- The Counter-Strike organization has moved their IGL to the inactive roster
- Patrick “es3tag” Hansen has come to take the position
- It seems hampus had not been too keen on being in the position in the first place
Ninjas in Pyjamas have been struggling for the past couple of years, resulting in many roster changes, with the latest one being the benching of in-game leader Hampus “hampus” Poser.
Hampus Moved to the Inactive Roster
Swedish esports organization Ninjas in Pyjamas has announced that their in-game leader, Hampus “hampus” Poser, has been moved to the inactive roster. The 24-year-old rifler will be replaced by Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, who played on the team in 2022. The news comes soon after Björn “THREAT” Pers took the role of General manager recently. He had previously stated that leadership in NiP’s team was an issue and that he would be “looking into making some changes to the team”.
Perhaps this move should come as no surprise, as NiP have been known to constantly make big shifts like this over the past months. The Swedish org has restructured multiple times since Nicolai “device” Reedtz stepped down from the roster late in 2021, as they struggled to find their footing after the 28-year-old CS veteran left the organization almost two years ago.
This trend seemed to continue this year as the team performed poorly in every event it participated in. Barring the IEM Dallas 2023: European Open Qualifier #2 and the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023, NiP regularly missed the top three in any other event the org was a part of.
The in-game leadership role has been a problem for the team throughout, as 26-year-old Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen taking the position from late 2022 to mid-2023. Unfortunately for the team, things did not improve when in June hampus returned to NiP after a long break and took over the position of IGL.
It seems that this also should have come to no surprise, especially to the organization, as hampus had said in an old interview that he was open to the position, but did not specify if he actually wanted it. “I was always open to it for sure, and even if I would not be the IGL I was open to that as well, I just wanted to play again. It’s good how it is, I like it.”
Time will tell if the roster change would improve NiP’s performance in future matches. The team currently looks like this:
- Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
- Fredrik “REZ” Sterner
- Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke
- Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov
- Patrick “es3tag” Hansen
- Daniel “djL” Narancic (coach)
- Hampus “hampus” Poser (benched)