{"id":10971,"date":"2020-04-10T06:07:25","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T06:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/?p=10971"},"modified":"2020-04-14T06:07:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T06:07:47","slug":"ninjas-in-pyjamas-unveil-inaugural-valorant-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/ninjas-in-pyjamas-unveil-inaugural-valorant-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninjas in Pyjamas unveil inaugural VALORANT roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ninjas in Pyjamas are set to extend their brand into VALORANT, as the <a href=\"\/sweden\/\" title=\"Esports betting in Sweden\">Swedish esports<\/a> organisation have confirmed their world-champion Paladins roster will transition into the highly anticipated first-person shooter from Riot Games.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement surfaced on Wednesday when NiP took to Twitter to unveil Malkolm &#8220;Bonkar&#8221; Rench, KenLeander &#8220;isbittenner&#8221; Aspestrand, Alex &#8220;Alex&#8221; Suchev and Dylan &#8220;DiGeDoG&#8221; Chainski as their inaugural VALORANT roster.<\/p>\n<p>The quartet is mostly known for its success in the Paladins esports scene throughout 2019, when they won Paladins Premier League (PPL) Phase 1, reached the finals of the Mid-Season Invitational, picked up a fourth-place finish in PPL Phase 2 and won the Paladins World Championship. Despite their immense success, Ninjas in Pyjamas decided to pull the plug on the team in December.<\/p>\n<div class=\" embed-twitter\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The time is ripe to end the chapter and bid farewell to a team that&#39;s been with us through thick and thin. Goodbye <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PaladinsPro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PaladinsPro<\/a> ?<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5swU8430ZB\">https:\/\/t.co\/5swU8430ZB<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GONINJAS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GONINJAS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Paladins?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Paladins<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DmBiB6BlNr\">pic.twitter.com\/DmBiB6BlNr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ninjas in Pyjamas at Home??? (@NiPGaming) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NiPGaming\/status\/1208374051158274051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>After the roster disbanded, Erik \u201cBird\u201d Sj\u00f6sten, DiGeDoG and isbittenner retired from the competitive scene. Bonkar and Alex moved to District 69, who qualified for PPL 2020 with a top-six finish at the Paladins Pro Circuit 2020 Season European Qualifiers in February, but both players stepped away from Paladins earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve decided to move on from Paladins,&#8221; said Alex.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I learned a lot during the time I competed, most importantly I found what I want to do in life. Thank you to all the people that were a part of it-fans, friends, teammates and competitors, and all the people behind the scenes!&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\" embed-twitter\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The time has come, I have decided to retire from Paladins.<br \/>I would like to thank everyone who supported me on this journey, thanks to all the great team mates i had and to all the friends i met in and outside the Realm \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; bonkar (@Officialbonkar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Officialbonkar\/status\/1246355354751025156?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Alex ended his announcement by stating &#8220;Expect news!&#8221;, which suggests NiP&#8217;s VALORANT project was in the pipeline for some time. Now the team&#8217;s core Paladins World Championship roster is set to return with Bird appointed as the head coach of the new VALORANT squad.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;VALORANT is undoubtedly one of the most exciting titles in recent years, and it\u2019s been clear to us from the beginning that it\u2019s a game we would like to be heavily involved in,&#8221; said Jonas Gundersen, COO of NiP.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Riot have some great ideas on how to evolve the community and esports specifically, and we\u2019re very excited to have an integral part in shaping that with them.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Bird expressed his excitement for NiP&#8217;s new project, which has given him the chance to reunite with his former Paladins teammates.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With our previous experience and success we are looking to enter the game at the highest level and start our grind from day one,&#8221; said Bird.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While I personally will be taking a step away from a player position, I will instead continue to support the team from an overhead view.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ninjas in Pyjamas are not the first esports organisation to have started scouting for VALORANT players, <a href=\"\/riot-games-to-launch-valorant-closed-beta-in-five-regions\/\" title=\"VALORANT closed beta set to launch in five regions\">even though the closed beta for Riot&#8217;s FPS title only came out on Tuesday, April 7<\/a>. Many former esports pros from Paladins, CS:GO, Overwatch, Call of Duty and even Rainbow Six Siege have announced their intentions to relaunch their esports careers as VALORANT players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ninjas in Pyjamas are set to extend their brand into VALORANT, as the organisation have confirmed their world-champion Paladins roster will transition into the highly anticipated first-person shooter from Riot Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":10880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4,428,1169,83,1150],"class_list":["post-10971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","tag-ninjas-in-pyjamas","tag-paladins","tag-se","tag-valorant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10971"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10974,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971\/revisions\/10974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportbet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}