Ninjas in Pyjamas will move the mantle of primary AWPer to someone else for the 2023 CS:GO season after announcing today that the org is benching Danish sniper Patrick “es3tag” Hansen following an end-of-year evaluation of the team composition.
The move comes just a couple of months after the organization parted ways with another Danish sniper in legendary superstar Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, who returned to Astralis. Dev1ce joined NiP in an all-star-sized transfer in April 2021 but spent all of 2022 on medical leave.
With dev1ce unavailable, NiP turned to es3tag, who after making a name for himself with Heroic from 2017 through 2020, struggled to find his footing consistently during short stints with Astralis, Cloud9, and Complexity. During 2022, NiP and es3tag notched a couple of strong finishes at major events and picked up a couple of smaller trophies but were unable to come close to the renowned competitive level the organization was once at.
In the final months of es3tag’s time with NiP, the organization opted for new in-game leadership after picking up former ENCE/OG in-game leader Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen and the Ninjas defied expectations with a 3-0 run at the IEM Rio European RMR, earning an unlikely Legends spot at IEM Rio. Unfortunately for NiP, they had a dismal 0-3 showing in the Legends Stage of IEM Rio.
During this time under Aleksib’s leadership, es3tag actually played more of a rifler role with Fredrik “REZ” Sterner taking on the primary AWPing duties.
Es3tag is now free to “explore new opportunities ahead of the 2023 season” while still under contract with NiP, whether that’s as a rifler or as an AWPer. In his own statement, he said he’ll “be taking [his] time to properly gauge what’s next,” so don’t expect a new home for him right away.
