Ninjas in Pyjamas

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Location	Sweden
Founded	2000 2012
Dissolution	2007
Manager(s)	Emil Christensen Mr cAst0r
Sponsors	SteelSeries TeliaSonera CDON.com BenQ CKRAS
Divisions	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive League of Legends

Ninjas in Pyjamas is a Swedish professional electronic sports organization known for their victories in the Counter Strike scene. The team was a dominant force (considered to be the most successful and best of its time) during in the original version of Counter Strike (Counter Strike 1.6) from their founding in 2000 to their dissolution in 2007. In 2012, the team reformed with a Counter Strike: Global Offensive squad. Currently NiP (Ninjas in Pyjamas), has a Counter Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends squad

History

Ninjas in Pyjamas was originally formed in June 2000, but was solidified as a team in 2001 after several lineup changes and name changes.^[1]

Their biggest success was winning the 2001 Cyberathlete Professional League World Championships after a very close final with X3 (a forerunner to Team 3D). Ninjas in Pyjamas struggled to find a sponsor and as a result, they joined the prominent e-sports organization SK Gaming and were known by the names SK Scandinavia and later SK Sweden. At SK, they continued their success and became a dominant force in Counter-Strike. The prize money from their tournament victories in 2003 totalled approximately 170,000 U.S. dollars.^[2]

Feeling they could secure a larger share of sponsorship money, the team left SK in early 2005.^[3] Later in the year, some of the players returned to SK Gaming, forcing NiP to find new talent to replace them.

Emil Christensen, together with co-player and friend Tommy 'Potti' Ingemarsson, Managing Directors Peter Hedlund and Victor Lindqvist reformed NiP as a Swedish stock company in 2005 due to problems with SK. The reformed NiP continued their participation in international tournaments, placing high in many of the events they attended. The management succeeded in taking the company to the next level by closing some of the biggest sponsorship deals in the scene at that time. The team received about 100,000 members on their international e-sports community website in Europe during their first two years and was also the first Counter-Strike team outside of Asia to enter the Asian market. Within six months, they had about 90,000 members on their Asian website. The team was among the most outspoken opponents to competitions changing from the original version of Counter-Strike to the newer Counter-Strike: Source.

On the 10th of August 2012, Ninjas in Pyjamas announced their comeback by switching from Counter-Strike 1.6 to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.^{[citation needed]} The roster, as of now, consists of Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg (formerly SK Gaming), Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund (formerly SK Gaming), Richard "Xizt" Landström (formerly fnatic), Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson and Adam "friberg" Friberg, the last two players coming from the Counter-Strike: Source scene. The situation is strikingly similar to that which arose in 2005 when HeatoN and Potti left SK-Gaming to revive the Ninjas in Pyjamas. It is reported the players were unhappy with the play action from SK's side, as expressed in various interviews.^{[citation needed]} This also means that Xizt will leave fnatic's team success, a team he took over as captain after Carn put his gun on the shelf. The Swedish-Danish team won all the tournaments and went down in history as the last dominant team in 1.6 's history.^{[citation needed]} The remaining players on fnatic are pronax, trace, karrigan and Friis, and it seems that fnatic 1.6 may be coming to an end. But the biggest sponsors are expected to be HeatoN's own brand of computer 'Heat Gaming' and Anton Budak's 'Inferno Online'. HeatoN, who was NiP's biggest star when it came to be assumed to be the driving force behind the building along with Anton Budak, who earlier expressed interest to house its own team in the Inferno Online.

Current roster

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

• Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg
• Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson
• Adam "friberg" Friberg
• Christopher "GET_RIGHT" Alesund
• Richard "Xizt" Landström

League of Legends

• Aleš "Freeze" Kněžínek
• Amin 'Amin' Mezher
• Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez
• Erlend "Nukeduck" Holm
• Morten "Zorozero" Lyng Rosenquist
• Tobias "Malunoo" Magnusson (sub)

Major achievements

Counter-Strike

• 1st CPL Dallas, 2000
• 1st CPL London, 2001
• 1st CPL Berlin, 2001
• 1st CPL World, 2001
• 2nd World Cyber Games 2006

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

• 1st SteelSeries GO, 2012^[4]
• 1st DreamHack Valencia, 2012^[5]
• 1st ESWC, 2012^[6]
• 1st DreamHack Winter, 2012^[7]
• 1st AMD Sapphire, 2012^[8]
• 1st THOR Open, 2012^[9]
• 1st NorthCon, 2012^[10]
• 1st Mad Catz CS:GO Invitational, 2013^[11]
• 1st TECHLABS Cup, 2013^[12]
• 1st Copenhagen Games, 2013^[13]
• 2nd SLTV StarSeries V finals, 2013^[14]
• 1st RaidCall EMS One Spring 2013 Finals, 2013^[15]
• 1st ESEA Invite Season 13 Finals, 2013^[16]
• 1st Svecup Västerås, 2013^[17]
• 1st Swedish Championship, 2013^[18]
• 1st DreamHack Summer, 2013^[19]
• 1st SLTV StarSeries VI finals, 2013^[20]
• 1st ESEA Invite Season 14 Finals, 2013^[21]
• 1st DreamHack Bucharest, 2013^[22]
• 3rd SLTV Starseries VII Finals, 2013^[23]
• 2nd RC EMS One Fall Finals, 2013 ^[24]
• 2nd Dreamhack Winter, 2013^[25]
• 1st Fragbite Masters 2013 ^[26]

NiP's record in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Since NiP started to play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, they have been the most dominant team in the game, remaining undefeated at LAN until the 5th of April 2013 where they lose against Virtus.pro 2-0 (16-14 16-10). Their winning streak lasted eight months.

Their LAN record as of 6 July 2013 (maps): 122 wins - 0 draw - 12 defeats
Their LAN record as of 6 July 2013 (matches): 87+ wins - 0 draw - 9 defeats

Rivalries

NiP played against many great teams throughout all these tournaments. Here is a quick list of the teams they played the most, and their head to head :

Virtus.pro

Virtus.pro is the first team to beat NiP on LAN, stopping their winning streak the 5th of April 2013 during the SLTV starseries V finals. They disputed other matches, always close, at the Copenhagen Games 2013 and TECHLABS 2013 where NiP came out on top to take the title.

LAN	NiP	Virtus.pro
Finals	1	1
Matches	3	2
Maps	4	4
Rounds	117	113

VeryGames

The French team VeryGames (VG) was considered by most as the world's second best team in CS:GO in 2012, being in the final four times in a row, three of them on a major event. As it happened, NiP was their opponent in all these finals, and won all of them.^[5][6][7][8] They met again at Copenhagen Games 2013 in the quarter finals of the upper bracket, with VeryGames new line-up, but NiP once again comes out on top to finally clinch the title.

LAN	NiP	VG
Finals	4	1
matches	7	2
maps	14	6

ESC Gaming

ESC Gaming (ESC) was one of the best CS:GO teams in 2012, winning the only LAN international event that NiP couldn't attend ^[27] and reaching one major LAN final, which they lost against NiP.^[10] They also reached a LAN major semi-final in 2013, where NiP beat them again to take the title.^[11][28] ESC are sent down to the lower bracket by NiP in the SLTV starseries V finals in Kiev.

LAN	NiP	ESC
Finals	1	0
matches	5	0
maps	8	0
rounds	128	66

Statistics

Team

References

External links

• Official website