who has been on loan to MOUZ since early January, is another.
