Ninjas in Pyjamas has a new Dota 2 roster with the signing of Chicken Fighters.
The announcement comes after the retirements of Peter “ppd” Dager and Saahil “Universe” Arora. Prior to his retirement, NiP released Universe because of his inability to practice with the team. Evgeniy “Blizzy” Ree replaced Universe at ESL One Los Angeles online, but the team struggled to find its chemistry and had an early exit in the group stage.
Recently, ppd decided to leave the competitive scene. The departure of its captain saw the organization make the decision to start over from scratch with the signing of a solid sponsorless squad.
Here it is – Our Official @DOTA2 Team Song!@charliedota / @SupreamDota / @jonas_volek / @EraDota / @SoNNeikO_o #GONINJAS #DOTA2 pic.twitter.com/PhaZNjqCK6
— Ninjas in Pyjamas at Home???????????? (@NiPGaming) April 22, 2020
Chicken Fighters was lauded for its unexpectedly strong performance in the ESL One Los Angeles European and CIS online league. The team bested NiP and Team Liquid in the group stage and advanced deep into the playoffs.
During that time, Chicken Fighters scored a massive upset over Nigma in the first round of the lower bracket series. However, Vikin.gg proved to be the stronger team, eliminating Chicken Fighters in the tournament after dominating Team Secret. Â
Great plays by Chicken Fighters GG. Our journey in #ESLOne Los Angeles Online comes to an end. We’ll reflect on our performance and come back stronger.
Keep Safe and Keep Gaming????#StarsAlign pic.twitter.com/Hkup5wGoTz
— Team Nigma (@TeamNigma) April 17, 2020
These former Chicken Fighters will now play under NiP’s banner:
Chicken Fighters has been participating in different tournaments without a sponsor. This will also be the third time that Era has played under NiP’s banner, as he captained their original team and competing on their shortlived 2017 team.
“As I’ve talked about earlier, rebuilding with a core that fits the ethos and vision of where Ninjas in Pyjamas is headed, has been our main priority. Longevity and sustainability in the ecosystem of DotA2 is something we want to take an integral part in helping build out, and a stable and top performing roster is a requirement of that,” NiP COO Jonas Gundersen told fans.
NiP previously received a direct invitation to the WePlay! Pushka League, and are retained that invite despite the roster change. NiP’s new roster kicked off the event with a convincing win against OG.Seed, which was followed by another victory over Team Liquid.
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