Steven R. April 11, 2019
Dennis "dennis" Edman has returned from his hiatus from competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Ninjas in Pyjamas announced the Swede’s return to its active roster on Twitter. It also confirmed the release of stand-in player William "draken" Sundin, who joined the team as a substitute to fill in for Dennis during his absence.
Dennis has been a key member of Ninjas in Pyjamas during the team’s recent upswing. An 11-year veteran of the European scene, he joined NiP in 2018 to help return the brand to its former glory following a run with Fnatic. Despite a rocky start, the team began reversing its fortunes late in the year, most notably taking third place at the Esports Championship Series Season 6 Finals.
The team’s debut this year came at the 2019 Katowice Major, which saw Ninjas in Pyjamas climb its way from the Challengers Stage to a surprise top-eight placement. However, shortly thereafter the organization announced that Dennis was set to take an indefinite leave, cuttin “energy fatigue due to heavy scheduling over the last period of time.” No timetable was given for his return and Draken was added as a substitute to fill in during the team’s hectic spring schedule.
Unfortunately for Draken, that hiatus turned out to be only one month. His only tournaments in this run with NiP came at StarSeries Season 7 and BLAST Pro Series: São Paulo 2019.
Draken finds himself in an awkward spot. He left Uruguay3 for the substitute spot with Ninjas in Pyjamas. In the weeks since, Uruguay3 has found a sponsor in Team GamerLegion, filling draken's spot with former X6tence Galaxy player Tim "nawwk " Jonasson. He now finds himself without a team and while there are still plenty of possible landing spots, there is a lot of competition in the free agency pool at this time.
Meanwhile, Dennis’ return is likely a welcome one for the team as it looks towards a number of competitions. Ninjas in Pyjamas is set to begin competing in ESL Pro League Season 9’s European division on April 12 and at Intel Extreme Masters Season XIV Sydney on April 30.
Though Draken was an able replacement, the team may be better off competing with its full roster intact.