Competitive esports organization Ninjas in Pyjamas have the formation of their VALORANT lineup. The game is still 🦩fresh and new, but that is not stopping organizations from securing the best talent in the competitive scene. Organizations like TSM, 100 Thieves, and FaZe Clan all have their own VALORANT teams, so it comes as no surprise that NiP has been quick to form its own roster.
The team consists of five competitive veterans:
- Enzo "Fearoth" Mestari (Captain)
- Emir "RHYME" Muminovic
- Niels "luckeRRR" Jasiek
- Charles "CREA" Beauvois
- Damien "HyP" Souville
In this case, the team has quite a bit of experience already with VALORANT. HyP, Fearoth, and CREA have alread💝y been competing together in several tournaments, securing win after win. Previously they were playing under the team name “HypHypHyp”, and recently took the grand prize at Take The Thron𓆉e 6.
LuckeRRR was been a competitive CS:GO player for some time. He played in several tournaments from 2015 to 2018 as an AWPer, often among higher tiers of competition. Lastly, RHYME is also best known for his stint as a competitive CS:GO player in the rifler role. He was most recently♋ listed as being part꧂ of Team Riddle, and competed in that game as recently as February of this year.
Speaking about the announcement was Jonas Gunderson, COO of NiP, who states, “Our ambition has and always will be to field a top-tier lineup - our faith in the VALORANT scen꧃e and Riot’s plans for it remains strong and we’ll stop at nothing to get to the top spot.”
Gunderson continued with an interesting comment, “It’s become clear that CS:GO experience is a strong predictor of VALORANT performance, and adding the spice of the highest level of Overwatch com🌳petition through HyP makes for a really st༒rong foundation.”
This has been a sentiment shared among the top levels of skilled players from several games. Richard “shox” Papillon, for example, is a top-rated player in CS:GO who recently VALORANT as leaving him with a positive impression, but that he doubts other top players will transition away from their current game. However, he believes that players who struggle to reach those top levels of CS:GO play will likely move over to VALORANT to gain an early edge over other players.
As the esports scene for VALORANT develops, it will be fascinating to see if this holds true. It makes perfect sense for a player who was good-but-not-great in one game to be similarly skilled in another, at least on average. If a player truly has what it takes to be the best in VALORANT, would they be playing that game, or something more established like CS:GO? For n🌌ow, this is all specu♔lative, but it is certainly food for thought.
In any cas🐈e, we are all excited to see the new NiP roster in action.
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