Counter-Strike veteran Patrick "es3tag" Hansen has returned from the bench to the active Ninjas in Pyjamas CS roster.
The 27-year-old athlete will replace Hampus "hampus" Poser, who was the in-game leader of the squad. hampus replaced Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen on the team this past summer. He did not gain any significant success as the IGL of NIP and goes to the bench.
es3tag joined NIP in 2021 and before he was benched at the end of 2022, he led the team to four top-four finishes in Tier 1 competitions.
During this year's gap, he played with FaZe Clan as a substitute during the qualifications for BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2023. FaZe played in the Finals without him and finished only at the 5th-6th place.
NIP CS2 starting roster currently is:
- Fredrik "REZ" Sterner
- Patrick "es3tag" Hansen
- Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin
- Danyyl "headtr1ck" Valitov
- Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke
- Daniel "djL" Narancic (Coach)