Ninjas in Pyjamas have announced the closure of their Young Ninjas academy program for the foreseeable future, with all players and staff officially released.
"As we look ahead, we've made the difficult decision to put the Young Ninjas project on hold for the foreseeable future," Ninjas in Pyjamas' statement reads. "While this wasn't an easy decision, we believe it's the right one as we evaluate the future of our competitive ecosystem."
The decision means Rūdolfs "rud" Osmanis, Dawid "tein" Śladkowski, Joe "joeski" Holmes, and Rasmus "Zitte" Johansson have been released from their contracts, with their last appearance in a Ninjas in Pyjamas jersey coming in European Pro League Series 7 in June.
Young Ninjas have been one of the most successful academy setups in terms of promoting players to tier-one teams, with Erik "ztr" Gustafsson, Linus "nilo" Bergman, Love "phzy" Smidebrant, and Kacper "xKacpersky" Gabara all donning their jersey at some point, as did Roman "n0te" Hamze, who is in the middle of a temporary promotion to the main team.
The following players are now free agents:
Rūdolfs "rud" Osmanis Dawid "tein" Śladkowski Joe "joeski" Holmes
Rasmus "Zitte" Johansson (coach)
Roman 'n0te' Hamze
Young Ninjas
Rūdolfs 'rud' Osmanis
Dawid 'tein' Śladkowski
Joe 'joeski' Holmes
Rasmus 'Zitte' Johansson
Love 'phzy' Smidebrant
Erik 'ztr' Gustafsson
Linus 'nilo' Bergman
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer
Martin 'stavn' Lund
Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck
Roman 'n0te' Hamze
Kacper 'xKacpersky' Gabara
Richard 'Xizt' Landström
Rūdolfs 'rud' Osmanis
Kacper 'xKacpersky' Gabara
Rasmus 'Zitte' Johansson
Dawid 'tein' Śladkowski
Joe 'joeski' Holmes