Ninjas in Pyjamas has moved Erik “ztr” Gustafsson back to the Young Ninjas roster and called the rifler Linus “LNZ” Holtäng up to complete its CS:GO lineup for IEM Summer, which will kick off on Thursday, June 3.
This roster change comes a few days after NiP finished as the runners-up to mousesports in Flashpoint Three, the first Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament for European teams and their first showing since Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz joined the team. Ztr had been playing for the main team since February when Simon “twist” Eliasson was benched and averaged a 0.85 rating across 58 maps played.
NiP’s head coach Björn “THREAT” Pers believes ztr made a great contribution to the team but he thinks the 17-year-old needs more time to develop “without the pressure of having to deliver on the highest level.”
“Erik has contributed enormously to our recent success with great communication and energy, helping us to recover in dire moments,” THREAT said. “However, I believe he needs some more time to develop as a player, which is why we’ve decided to let him play with Young Ninjas. This opens up an opportunity for LNZ, a gifted player who has been on the rise in Young Ninjas, to try his fortune on the main roster.”
With LNZ’s arrival on the main roster, NiP continues to experiment with its academy players, maintaining the formula of four experienced pros plus one player from the Young Ninjas project. He’s an 18-year-old rifler who’s averaged a 1.04 rating in the last three months with the academy team.
NiP’s lineup for the $250,000 IEM Summer consists of dev1ce, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, Hampus Poser, Nicolas “Plopski” Zamora, and LNZ. He’ll make his debut against OG on Thursday, June 3 at 8:30am CT.
