Ninjas in Pyjamas announced Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke joining the team for the rest of the spring season.
After just two matches in the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023 Ninjas in Pyjamas had to call in their academy team member Max "maxster" Jansson to step in for Hampus "hampus" Poser, who left the qualifier campaign unexpectedly. Following their loss to NAVI in the lower bracket final of Group C, NiP dropped to the play-in stage where they will continue to use maxster.
However, for the rest of the spring season, the organization announced Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke joining in as hampus will take the season off.
"Hampus has spent the last few days consulting with our performance director Troels and medical professionals, and we've agreed that he needs a break from competition," NiP said in an official statement. "In order to ensure that he has the time and space needed to get well, Hampus will take the rest of the spring season off with our full support."
"Plan the year, say it out loud, and watch it change after 2 games," Ninjas in Pyjamas’ COO, Jonas "calc" Gundersen posted on Twitter following the announcement of k0nfig's addition. "There's a silver lining, though. We just started the season and are still getting headtr1ck introduced, and k0nfig is a great player who fits the team well."
k0nfig joins NiP after some dramatic past couple of years. He had to stay on the sidelines through 2021 due to a hand injury and eventually left Complexity to join Astralis. However, last year he was removed from the latter following an altercation in Malta that got physical and resulted in another injury. At the end of 2022, he briefly stood in for Heroic at the BLAST World Final and was set to stand in for FaZe at the ongoing BLAST Spring Groups, but was not allowed by BLAST to compete because he was registered with Heroic.
He won’t be able to play with NiP in the play-in stage of BLAST Premier: Spring Groups either, where the team needs two victories in a row to make it to the Spring Final. His first match in the NiP jersey will be played at IEM Katowice 2023, starting on the 1st of February with the play-in bracket.
Ninjas in Pyjamas current roster
Fredrik “REZ” Sterner
Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
Aleksi “aleksib” Virolainen
Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov
Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke
coach: djL
headline picture courtesy of PGL
