Two former Ninjas in Pyjamas player have gone on to form their own Dota 2 team.
Adrian “Fata” Trinks and Neta “33” Shapira’s new roster features a mix of European players, including former Mineski carry player Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov, former CompLexity Gaming mid player Linus “Limmp” Blomdin, and Swedish journeyman support Simon “Handsken” Haag.
With Fata and 33’s departure, it seems that only Peter “ppd” Dager and Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard remain with NiP, as Martin “Saksa” Sazdov said he will be taking a break from competitive play earlier this month.
NiP have also been putting out teasers for their new Dota 2 team on their Twitter account, revealing that their first two players are from the USA and Sweden. Since ppd is American and Ace is Swedish, it seems that NiP is looking to build a new roster around the two for the upcoming season.
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Despite earning a direct invite to The International 2019 (TI9) as the #8 team on the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) leaderboard, NiP had an abysmal showing at the tournament. The team failed to win a single series during the Group Stage, which resulted in them being one of the two teams eliminated before the Main Event.
Such a disappointing result likely caused the departures of Fata and 33, as well as the apparent decision to rebuild the team around Ace and ppd — who is likely still gunning for his second Aegis of Champions after leading Evil Geniuses to the championship in TI5.
With that said, Fata’s team seems to still be looking for a sponsor and will be competing in a European region that is already looking to be one of the most competitive scenes for the next season once again.
Fata stack 2019-2020 DPC roster:
- (1) Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov
- (2) Linus “Limmp” Blomdin
- (3) Neta “33” Shapira
- (4) Adrian “Fata” Trinks
- (5) Simon “Handsken” Haag
