Ninjas in Pyjamas have benched Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen as they continue to shake up their roster ahead of the 2023 CS:GO season.
After the disappointment of 2021, where they were hyped up to make a march on the top level of Counter-Strike once again, 2022 proved to be another rocky year for Ninjas in Pyjamas.
The iconic Swedish organization has reshaped its roster a few times over the last few months as a result, bringing in Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin and Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen from Fnatic and G2, respectively. They’ve also recently bid farewell to Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz as he returned to Astralias, as well as benching Nicolas ‘Plopski’ Gonzalez Zamora to free up a spot for Aleksib.
That upheaval is set to continue into the early part of 2023 at the very least, as they’ve now benched es3tag and allowed the Dane to find new opportunities away from NiP.
NiP bench es3tag from CS:GO roster
NIP announced the roster change on December 21, confirming that the Dane would be allowed to find a new home for the 2023 season.
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“In preparation of the next year we’ve been evaluating the team composition overall, and have moved Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen to the bench, and are allowing him to explore new opportunities ahead of the 2023 season,” NIP said.
“Patrick has been a fantastic teammate, colleague, and player to have at NIP. We have nothing but good things to say about him, and we are sure he will find success where ever he goes next.”
𝗥𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯We have moved @es3tag to the bench and have allowed him to explore his options. pic.twitter.com/DtUe5JKn0T
— NIP CS (@NIPCS) December 21, 2022
As of writing, NIP have not yet announced a replacement for es3tag, nor has the Dane given any hints about his next move.
Ahead of 2023, the current NIP roster looks like:
- Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen
- Fredrik ‘REZ’ Sterner
- Hampus ‘hampus’ Poser
- Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin