Dota 2 team Ninjas in Pyjamas made a surprise move last week by releasing four of its members. However, NiP has signed up four new members in time for the start of the new DPC Season.
Of the five members that were part of the team during The International 2019, only Team Captain Peter "ppd" Dager is left. The four members released were Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard, Adrian "Fata" Trinks, Neta "33" Shapira, and Martin "saksa" Sazdov. In a statement, NiP said that they are extending their gratitude to the former players and it was a pleasure watching them perform as part of NiP.
Meanwhile the new roster signed up by NiP are:
- Oliver "Oliver" Lepko
- Nico "Gunnar" Lopez
- Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora
- Malthe "Biver" Winther
This new roster is interesting since UNiVeRsE and ppd were both from Evil Geniuses. Both were in EG when the team won the Aegis during TI5. According to UNiVeRsE, he is excited to play again with ppd and "can't wait to see what we achieve in this upcoming season." Meanwhile, ppd shared that while their ending last season wasn't what they wanted, the team decided to switch things up. He went on to say that he is "teaming up with my old teammate Universe and a few up-and-coming talents to hopefully achieve greatness."
During the previous DPC Season, the highest position NiP obtained in a Major was placing fourth during the Kuala Lumpur Major. While their performance during last year's DPC Season wasn't that excellent, they managed to get enough points to get a direct invite. However during Dota 2's biggest tournament, the team was eliminated after the Group Stage.
The team and its new roster are set to make their debut at Bootcamp on September 27 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Fans know that this is not the first major move the team has made. Back in 2017, the organization closed its Dota 2 division due to disappointing results. Back then, the organization wanted to focus on its CS:GO division as well as its League of Legends team. However, by 2018 the organization revealed that it had come up with a new Dota 2 squad. Of that squad, it is only ppd that remains.
With this change, fans and the Dota 2 community are sure to be excited to see how the team performs in the new season.
