We’re not even two days into the closed beta of Valorant yet and Ninjas in Pyjamas has already assembled an esports team. Although the Swedish organisation hasn’t had to look far – it’s retraining its disbanded Paladins roster in the ways of Riot Games’ new tactical shooter.
Like Phoenix, one of Valorant’s agents, NiP’s Paladins roster has risen from the ashes to take its new form. Now the team, made up of Malkolm ‘bonkar’ Rench, Dylan ‘DiGeDoG’ Chainski, Leander ‘isbittenner’ Aspestrand, and Aleks ‘Alex’ Suchev, and coached by ex-player Erik ‘Bird’ Sjösten is looking for its fifth member.
“Our success in Paladins derived from a team-first perspective and we intend to keep it that way,” Bird says in the press release. “We made the decision to transition to Valorant as a team in order to keep our synergy and put the focus on learning the game itself as efficiently as possible. This means loads of grinding and hopefully tons of content to share with you guys at home.”
The shooter has piqued the interest of many a content creator and professional esports athlete. Braxton ‘Swag’ Pierce signed to T1 as the first Valorant professional some weeks ago and it seems more will follow in the former CS:GO pro’s footsteps.
“Assembling a roster in a newly released game is an exciting challenge,” CEO Jonas Gundersen adds. “You never quite know how the game will play out and have to make some educated guesses as to what skillset translates best into high performance in a game like Valorant. So with that, re-signing our old Paladins roster is one of the greatest things I could imagine. They are two-time World Championship winners, have experience in MOBAs and raw skill from FPS backgrounds paired up with perfect team synergy and chemistry.
“Their desire to work hard, learn fast and become the best in this new game is unrivaled from what I’ve seen in a long time. I have very high hopes for the future and for NiP as a leading organization within the Valorant ecosystem.”
