Lekr0 set to join North

The Danish organisation has all but completed a swoop for the 27-year-old, who played his final match for Ninjas in Pyjamas exactly three months ago.

North have reached an agreement with Ninjas in Pyjamas to sign benched player Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson on a permanent basis, HLTV.org has confirmed. The deal is expected to be announced in the next few days, with the Swede likely to make his debut for the team next week in the third edition of Nine to Five.

Lekr0 has been on Ninjas in Pyjamas's transfer list since May, when he was moved to the bench to make way for Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser. He spent almost two years in the Ninjas' starting lineup following his transfer from fnatic in June 2018, taking over as in-game leader shortly after his arrival. He led the team to their first Major in two years — the FACEIT Major — and to final appearances at back-to-back BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen events.

Lekr0 is set for his first stint outside Sweden

Lekr0 came close to signing with MAD Lions last month, but a deal fell through after he rejected an offer from the Flashpoint 1 champions. North, who had long been courting the Swede, finally agreed to meet Ninjas in Pyjamas's asking price late last week after initially balking at the player's valuation.

The 27-year-old will take over the vacant spot left by Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye, who was released by North in July after spending the previous two months sidelined due to medical reasons. With Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen calling the shots in the team, Lekr0 is expected to go back to a main rifler role, as would have happened had he decided to join MAD Lions, who are led by Asger "⁠AcilioN⁠" Larsen.

North finished the previous tournament season with Kristoffer "⁠Kristou⁠" Aamand as a stand-in, placing seventh in cs_summit 6. The Danes are currently 12th in Europe's Regional Major Ranking with 1520 points, just one place shy of the qualification zone for the ESL One: Rio Major.

With this move, North will have the following roster going forward:

Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade
Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup
Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson

Jimmy "⁠Jumpy⁠" Berndtsson (coach)