NIP bench alex, hand captaincy to MisteM

11-9-2024 16:02

MisteM and sprayxd step up from Young Ninjas as NIP's new in-game leader and assistant coach.

alex departs NIP after a poor start to 2024's second season

Gareth "⁠MisteM⁠" Ries is the new in-game leader of Ninjas in Pyjamas after the benching of Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet, the Swedish organization has announced.

alex led the Ninjas for a turbulent ten months, and survived their last-placed finish at Copenhagen's RMR to captain the rebuild around newcomers Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz, Max "⁠maxster⁠" Jansson, and Isak "⁠isak⁠" Fahlén.

A few months later, however, he has been deemed surplus to requirements after the newlook roster struggled to maintain its early promise in the new season.

There were a lot of struggles in the mid-round with this team. You can't blame that on one person, but change was needed.

Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers on NIP's YouTube

"We had some very high highs, like at YaLLa, and very low lows, in some online qualifiers, but the problem was that the average was not increasing at the rate we wanted," general manager THREAT said on YouTube.

"We could also see there were a lot of struggles in the mid-round with this team, and while you can't blame that on one person, you can say that this constellation of players doesn't mesh well and a change was needed."

How Ninjas in Pyjamas hit the reset button

alex's replacement, 22-year-old MisteM, joined Young Ninjas in January 2024 and skippered the squad to a peak of World No. 54 early this year.

"MisteM has been a key driving force behind Young Ninjas and their success, showing both incredible talent and leadership," NIP's press release said.

"He is one of the key pillars of our academy project, and we’re excited to see him bring that same energy and determination to the main team. MisteM embodies the values of NIP, and we are confident that he will thrive as the IGL of our main team."

MisteM and sprayxd have forged a long-term tactical partnership

Daniel "⁠sprayxd⁠" Kogan, who coached MisteM in Young Ninjas and ATK, will renew his partnership with the South African in the main team as assistant coach to Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström (replacing Fredrik "⁠slap⁠" Junbrant).

The duo will also link up with former teammate maxster, who was key to Young Ninjas' form at the start of 2024 but has dipped to a 0.96 rating in the last three months with the main team.

Attention now turns to the Shanghai Major cycle, with a small two-month window for MisteM and sprayxd to put their stamp on the team as NIP seek qualification for their first CS2 Major.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are now:

Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner
Gareth "⁠MisteM⁠" Ries
Isak "⁠isak⁠" Fahlén
Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz
Max "⁠maxster⁠" Jansson

Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström (coach)
Daniel "⁠sprayxd⁠" Kogan (assistant coach)

Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet (benched)
Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen (benched)
Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke (benched)

clown org

2024-09-11 16:02

288

19 replies

top-5 by January 2025 if im not mistaken

2024-09-11 16:04

156

5 replies

ah yeah actually forgot about that, they meant top5 of tier4 in Jan 2025 i guess

2024-09-11 16:17

4 replies

I think they said top 5 on faceit pugs

2024-09-11 16:18

3 replies

no no they wanted top 5 Gold Nova 3 rank on Inferno

2024-09-11 16:23

1 reply

Oh I misunderstood then. Thank you! Tho I'm not so sure it is possible for them. They should be realistic and seek top 5 on Silver Elite by January 2025 and maybe, just maybe, in 2026 they could try to go for top 5 on Gold Nova 3.

2024-09-11 17:39

Imposible

2024-09-11 16:51

NIP Org such clowns, why didn’t they pay the buyout for apex, alexi or siuhy smh

2024-09-11 16:10

10 replies

They literally had Aleksi and fumbled

2024-09-11 16:12

6 replies

x.com/EllanarkJesus/status/1778814261331..

2024-09-11 16:16

Aleksib elevated that NIP roster massively, idk why blade wants to publicly feed the haters like that. Maybe to keep aleksib humble?

2024-09-11 16:46

#159

2024-09-11 17:14

Blade also called electronic a tier 1 igl and a way better igl than boombl4. Blade isn't perfect/sometimes he says things specifically to motivate players.

2024-09-11 17:07

Proven that took it out of context. Read the whole interview dummy, he never meant Aleksib was actually tier 2. Blade By his standard calls everyone tier 2, he said "cuz b1t had trophies, we can call him tier 1. Everyone didn't have trophies, so they are tier 2." Blade yaps a lot, don't take it seriously.

2024-09-11 17:13

#94 sums it up pretty well, good insides from Blade. Also Aleksi wouldn’t be with nip where he is with Navi right now, which is decided by many factors of course but roughly the players and the coach

2024-09-11 16:22

because no one is going to sell a player right before the Shanghai rmr, atleast not if you have ambitions to win and a brain with some sense inside it

I would also like a more experienced IGL, but as you rightfully stated no one is available rn. MisteM isn’t the worst choice, as he comes from inside the Org structure and also played with maxster before. Now if he is better than Alex? Before ESL Pro League I would have said no, but after that why not? Stats from Alex where horrendous, and the igl leadership and tactics sadly didn't balance it. When this lineup started it was promising, but for a few months now NIP seems to play only Ancient really well and also fumbled some Online games really hard. Changes are definitely needed, also maxster needs to step up obviously

2024-09-11 16:20

apEX the retarDED no thanks, OverratedB or who else? ... suggest some one real, not other trash igl.

2024-09-11 20:26

u can say that again… Even Aleksib was struggling to make it work with them. The truth is that they have no patience and they are rotating players and igls in and out of this org faster then hookers in a brothel. Who's gonna have faith in them any more?

2024-09-11 18:01

hope they disband

2024-09-11 19:58

FINALLY

2024-09-11 16:03

9 replies

THIS MUST BE A JOKE HAHAHAHAHA

2024-09-11 16:08

1974 mvp oakland mvp flair

2024-09-11 19:56

7 replies

ropz🤣🤣🤣

2024-09-11 20:01

more trophies + major + take your L

2024-09-11 20:15

more washed then yeki😂

2024-09-11 21:51

you just straight up lying

2024-09-11 21:59

no, ropz has been a complete bot since he bought that porche REZ>Ropz

2024-09-11 22:03

2 replies

huff copium

2024-09-11 22:28

how many oakland 2017 mvps does ropz have?

2024-09-11 22:29

NIP ERA STARTS NOW

Top 50 team

11 replies

huge upgrade* now they just need to replace max or isak with more firepower

-maxster +Kacerpsky or what his name is

2024-09-11 16:11

would work i think but nip should probably get someone with t1 experience

2024-09-11 16:13

great idea! lets switch the young player who performed great in the academy team with the young player who perfroms great in the academy team!

2024-09-11 17:04

In fairness it's very cheap to do that and literally any player they can bring in would be atleast somewhat a gamble. The org simply doesn't have pull anymore , even if nip had loads of money which they don't to my knowledge

2024-09-11 17:12

i agree this is probably their only way to find young talents for cheap, its just that maxter was even better at his time in young ninjas than kacper... its pointless in benching him after no time while playing with a shit roster and just trying to find a carry. if they would switch between them it would be the exact same... mistem is actually big for nip it shouldve happend a long time ago maybe one day we would see rez step down and then a + kacper would be logical. anyways i think this is a step forward no doubt also i almost forgot, the sprayxd call up is huge, this dude managed to make young ninjas look better than the main roster even when his best player was taken from him, i think hes a big addition

2024-09-11 18:02

This I actually agree with fully. Seems we are on the same page. I was moreso stating that going for another academy player for half the price they'd have to pay for some tier 2 player gamble, WHEN AND IF they do replace maxster, isn't necessarily a bad idea. Agreed fully though there's a good chance maxster will both develop his nerves with more time AND that a new igl can breathe some life into him. And gambling on another development player before truly even committing to developing your current development player would be a poor choice

2024-09-11 18:43

id just like to add that its not a random igl that might breath air into him its an igl + a coach that he already played with and was succesful under. yes we cant really say it will work because winning against tier 2 even tho its impressive as a young academy team isnt the same as managing to perform in lans and stages and obviously against the best teams itw. still tho, mistem is probably not only the best value for moeny they can get now but he might just be the best option avilable at all even while considering igls that they could buy ( considering a player like hooxi wouldnt agree to join this team and that al solid igls are locked for the major already)

2024-09-11 18:50

Ouuuu I didn't even realize!!! Here's hoping maxster gets torzii'd if you catch my drift. Only issue I have with nip as a team is that even if this is some sjuihy (his names too weird to spell correctly off memory pls forgive lol) type move, I don't necessarily see this making Isak also perform better like we can presume with maxster. And I do think Isak atleast under this current nip leadership before mistem, has been quite poor even for his roles. He needs to have higher lows. He can even have worse highs to equivalent exchange it I don't care he just needs higher lows his lows are too low especially for how frequent he has said poor maps. A .85 is realistically as low as your support player should be going on maps where your entire team isnt getting washed, if you're going to be dropping said performances more than 2-3 times a tournament. A couple .65 maps a tournament just isn't good enough. You're supposed to be the consistent glue guy. Stars are ceiling raisers, you're supposed to he the floor raiser I do have some hope though considering I liked how he performed on gl, and if he can just bring that performance here that's good enough for me

2024-09-11 19:00

tbh i am too biased anyways i wouldve preferd blueph3onix wouldve kept his suppportive roles instead of the isak signing but yeah isak doesnt do enough to justify his space but at the same time we should give everyone some time atleast with the new igl and coach and let them decide who is the right fit and who isnt, theres no point changing other positions before seeing how they play and feel under the igl

2024-09-11 19:01

NiP is probably one of the richest esport teams. They are owned by a kid whos father is like top of the richest chinese ppl

2024-09-14 22:44

+Cadian

didnt you read? mistem is the igl

2024-09-11 16:09

Who

8 replies

from academy

Asked

funny guy... i see you have commented "who" to three different threads lately, no other life than a dead meme?

2024-09-11 16:14

Actually im just an asshole but everyone thinks im joking

Lmaooo best response ever

Honest Asshole

2024-09-11 17:25

lmao

2024-09-11 19:37

mr funny guy

2024-09-11 16:19

Expected

Good choice.

finally though they will fuck up again signing another igl

Damn bro nip is cooked

I did not expect that so soon, mistem seems like a strange choice, not sure he is a T1 captain either but hey atleast KOI might get a bit better now

NIP management

Disband this org please, the legends that helped forge the name "Ninjas in Pyjamas" are all crying

Needs to go full swedish. I dont care if it would take time, or forever. But it would at least keep it to the roots

2024-09-12 09:08

XDDDD

bye

he was not the problem atleast not the biggest no?

It's tough cause Maxter is probably a bigger issue given roles but alex at EPL had like 6 maps where he didn't even get 10 kills

2024-09-11 16:06

Also one could argue maxter may play much better with a different igl. Keyword one, not I, lol I'm not arguing that I've no idea maxters career trajectory

2024-09-11 17:15

alex back to KOI

Mistem isn't great, and rez survives another change. hltv users might make better GM's then the NIP one.

to be fair, REZ is by far their most consistent player at the moment, which is telling enough

2024-09-11 16:05

Rez is NIps best player.

Tells you a lot about the state of NIP

Also tells, that you didn’t watch many nip games lately and rather blindly hate for cloud

I watched the amkal game and decided I will never watch a nip game by choice again.

Your decision, but it takes two teams btw for that kind of a fiasco and there were other matches which were hard for the eyes, but sure let’s call out on nip only Hahahha disband org hahahahha worst management Hahahha worst game ever Kindergarden Kids have more varieties in their jokes

2024-09-11 16:26

well of course the hate is going to be on nip they are the team that people expect somethign from. were used to see shit cct fiasco from a team like amkal we just expect better of nip... and i liked the mistem call up but it doesnt change the fact nip have some of the worst games ever lately...

2024-09-11 18:56

okay i guess? I don't really expect anything to change on a largel scale

Faze are shaking rn

-r1nkle +hampus +jocab

-awper +rifler? or did jocab take the awp role from silence?

rez can be an awper. You can't fuck up this team any more. Draken could also get in for Maxster seat

r1nkle's their best player though. unless you really want them to go back to full swedish. Rez is also doing well as a rifler atm, and on the awp he was... underwhelming to say the least.

you may have a point, but did you watch the amkal vs nip match during blast showdown by any chance? if not take a look, lots of entertainment value in this one.

I've seen some clips, but honestly rez and r1nkle should be the only two who deserve to stay. I'd keep isak to but I can see why people would want to kick him

2024-09-11 17:16

It is aptly named "the worst cs match of all time" and certainly of cs2 by some and I have to agree with that. An AWPer in top tier couterstrike needs to be one thing more than any other and that is consistent, otherwise handing him $5k of equipment on a constant basis is not worth it. R1nkle is not consistent at the moment unfortunately. He is a young talent, he can grow, but as of right now, he is not fit for t1-2. REZ is running on some credit earned in IEM Oakland last decade and none of the other pieces are exceptional enough to pull the cart out of the dirt. At the moment I'd rather watch old NIP with f0rest, get_right, friberg, fifflaren and xsist play as some harlem globe trotter style remember band than this iteration, it's tough.

2024-09-12 18:07

I think everyone would love to see old NIP back. But still Rinkle's shown a lot of potential and he's already shown more than a lot of other awpers who got the call up to tier 1. He's good, with the potential to be even better. And Rez is just a solid rifler. I get why people meme on him but honestly he's been good for the last few rosters and that's something I can't say about anyone else who has played on NIP recently.

2024-09-12 18:12

Good luck nip, legendary south african esports organisation

W move

lol

what they really want to disband xd

well, thats an underwhelming replacement

we have to be on the top by 2025

alex, your time on NIP doesn't count

I was hopefull after I saw -alex...

2024-09-11 16:07

finally!! please sign a good igl please nip

cadian to nip?

I remember this MisteM guy like from 2017-18 when he played Asian minor in Bravado african team or something, was one of the future. Now NiP, good for him

decent move

maxter was the problem

NiP stop changing players like socks holy fuck

AMKAL's cinema will never be the same

Good luck Alex

And IEM Oakland 1987 MVP survives yet another roster shuffle Goated player

REZ is their best player

Yea I know but it's funny how he's been on this team for years now despite Nip changing players every month

cause he’s preforming unlike the 3 bots he has to play with

Its only been 7 ears mate give him some time to get back in form tf? 😭

Hold on, if misteM doesn't work, he will igling. He didn't try it yet. Maybe, he is good, we don't know.

2024-09-11 18:54

Good. He could not call t sides for shit, especially on inferno

Try calling with pieces like maxster, isak

That doesn’t excuse him calling an apps pop 30% of the rounds

I dont watch tier45 cs sorry

can we stop making news about this tier 9 team please

Holy shit

African CS on the rise

That bench is getting kinda full

alex es3tag k0nfig (then add the two players from young ninjas that are now open for offers) xkacpersky silence Coach: Slap Looks like a solid lineup aswell

2024-09-12 09:07

Looks like something for into the breach or endpoint or sumthin

2024-09-12 10:03

LOL KKKKKKKKKK I knew it since the beginning

Dead org it wont help -Alex is huge but building team around rez and isak is pure xd

un-understandable how they kick alex before maxster

Lets hope MisteM isn't permanent

Ofc hes not. Just like Bluephoenix wasnt.

Well he is permanent o7

2024-09-12 13:42

What?

2024-09-12 18:19

He is gonna be the permanent IGL yes. Threat did mention that it is easier to bench a academy player tho. So in other words if the RMR goes to shit and MisteM sucks he will be benched. But they will 100% play the RMR with him because of the roster lock.

2024-09-12 18:20

benched > nip

finally, movistar koi +alex

Now back to KOI and make them decent pls

I guess they are still searching a second African player + 1 Na player so during the next cycle they compete in the Asian RMR?

And exactly why did we think THREAT was cooking something?

if you didn't figure out THREAT is the most delusional idiot in the scene years ago I can't help you bro, this moronic managing has been going on since forever

Oh no I was fully aware from the get go, I'm asking his fanboys and NIP hardcores who still defend him or are delusional enough to believe they will be "Nr. 1 in 2025"

2024-09-11 16:45

yeah it's insane, but I think even the most delusional NiP fans are coming around to the reality that their team is tier3 at best and they will never be relevant again untill every single person involved in management is gone

2024-09-11 17:34

When did threat say that NiP would be "nr. 1 in 2025"?

2024-09-11 17:54

"alex haters whre u at" after beating faze in mickey mouse blast just to go to showdown and lose there to amkal HERE I AM HAHAHYHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

you had it well kept lol

I would've replied in the original thread but it got deleted.

2024-09-11 17:31

POG

mistem 0.98 with an academy team. he might be igl, but not looking promising

alex wasn’t exactly fragging either

yeah but mistem isnt the solution either

2024-09-11 16:30

probably not

2024-09-11 16:42

'fragging' isn't even the problem here.

mistem is a way better caller then alex for firepower they need to replace maxster and or isak

I havnn't watched YN games but they had some decent results lately, let's see . They can upgrade firepower later if needed.

2024-09-11 16:47

nip new og for long time already, just let these young talents get experience on t1 scene, like xkacpersky, jocab

2024-09-11 16:15

lmfao, top 5 team competing for titles in about 5 months right? another random child on a faceit stack of bums, what could go wrong?

this is amazing news to KOI

Finally, but why Rez and isak still on the team

lol when they kick eztag konfig? )) need to buy lnz jumpy and promote jocab, rinkle next )))

Is the moment, make Riders great again ^^

two more and bench can make decent squad, even better than the main xD

I remember the anouncement: "World class igl"

Personally i believe Alex wasnt NIP problem, the whole roster lacks quality, none of the members are real top5 on his roles and what its expected for them is to be a top5 team or at least for some periods of the season and this wont change things for better. i understand he wasnt the solution and they have to start somewhere but i think this change wont make big impact. . He might go back to KOI to shake up things after disapointing results.

maxster still in the team

spray xd

2024-09-11 16:21

Honorary North American MisteM

only 3 months left for them to become top1 team btw. as their intention was xdd

Hopefully this will have a positive impact on maxster's game. Now Alex and SunPayas to KOI

at this rate you could assemble a team of NIP's benched players and it'd be better than main team

To honor the old Into The Bin squad... Ninjas in Bins time? Ninjas on Benches (NoB)? (I unironically wouldn't be surprised if they won such match, this org is a mess)

Ninjas on Benches 2024 alex es3tag k0nfig (then add the two players from young ninjas that are now open for offers) xkacpersky silence Coach: Slap

2024-09-12 09:06

no hampus wtf

2024-09-11 16:32

hampus would never go back to NIP.

2024-09-11 19:02

All mid players infiltrated in the scene through online CS platforms thankfully to one week lifegame perfomances and now this is the result. Internet killed everything which was good, not only in CS but everywhere else. It is a fact.

Could have been hooxi but let's see how this goes, couldn't be worse than alex one.

2024-09-11 16:44

NiP-absolute circus team ,nothing more to add imo.

Way down we go ⛵️

Good

2024-09-11 16:48

rip academy

2024-09-11 16:50

One down, four more to go

2024-09-11 16:52

rare good move by ninjas in clowns

2024-09-11 16:53

finally alex gone

2024-09-11 16:54

Ofc this is a temp change until they get another igl

nooo such promising talent just needed more time

2024-09-11 17:03

Just try fear from passionUA, he made strong tier 2-3 team from a bunch of Who?'s

2024-09-11 17:05

thought would do an actually okay move but what do i expect from nip

Nip has gone completely drunk-mode

2024-09-11 17:17

From signing device to signing tier 3 south-African player. No offense to player, but..did they really have nobody else to sign? Upd: my bad, he's from academy team, alright, might actually be an improvement!

And who cares? Nip = dead team

2024-09-11 17:22

who?

2024-09-11 17:28

Competition is hard. Let's hope the young gun flourishes in the role!

2024-09-11 17:45

what the hell is that flair.

2024-09-11 17:56

aaaaand the cycle continues of same trash decisions by trash org

2024-09-11 18:03

RIP mistem carreer. Aleksib had times to prove himself and he was lucky to go for NAVI. Hampus had to downgrade. Alex won't igl international teams, I'm pretty sure. Meanwhile, you have maxster and rez who will stay, because they are swedes. Grim and Floppy have the same chance.

2024-09-11 18:39

Gotta be Hooxi, right?

2024-09-11 18:12

Just a few and we have a full team on the bench

2024-09-11 18:20

Even if it is a good opportunity for misteM, RIP is future career. NIP are igl killers. Meanwhile, Rez and probably maxster need more time. NIP alex was awful, but like aleksib, he had one good player who is still a rookie and t2 players.

2024-09-11 18:37

- buda + alex

Deserved…

2024-09-11 19:12

totally forgot about es3tag and k0nfig guess they are still riding the bench

2024-09-11 19:38

NiP signings are based on random number generation

2024-09-11 19:40

Finally

2024-09-11 19:45

Why dont they just bench the entire main team and promote the entire academy team while they at it? Even though Alex is absolute trash, changing the IGL wont help. 100% the academy team would beat the main team anyway. And im not even joking.

2024-09-11 19:51

what happened to the rebuild around alex??? lmao

"NIP moving away from CS" -Spring 2025.

2024-09-11 20:21

2024-09-11 20:51

why not take cadian 111

2024-09-11 20:55

I actually thought he works quite well with the younger players honestly

2024-09-11 21:02

I feel like Alex wasn’t really the problem and I also feel like NiP is pressuring themselves so much with all that „being competitive until 2025“ bullshit that they will destroy themselves more and more And they deserve it

2024-09-11 21:05

about time

2024-09-11 21:24

FREE K0NFIG. 2 YEARS ON THE BENCH FOR THIS CLOWN CAR ORG.

2024-09-11 21:31

holyy huge for za cs

2024-09-11 22:01

Sad for alex :(

2024-09-11 22:14

alex coming back to koi?

2024-09-11 22:26

Did anyone think Alex was gonna do a damn thing with this squad? It never made any sense. They overachieved honestly.

2024-09-11 22:30

the team is absolute trash, the problem is that they replace trash with trash, I don't know what do they expect from those changes.

2024-09-12 01:06

They wanted an igl that could activate the apwer agressivly, like he did sunpayus. They thought aleksib held back for a more passive awper.

2024-09-12 09:05

I swear nip management been so bad for years now , they kick trash for trash lmao , yeah gl nip ever making top 10 lmao

2024-09-11 22:31

Hahahaha thats true. They and BIG 're literally trading trash for trash

2024-09-12 00:07

That's so messed up , like they don't want to be top 3 contender, it's not like nip org doesn't have money to buy decent guys

2024-09-12 02:38

They just don't want to compete anymore become a superteam once again. Going for cheaper options day by day

2024-09-12 21:04

if they cant make dev1ce and aleksiB work, then I think we should allow Nip to try whatever they want. good luck nip

2024-09-11 23:07

Device worked. NIP were top 5 during that period and also won IEM.

2024-09-12 09:31

Should've tried konfig

2024-09-12 00:05

zuid africa #1 Verwoerds died for this

2024-09-12 00:30

ez kick dodge for REZ

2024-09-12 02:55

the only team that can save nip zet ins walle spawn tentpole

2024-09-12 03:15

NiP org are out of their minds.. all their last lineups looks 100% like five random pros mixed for a qualifier.

2024-09-12 04:17

Yeah sure, alex was the problem.

2024-09-12 07:51

NIP bench lookingmore solid than the roster

2024-09-12 08:07

alex es3tag k0nfig (then add the two players from young ninjas that are now open for offers) xkacpersky silence Coach: Slap

2024-09-12 09:04

Fucking literally

2024-09-14 20:04

Lmao team bench alex es3tag k0nfig (then add the two players from young ninjas that are now open for offers) xkacpersky silence Coach: Slap i really wonder who would win vs the real NIP. They should really make a second roster with these players, they are all under contract anyway??? And pay salary to them. They would probably do better or equal anyway. #MAKEITHAPPEN