Ninjas in Pyjamas have signed Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin to a three-year contract, according to a press release from the organization. The possibility of the move was first reported by HLTV in late February with NiP offering around €600,000 to Fnatic in exchange for the young Swede.
Brollan did not play with Fnatic in their ESL Pro League Season 15 group stage while the details of this deal were being ironed out. NiP have also already played their group stage matches, qualifying for the playoffs. Brollan will not be joining the team for the rest of EPL. The team is looking to slot him into the roster for the April 2022 European Regional Major Rankings event.
“We’ve been looking at Brollan for years now — every serious team has,” Jonas Gundersen, NiP’s COO said in the press release. “In my mind it hasn’t been a question of whether he would join, but when, and I think he’s chosen a fantastic time.”
Brollan joins a NiP in need of a win
Brollan is one of the foremost young Swedish talents in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. He’s long been touted as the Swede with the highest skill ceiling. In recent months, his now-teammate Hampus “hampus” Poser has been the other Swedish player at the top of CS:GO. Brollan’s addition will help alleviate some of the load on hampus who has been acting as both in-game leader and much of the team’s firepower with Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz still out of commission.
“I’m excited to take the next step in my career with NiP,” Brollan said. “I go way back with some of the players and I really feel like it’s time to lift some trophies together.”
There is no word yet on who Brollan will replace on NiP’s lineup. Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora and Love “phzy” Smidebrant would be the obvious candidates.
NiP have gone through a plethora of roster changes over the past couple years as they cycled Young Ninjas academy players into and out of the lineup, and brought on high profile signings like dev1ce and Patrick “es3tag” Hansen. The Swedish team has struggled to break into the top positions in most of their recent tournaments, usually finding themselves in the 5-9th range.
The loss of Brollan will also be a heavy blow to Fnatic, who have entered a rebuilding stage. Even still, the international roster managed to secure a playoff berth at EPL, beating out teams like G2 Esports.
