Renowned esports organization Ninjas in Pyjamas has disbanded their Dota 2 division and exited the scene “for now”.
After a year with an unstable roster and lack of success the Ninjas in Pyjamas have decided to pull the plug on their Dota 2 division. Five years after they first entered the scene NiP has announced a temporary exit from Dota 2.
It’s just a chapter. We’re not giving up, we’re not uninstalling and we’re not going to low prio. Thank you all ❤️
📄 https://t.co/NBW0bW6qIj#DOTA2 pic.twitter.com/Mngk9LIVHz
— Ninjas in Pyjamas (@NiPGaming) November 30, 2020
While legendary players like ppd and Universe had been part of NiP’s squad in the past, their last major roster shuffle saw them pick up Chicken Fighters after ppd and Universe retired. Initially they put up strong results only to fall off during the course of the year and struggle in the stacked European scene.
Unstable Ecosystem and stiff competition
In their official statement, NiP cited the unstable ecosystem and lack of support from developer Valve as one of the main reasons for their decision. Since the outbreak of the pandemic the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) had been suspended with The International 10 postponed indefinitely.
Another factor to their decision were the increased upkeep costs due to competing in the European region as success in what can be considered the strongest region has become increasingly difficult to find.
With all these issues in mind NiP has decided to stop operations now and rethink their approach for Dota 2.
NiP’s COO Jonas Gundersen stressed the fact that the closure would be temporary as the Ninjas reevaluate the situation: “I am confident that we’ll re-enter the game at the highest level, once we find the right opportunity.”
Valve had recently announced the resumption of the interrupted Dota Pro Circuit in January but for NiP a simple announcement with no additional details has been insufficient to keep their division running.
The former NiP members have said that they would finish the ongoing EPIC League in which they are playing in the second division before deciding on their future:
Thanks and good luck in future endeavors, @NiPGaming.
We’ll finish Epic League with the squad and then we’ll see what happens https://t.co/SI2RBW2Ktz— Adrian Kryeziu (@EraDota) November 30, 2020
Judging from NiP’s statement we can hazard a guess that the next iteration of NiP in Dota 2 will most likely not compete in Europe.
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