Two Dota 2 Majors in and the new DPC Season has claimed its first big team member release. Ninjas in Pyjamas revealed on Monday that it has released Nico "Gunnar" Lopez. This decision is probably not that much of a surprise, especially for those who have been following the new season.
Prior to joining NiP, Gunnar had a rather interesting year. He joined TEAM TEAM before being booted out by, according to some, Jacky "EternalEnvy" Mao. What made the situation worse was that TEAM TEAM itself was set to be part of the MDL Disneyland Paris Major. After that, Gunnar went on to join Chaos Esports before eventually joining NiP after The International 2019. Peter "ppd" Dager, Oliver "Skiter" Lepko, Saahil "Universe" Arora, and Malthe "Biver" Winther, all joined Gunnar on the NiP roster.
Their first test as a team was the MDL Chengdu Major, but they were booted out of the qualifiers by Team Liquid. DreamLeague Season 12 was the next, and while it wasn't part of the DPC Season, NiP didn't fare well. The team finished in third place. After that was ESL One Hamburg 2019. While NiP managed to avoid elimination after the Group Stage, they were placed in the Lower Bracket. They then were eliminated by Virtus.pro.
By the time the DreamLeague Season 13 Qualifiers rolled in, NiP was surprisingly competiting in the North America region. In addition, Skited was replaced by Jason Connor "TANNER" Weedon. They performed well in the Group Stage of the Qualifiers, but by the Playoffs had been kicked to the Lower Bracket by Chaos before being eliminated by Evil Geniuses. Still, they had a shot at being a part of the WePlay! Bukovel Minor Qualifiers. NiP dominated the Qualifiers and earned a spot at the Minor.
So what happened at the Minor? NiP lost to Geek Fam and then Team Spirit. Worse, the team didn't even manage to win one game in their two matches. With this, there was the expectation that a roster change was coming.
In a statement, NiP said that ever since they signed its new roster, "results have not been what we hoped them to be in any of the tournaments we attended and therefore we’re making the changes needed to turn this ship around."
In addition to releasing Gunnar, NiP also announced that the team is going back to the Europe region for the next Major. Team Captain ppd said that by making the move, they can "practice consistently against the best teams in EU & CIS and focus on gradual improvement rather than rushing all of our practice in a 1-week boot camp before a qualifier or LAN." He went on to say that they're going to hold "tryouts with potential carry players to replace Gunnar."
