Young Ninjas Part Ways With Three Members

A Counter-Strike: Global Offensive academy team of Ninjas in Pyjamas, Young Ninjas, announced major roster changes on Sunday, June 3. As revealed by the Swedish esports team, Young Ninjas bid farewell to three members as the team looks to rebuild the lineup.

Young Ninjas came out with a shock announcement on Sunday when the Swedish CS:GO team unveiled the departure of three team members. As revealed, Kalle “Ro1f” Johansson and Adrian “7EMPORARY” Mehrara both stepped down from the active lineup.

On top of releasing two players, Young Ninjas also parted ways with head coach Frederik “slap” Junmbrant. With the recent departures, Young Ninjas are now left with only three active team members and three positions in the organization that need to be filled.

“Today we say farewell to three Young Ninjas. At the end of this quarterly rotation, Ro1f and 7EMPORARY will step down from the roster, and slap is moving to a new exciting project,” read the announcement.

“They have done a fantastic job, and we wish them the very best.”

Ro1f leaves Young Ninjas as the team’s tied second-longest-tenured member with head coach slap. Both parted ways with Young Ninjas after just over a year, having joined the team in June 2021. Since his arrival to the team, Ro1f has been averaging a 0.95 performance rating across various tournaments.

He also helped the team compete across four seasons in the WePlay Academy League and has recently helped Young Ninjas place second at Svenska Elitserien Spring 2022.

7EMPORARY, on the other side, has enjoyed a rather short tenure with the Swedish CS:GO team. He joined the team in April 2022, and has appeared in our four tournaments. Those include Svenska Elitserien Spring 2022 qualifiers, the main event, and the WePlay Academy League.

Although Young Ninjas decided on drastic roster changes, the roster revamp makes a lot of sense. That is mainly due to the team’s lack of success over the year, having struggled to win a single CS:GO event.

Young Ninjas were a promising project in 2021, having competed in various tournaments and have consistently produced solid results. Unfortunately, things turned sour in 2022, as Young Ninjas only once placed inside the top-six.

The Swedish squad kicked off the year with a ninth-16th-place finish at Malta Vibes Knockout Series #5 and added a fifth-sixth and another ninth-16th finish at WePlay Academy League S3 and Malta Vibes Knockout Series #6, respectively.

Things did not improve in March, as Young Ninjas placed 19th-20th at Pinnacle Winter Series #3, 16th-18th at Pinnacle Cup III, and second-to-last at Elisa Invitational Spring 2022. On a more positive note, Young Ninjas have achieved some success in recent months, but nothing exceptional.

They placed top-six at MistGames Heroes of Tomorrow, successfully qualified for Svenska Elitserien Spring 2022, and made it all the way to the finals in the event. Still, they returned to their old ways with another disappointing showing at WePlay Academy League S4, where Young Ninjas failed to reach the playoffs.

By changing two players, Young Ninjas hope they can find more success by the end of the year. However, the team will also struggle to find a new head coach to replace slap.

As it stands now, it’s unclear who Young Ninjas will add to the roster. Still, the organization has unveiled that it’s “in the process of finalizing contracts with the latest younglings to join the squad,” suggesting that Young Ninjas will unveil its new lineup in the coming days.

Currently, Young Ninjas field just three active players in Max “maxster” Jansson and Adam “adamb” Ångström, and in-game leader Erik “ztr” Gustafsson, who has been with the teams since December 2020.