Following the sudden retirement of its now-former captain, Peter “ppd” Dager, Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) has announced that it has released its Dota 2 roster and signed the entire Chicken Fighters roster as their replacements.
The former NiP roster consisted of Nikita “Daxak” Kuzmin, Jason “TANNER” Weedon, and Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos, as well as stand-ins Evgeniy “Blizzy” Ree and Milan “MiLAN” Kozomara.
“Thank you to Daxak, Lelis and Tanner for representing NiP in a turbulent time. They’ve been great and professional the whole way through, and I am sure they’ll find success in their next venture,” said NiP COO Jonas Gundersen in a statement.
NiP’s new roster will be helmed by former Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) captain Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev, who notably formed the Chicken Fighters squad back in January alongside MiLAN and young European talents in Charlie “CharlieDota” Arat, Ondřej “Supream^” Štarha, and Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek.
Chicken Fighters later added veteran Adrian “Era” Kryeziu at the start of April after MiLAN left in mid-March, with Era notably shifting from the hard carry role to the Position 4 support role during the move.
Since adding Era to the roster, Chicken Fighters went on a tear through the ESL One Los Angeles EU-CIS online regional league. The team notably made it out of the tournament’s grueling group stage over more highly-rated teams — namely Team Liquid, Na’Vi, and the old NiP roster — before defeating Alliance and Team Spirit in the playoffs to finish in fourth place.
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NiP COO Gundersen remarked that his organization’s new roster has the “perfect combination of hunger, talent, experience and a high willingness to learn.”
“The whole roster of Chicken Fighters are a great group of young players. I couldn’t be more excited that they want to become part of the Ninjas in Pyjamas team, where I am sure we’ll be able to accomplish great things together,” said Gundersen.
“Chickens transformed into Ninjas. After playing for months without an organization we are thrilled to have an experienced team of professionals backing us up and helping us become better and strive for greatness! I am happy to announce that we will be part of NiP,” added SoNNeikO.
The former Chicken Fighters roster will make their debut under the NiP banner in the WePlay! Pushka League, which will run from April 23-May 12.
NiP Dota 2 roster:
- Charlie “CharlieDota” Arat
- Ondřej “Supream^” Štarha
- Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek
- Adrian “Era” Kryeziu
- Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev
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