Ninjas in Pyjamas complete new-look roster with chiwawa

It’s been a rough ride when it comes to Ninjas in Pyjamas’s VALORANT division. Despite formerly fielding players like Pontus "Zyppan" Eek and Yacine "Yacine" Laghmari, they couldn’t make early rosters stick. They finally found something to run long-term with the HypHypHyp core, but ultimately couldn’t stand up to the giants of the region. NiP have been undergoing roster changes yet again, bringing in Saif "Sayf" Jibraeel last month, and today have confirmed the addition of their fifth player, Egor "chiwawa" Stepanyuk.

chiwawa has been through several teams and had highs and lows throughout his time in VALORANT. He came onto the scene with Worst Players, who were one of the best early CIS teams. Their performances dropped off, however, and after switching several players, chiwawa joined Entropiq. While the Entropiq roster was promising on paper, issues meant the team had to continually use substitutes, and rarely fielded its actual roster. chiwawa left Entropiq earlier this month, and began to trial with NiP.

Since chiwawa was trialing with NiP for some time, we’ve already seen their full roster in action. For the GLX Elite Series Main Event, they were seeded directly into the bracket stage and gained a bye in the quarterfinals due to Fnatic having scheduling issues. They ultimately took home the victory, with chiwawa putting up 198 ACS and 1.22 KD over the course of the event.

“I’m proud to be a part of this legendary organization. Ever since the (CS:GO) Katowice Grand Final in 2015, I’ve dreamt about playing for NiP. I’ve been playing with the guys for a while now and I fully believe that we can accomplish magic together. I can’t wait until the first big tournament to show everyone what we’re capable of,” chiwawa said in the official announcement.

With this signing, Ninjas in Pyjamas have completed the roster they’ll be using for First Strike. We’ll see if they perform better than they have in the past - if not, questions will surely be asked about why one of Europe’s biggest organizations can’t compete.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are now:

Emir “rhyme” Muminovic Niels “luckeRRR” Jasiek Charles “CREA” Beauvois Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel Egor “chiwawa” Stepanyuk

Emil “eMIL” Sandgren (Coach)