photo by: PGL
Aaron 'Clairvoyance' Kim, the former Ninjas in Pyjamas Dota 2 coach, released a Twitlonger post accusing the Swedish esports organization of failing to pay him owed prize money. The Ninjas in Pyjamas organization has since challenged the claims. The Twitlonger, which is very long and includes a number of shots taken at both NiP players and the organization, provides claims from Clairvoyance that he was owed two months’ salary, one of which was part of his initial. Ninjas in Pyjamas form NIP at the moment are in their best form in recent years and have even developed a series of up to four victories. The team managed to deal with Astralis (2:0) in the framework of this. Betway is also known for its sponsorship, supporting a variety of clubs, teams and sports. This includes Ninjas in Pyjamas, a professional Counter-Strike team, West Ham United football club, Queen Mother Champion Chase and other events in cricket, darts, snooker, football, horserace and esports.
DreamLeague Season 11 European qualifiers are well underway and two have already secured their ticket to the third Major of the season.
Ninjas in Pyjamas delivered one of the qualifiers surprises by claiming the first slot with a super dominant performance. They managed to take down Team Secret in the group stage to finish first in group A, which placed them one series away from the long time awaited Major ticket. NiP made it to the Kuala Lumpur Major, at the very beginning of the season, but they had to play with without their star offlaner Neta “33” Shapira. Nonetheless, they managed to reach top four in Malaysia, having on their side Ivan Borislavov “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov, who stood in at the last moment. The Chongqing Major qualifiers went disastrously for NiP who weren’t able to land a single victory in the group stage and were eliminated very early from the contention. The team tried to take the Bucharest Minor road to China, but their losing streak kept going and they had to sit the Major out.
With a new patch deployed just as the Stockholm Major qualifiers were about to begin, NiP were more than prepared to go big. In the group stage, they surprised Secret with a mean offlane Chaos Knight. Today, in the playoffs finals versus OG, while the TI8 champions focused in their bans on NiP’s certain strategies with Meepo or Arc Warden, the master drafter Peter “ppd” Dager put once again his trust in 33. In game one OG banned Meepo and tried to replicate their group stage success with a mid lane Shadow Demon for Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen while their sole carry was Igor “iLTW” Filatov on Terrorblade. NiP had Arc Warden, Chaos Knight in the offlane and a safe lane Timbersaw, they did struggle in the laning stage, but they were beefy enough to survive the early aggression and drag the game past the 40 minute where their line-up started to shine. Game two brought the first Night Stalker of the qualifiers as 33 went on an absolute beast mode and hunted down OG everywhere on the map, making a clear statement that the 7.21 buffs to the hero make it extremely viable in the right hands.
In the other upper bracket finals Team Secret stomped over Team Liquid 2-0. “There is no way we are going to relax until TI is over,” told to us Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng a bit over a week ago when Team Secret were basically already qualified for The International 2019 on the back of their strong performances at the first two Majors. The Stockholm Major qualifiers proved just that. Secret came once again with fresh ideas and today they simply ran over Liquid. Fifteen minutes into the first game of the series, Secret were already leading 11-0 in kill score and had nearly 10K gold advantage, which they never let go. Game two escalated rapidly with MidOne on a mid Pangolier on which he built a 12-minute Maelstrom and by the 19-minute mark he had full Guardian Greaves to help his team seal the deal in a 22-minute game.
Neither OG or Team Liquid are over just yet. They will both fight tomorrow, February 6 for the last ticket to the Major. In the lower bracket rounds, the biggest surprise was Alliance’s elimination at the hands of Troels “syndereN” Nielsen’s stack, Kaban. Four teams are now battling for the final pass to the Stockholm Major and the full schedule for the final day in the European qualifiers is as follows:
16:00 CET – Team Liquid vs Kaban
18:00 CET – OG vs Vega Squadron
21:00 CET – TBD vs TBD (lower bracket finals)
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The group stage of the ESL One Road to Rio in Europe ends this week and some of the most important matches are ahead of us. The clash between Team Heretics and Ninjas in Pyjamas today is an excellent example of what I mean.
Both teams are fighting for a place in the playoffs and the outcome of this encounter will heavily affect the final standings in Group B.
My Team Heretics vs. NiP betting preview explores the chances of both sides to win and the latest betting odds. Based on those and my prediction, I also share a recommended betting pick at the end.
- Team Heretics to win; +152
- NiP to win; -196
- Team Heretics (+1.5); -227
- NiP (-1.5); +173
- Over 2.5; -108
- Under 2.5; -119
The Team Heretics vs. NiP odds I use here can be found at BetOnline, one of the leading betting sites online for esports. Every single match from the ESL One Road to Rio is available there and the bookmaker has around 40 markets and high limits.
I don’t think many people expected the strong start of Team Heretics. The squad registered wins over Dignitas and ENCE in the first week of the ESL Road to Rio, adding another one against Complexity at the start of the second.
That put Heretics in a commanding position before two defeats in a row brought the team back to earth and there’s a real danger of missing out on the playoffs. Heretics must find at least one more victory and that could be a problem considering their final two opponents and the team’s trajectory so far.
NiP Current Form
Unlike their next opponent. Ninjas in Pyjamas suffered a bad start in the competition, losing against Vitality in the opening round. And yet, that just angered the team that went on to win the next four matches.
That should be enough for a place in the next stage of the Road to Rio but I’m sure that NiP would want to keep the momentum and secure a high seed for the playoffs. Today’s match is the best opportunity to achieve that, as the closing clash of the group is against Fnatic.
Ninjas In Pyjamas Paladins
- NiP (-1.5); +173
Based on the latest form of both sides, the logical prediction would be to back Ninjas in Pyjamas to win today. The team has been flying recently and would be eager to cement a top 2 spot with a victory.
I like Heretics’ performance in general, but the squad has been on a decline. I believe that the possibility of a clean sweep for the favorite is very real, so the price of +173 for NiP to cover the -1.5 map advantage is the best pick here.
Ninjas In Pyjamas Siege
If you are looking for more action on Tuesday, I strongly recommend you to take a look at my best esports bets for today. You will find more CS:GO picks there, as well as some Dota 2 and LoL suggestions.