Introduction:
Ninjas in Pyjamas were one of the most famous and successful clans in the history of competitive Counter-Strike. As well as multiple CPL wins they have been a magnet for the best talent in Scandinavia throughout their history. With their recent resurrection I took a moment to refresh your memories on how this clan from a small country like Sweden managed to conquer the entire CS world.

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The origin:
Ninjas in Pyjamas, or NiP as they are better known, was founded around June of 2000 by Potti and Tootzi. Potti described the formation of NiP like so:

"It actually started as a kind of a lan clan with bullet and elajten as the only members that weren't on lan with us (I knew them a "long" time from internet). We all played in a clan called [OF] wich was a pure lan clan from the start but we added bullet and elajten to our roster, the clanleader in that team wasn't very good at leading the team and not very motivated, so I decided to start something on my own and I came up with NiP. I was pretty new with the whole thing so I took some help from tootzi with making a homepage etc (which you needed to sign up for clanbase). After that we expanded more and more with people that weren't on lan with us."

The first generation of Ninjas included these names: Potti, Tootzi, bullet, blind, medion, kuros, hyb, kulspruta, cogline, nostril, strategen, trasan, ammis, zage, pk, GoZie, shrine, noxious, po_vift, notorious (and souledge, elajten, spawnizen, den_onde, Killa j as tryouts) The Ninjas quickly rose to the top of the Swedish scene by making it to the #1 position on the Swedish Clanbase ladder as well as the international ladder. Wins in the PC Gamer cup and CS League cemented their reputation as the best Swedish clan. NiP played the game by their own rules both metaphorically and literally from the very beginning, I remember seeing a paragraph on their first website saying they would accept any challenges as long as the opponents would play with NiP's specified CO (Charges only) rules setup. This carried over into their competition play too as they left Clanbase after being unbeaten for a long time when they lost to CSA (Counter-Strike Amargeddon, one of the best European teams in Clanbase) Regarding the incident MedioN said:

"I did not participate in that match, but from what I heard CSA broke 4-5 rules that they set up when they challanged us, and they managed to get the match accepted on CB because one of the members in CSA was a CB administrator."

As if that wasn't enough controversy early on at one point MedioN and Potti actually left the clan due to being unhappy with things as MedioN once more explains:

"We left and went to FF because we were too many and too inactive, that was fixed at the nip/e9 change. Many players were kicked when we changed from nip to e9, the ones that was inactive and did not want to go all the way etc."

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NiP become eyeballers:
As he mentioned the next big change was NiP changing names to e9 as they joined the EYEballers organization in November 2000. The players which made the cut from NiP to e9 were: Potti, Hyb, Pk, Kuros, Cogline, Medion, Ammis, Trasan, Bullet, kulspruta and Tootzi. With the EYE organization and its sponsors backing them e9 could now afford to attend the upcoming big LAN Counter-Strike tournaments which were being setup. In early December 2000 e9 attended the first CPL Europe event in Cologne, their proposed lineup was to be Pk, Bullet, Hyb, Potti and Souledge since MedioN and cogline weren't old enough to attend the event which required paricipants to be 18 years of age or older. When Pk missed his flight they were forced to use one of the EYE quake 3 players who was attending the event, litzter. Despite being a talented Quake 3 player litzer had actually never played Counter-Strike before yet e9 valiently played regardless and finished a respectable 4th. As Potti explained:

"in the match e9 vs z e9 hyb had a bluescreen (2 times) but the arrangers told us shit happends :P pk missed the flight and litzer a q3 players had to play, he have no experience in cs whatsoever + some of our best players is under 18 (cogline and medion) so they could not play"

When you consider they were basically not only a 4 man team but also playing with only 2 starters (Potti/Hyb) and still only lost to the 1st (Z) and 2nd (SoA) placing teams the seeds of success were already there just waiting to flourish.

The aforementioned flourishing would not have to wait long as later the same month e9 headed to Dallas, Texas to play in the Babbages CPL tournament. Ironically Pk missed his flight again and litzer was called on to play Counter-Strike yet again. The e9 lineup this time was MedioN, hyb, cogline, litzer and Potti. Despite having to play with a replacement once again the 4 e9 starters were on fire this tournament crushing everyone they faced and as Potti later commented:

"we won all matches on each side as counter and terror not dropping a single half"

For all intents and purposes now the World champions e9 returned back home to Sweden and on the 19th of January old school member Bullet left team. This was just an early sign of what was to come in the next stage of transformation which success brought to the clan.

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e9 to c9:
On the 25th of January 2001 e9's CS division was no more. Tootzi, Ammis, Kulspruta, Trasan and Nostril went to a clan called smile while the cream of the crop Potti, Medion, Cogline, Hyb and Kuros became the CS division of clan9 (a.k.a c9/team9) It's at this time that two of the world's most famous gamers enter the NiP story. HeatoN from Nostradamus and XeqtR who had beat e9 at CPL Cologne with SoA both became members of the team. In May the clan won The Gathering LAN party in Norway as team9 consolidated the clan's position as the team to beat after their Babbages win. NiP never was a quiet and peaceful clan though and the next change was to break the entire clan up.

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A tale of two clans:
For reasons not entirely known publicly MedioN was kicked from the clan and left to MAFIA with Hyb. XeqtR, HeatoN and Potti formed a CS division of All* (Allstars) along with top Danish players VicoN, Majestic and Jackieboy. HeatoN quickly changed allegiances though and headed to MAFIA. As XeqtR described it:


"Potti, heaton and myself ended up in Allstars, shortly thereafter heaton joined SoA.swe as well where medion and hyb had went after the breakup."

MAFIA changed their name to SoA.se becoming the Swedish division of the well known Danish clan for sponsor reasons. All of this took place with CPL Holland looming not far on the horizon so it wouldn't be long before both teams met each other again, this time as enemies. In Amsterdam, Holland, the scene was set and it suprised few when the final ended up as SoA.se vs All*. In the end it was SoA.se who would triumph and take away that crucial CPL victory.

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Dutch CPL result reunites the ninjas:
That result didn't increase the gap between the two groups of ex-NiP players though, the opposite in fact took place and they soon reaslized they were a big reason why both teams had done so well and both groups quit their respective clans for another ride on the NiP train, ex-MAFIA player Savage came along for the ride as a manager. The lineup was one which would become one of the most famous in CS history: HeatoN, Potti, MedioN, Hyb and XeqtR.


In July they showed just how devastating a lineup that was by crushing the rebuilt MAFIA at the Remedy LAN in Stockholm, Sweden. A month later they picked up where they'd left off in Dallas and won CPL London beating every team with relative ease, even the finalists aT (armaTeam) and fellow Swedes GoL (GameOnline) Next stop for the ninjas was Germany and a chance to make up for their misfortunes at CPL Cologne 10 months ago.

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Comings and goings:
CPL Berlin rolled around and seeded 1st along came NiP with Hyb's little brother, Souledge, trialling as the 6th man. As expected they won the event this time beating SoA in the finals. This was to be the last CPL the legendary HeatoN-Potti-MedioN-Hyb-XeqtR would ever play together. It would also be the last even manager Savage was along for the ride for, it appeared he'd had been under the impression he had joined the clan as a player-manager and when he found out he wouldn't be allowed a place in the starting lineup he departed from the clan. After further internal conflicts occurred XeqtR was kicked from the clan and joined rivals and 3rd place CPL London finishers GoL (GameOnline) As XeqtR concisely put it:

"after some internal problems I got kicked from NiP and I joined up with GoL"

With XeqtR gone NiP was a 4 man team so they quickly took in impressive upcoming player ahl from GoL and the leader of MAFIA, vesslan, who had been taking a break from CS (and had won CPL Holland along with 3 of the NiP members) With this 6 man lineup in place they headed to the ICE CPL Qualifier in Stockholm to try and win tickets to the CPL World Championship in December which would have a first place prize of $50,000. NiP showed they were still the best in the Nordic scene by winning the qualifier and placing above the rest of the Scandinavians elites like Nordic, GoL and ewok.



6 all expenses flights later and NiP touched down in Dallas, Texas to take part in the biggest Counter-Strike competition ever held to that date: The CPL World Championships. The best teams from countries like Sweden, Norway, Germany, USA, Austria and Denmark were all in attendance to compete for the $50k and most importantly the undefeated American clan X3 (Xtreme 3) were in attendance. For months fans on either side of the Atlantic had been hyping both teams and claiming them the best clans in the world. When it came down to the final few were suprised to see NiP facing off against X3.

After having despatched of ex-teammate XeqtR's GoL the only thing which stood in the Swedes' way was the best clan on the continent they were playing in. In 3 matches which would go down in history as instant classics NiP first beat X3 on train, at the time considered an "American map", then lost to them on Nuke setting up a grand final and putting fans around the world on the edge of their seats. The final itself went down to double overtime with NiP finally emerging the champions and $50,000 richer. $50k richer and undisputed world champions, things would settle down in NiP now you'd figure right? Wrong, the next set of changes was to occur very shortly.

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NiP the next generation:
After seeing how well he'd done with GoL at the CPL World Championships NiP took in their favourite Norwegian, XeqtR, giving them a 7 man lineup. Questions abounded about how they would manage such a lineup or who would be kicked but it wouldn't be long before that question answered itself. When he had joined NiP ex-MAFIA leader vesslan had said to me one day on irc "let's see how long this lasts", he was proven correct when internal disputes lead to him being kicked from the team. Down to a 6 man lineup things still looked good for the world champions but when MedioN retired and Hyb went inactive they soon found themselves with a 4 man active lineup. Hyb soon left for GoL to play with little brother Souledge and his fellow Gotherburgers.

NiP needed talent and fast, they approached young upcoming star ScreaM, who at the time was playing for matrix, about joining and as long as his friend and fellow matrix player Dracula could come along he wanted in. With Dracula baggage in tow the new NiP lineup was: HeatoN, Potti, XeqtR, ahl, ScreaM and Dracula. NiP won two more events before the end: Birdie LAN with a NiP mix team of HeatoN, Potti, Dracula, ScreaM and a standin and Dreamhack. Little did anyone know that NiP team would never reach another CPL event.

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Ninjas no more:
Despite an increase in publicity which came mainly from their pickup of Buddha as their manager and the subsequent opening of a public website which had taken place shortly after their CPL win the Ninjas had months to wait until the next CPL event. In the meantime they bootcamped with mTw, playing with mixteams and releasing the demos to a by now NiP-crazed public who ate up everything NiP-related. The next CPL event was announced and it was CPL Cologne. Once more NiP were struck by the same problem as in 2000, they had underage players in their starting lineup. As a result the ninjas wouldn't be in attendance and resident Norwegian XeqtR took this as a chance to play for fellow Scandinavian elites Nordic Division as a standin and with his fellow Norwegian DarK. Nordic won the event and XeqtR once again proved he was a force to be reckoned with with or without NiP, Cologne-teammate Swift describing him as a "one man army". ahl left the clan for his real-life friends in 2easy to "take things less seriously". After doing nothing for months Buddha was replaced by G3X who while increasing publicity on sites like geekboys.com also failed to aquirred much needed sponsorships. Without sponsors NiP would be unable to attend the CPL event that Summer since there was to be no qualifier in Scandinavia. Upon realizing this XeqtR, HeatoN and Potti headed to 3rd place CPL Cologne finishers SK.sca while Dracula and ScreaM decided not to follow them and instead disappeared from the public eye for the time being. NiP was dead.

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A ninja by any other name:
NiP may have been gone but its players were not. SK.sca won the CPL Summer Event 2002 with a Hyb-powered GoL placing 2nd and Nordic Division/esu (featuring vesslan and ahl) coming in at 3rd. After some inactivity, including missing CPL Oslo, SK.sca began a new phase of its history as XeqtR left and headed to recent CPL Oslo winners eoLithic. ahl chose not to make his stay in Nordic Division/esu permanent and returned to his friends in 2easy who would go on to place 2nd at CPL Oslo as mTw.se. The Winter rolled around and Hyb rejoined NiP teammates HeatoN and Potti by joining SK.sca, a poor finish at the MindtrekLAN CPL qualifier soon caused him to hurridly return to GoL again though. At said qualifier XeqtR was looking good winning the event with eoLithic who were firm favourites for the CPL Winter Event that December. When the event itself came eoLithic (XeqtR) and esu.swe (vesslan) were the underperformers of the tournament and placed 8th, SK.swe (HeatoN and Potti) with MedioN back active came 3rd and Hyb once more managed a 2nd place with GoL. ahl managed a 4th place with his 2easy friends who were now called team9 ironically. It was musical chairs time again and ahl and two of team9 friends joined SK.sca to reunite with Potti and HeatoN. This new SK.swe (HeatoN/Potti/ahl) quickly won CPL Cannes beating vesslan's 9.esu team.

The next big event clikarena came around and with $30k for first all the top European teams were in attendance. Hyb's GoL despite being current world champions 3D lost out early on in the playoff section of the tournament. SK.swe (HeatoN/Potti/ahl) were beaten twice by XeqtR's eoLithic and vesslan's 9.esu won the whole thing. After the loss of a key member eoLithic split up and XeqtR reunited with NiP/Nordic teammate vesslan in 9.esu who soon dropped the esu and became team9. At the next major event, ESWC, the XeqtR and vesslan powered team9 won the whole event while rivals SK.swe placed 3rd. At the CPL that Summer SK.swe (HeatoN/Potti/ahl) managed to outdo them and won $60,000 by placing 1st while XeqtR and vesslan won $42,000 with team9 for 2nd. Hyb's GoL meanwhile had become increasingly inactive and eventually after a short spell in xP.se he retired. SK.swe continued what was to become a winning streak and won both CPL Copenhagen and the WCG. team9 became Adren[gx]/Adrenaline and headed to the states for a few months.

At the CPL that winter SK.swe won it again and vesslan/XeqtR came 4th with adren[gx]. vesslan announced his retirement from competitive play, instead becoming a coach for Adrenaline. Months later at ESWC both Adrenaline and SK.swe placed poorly failing to even make top 4. At the CPL SK.swe's (HeatoN/Potti) luck didn't pick up as they lost to EYE placing 2nd. With his contract up XeqtR joined NoA and Adrenaline quickly fell apart and vesslan headed to mibr to coach them instead. At the WCG SK.swe underperformed massively losing to 3D and underdogs Maven. SK.swe were caught up in contract negotiation issues and didn't attend CPL Winter 2004 where XeqtR's NoA won the event and $30k. Vesslan recently announced his intention to play for his mibr team as a standin at CPL Turkey to allow them to compete, he has stated this won't be a full return for him to competitive play. Meanwhile the Ninjas finally returned. Meanwhile recent CPL champion XeqtR's new site just launched.

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The boys are back in town:
When their contracts with SK.swe ran out HeatoN, Potti and ahl decided it was time to move on and resurrect their favourite clan: NiP. Ninjas in Pyjamas is essentially the same as the last SK.swe lineup but under a new coat of paint: HeatoN, Potti, ahl, SpawN, fisker and Hyper. With a new website promised soon and the fans already hyped up to the max about their return the Ninjas in Pyjamas are ready to start a new chapter in their story, replete with a new manager: an ex-hockey agent. Whether they can replicate past successes is yet to be seen but one thing's for sure: all eyes are on them with their history in mind.

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Achievements: 2000 1st Swedish Clanbase ladder
2000 1st international clanbaseladder
2000 1st PC Gamer cup
2000 1st CS League
2000 dec 4th CPL Cologne
2000 dec 1st CPL Dallas Babbages CPL
2001 may 1st The Gathering
2001 July 1st Remedy
2001 aug 1st CPL London
2001 sept 1st CPL Berlin
2001 nov 1st CPL Worldchampionship qualifier
2001 dec 1st CPL Worldchampionship Dallas
2002 april 1st Birdie lan
2002 may 1st Dreamhack