NiP bench Aleksib and bring back hampus

Ninjas in Pyjamas have been struggling for more than a year to win an S-tier or even an A-tier tournament. Their last success dates back to June 2022, when they won Global Esports Tour Dubai.

Since then, we’ve seen a lot of failures and mediocre results from them, but also some good attempts at winning titles. In 2023, NiP finished 13^th-16^th at IEM Katowice, 17^th-20^th at ESL Pro League S17, 7^th-8^th at IEM Rio, and 9^th-11^th at BLAST.tv Paris Major.

This last result suggests that NiP were getting stronger, but the team’s management lost its patience. Arguably, NiP’s failures were not Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen’s fault. He did the best he could with the lineup he had at his disposal, which wasn’t necessarily weak, but it wasn’t formidable either.

We must remember that NiP are not competing in a vacuum. They’re playing regularly against the likes of Team Vitality, Heroic, FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, and G2 Esports. Such teams are very hard to beat because their players have been around for many years. They know all the tricks and can play each position optimally almost every time.

Aleksib’s career

Before joining NiP, Aleksib used to compete for G2 Esports. And prior to that, he was a member of OG, ENCE, and Havu Gaming. At the age of just 26, he’s a highly accomplished IGL with lots of S-tier and A-tier Grand Finals, and even some trophies.

He was part of the ENCE squad that played at IEM Katowice Major in 2019. And he was part of the OG squad that finished 2^nd at Flashpoint Season 2. It’s hard to regard Aleksib as a weak IGL but sometimes things don’t work out the way you had hoped. When that happens, organizations need to make tough decisions.

I was ready to start a new season, a new game, but guess not in NiP.

What that means is, I’m still hungry to grind and lead another team.

Contact me via DM / Mail to discuss 🙂

— Aleksi (@AleksibCSGO) June 14, 2023

A word about hampus

Hampus “hampus” Poser is a 24-year-old who likes to play the lurker role. But his career so far hasn’t been spectacular. He only played for one top team: NiP. Then he stepped down and spent almost half a year training on his own.

Several years ago, he used to play for GamerLegion, the team that finished 2^nd at the recent Paris Major. But back then, GL were a much weaker team.

It will be interesting to follow NiP’s progress until the end of 2023. But it’s very likely that they’ll get worse results with Aleksib on the bench than with him on the active roster.

Header: Ninjas in Pyjamas