ECS Season 3 League Play - s1mple and flamie to stand-in for Ninjas in Pyjamas

In an announcement on Twitter, Ninjas in Pyjamas have revealed that Natus Vincere members Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and Egor "flamie" Vasiliev will be standing in during tonight's ECS match against G2 Esports.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have revealed on Twitter that the team will be using two stand-ins for their roster, namely the Natus Vincere duo of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and Egor "flamie" Vasiliev. The Ukranian and Russian CS:GO pros will be replacing NiP's Adam "friberg" Friberg and Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg in the Swedes' ECS Season 3 League play match against G2 Esports tonight. The reason for the Swedish duo's absence has not been publicised, but is rumoured to be due to their attending a music festival.

Ninjas in Pyjamas currently stand in fifth place on the ECS Season 3 leader board. As of today (Wednesday, June 7th) the team has a 8-8(50%) win/loss ratio and a negative round differential of six. On the other hand G2 Esports are looking at a 9-5 (64%) win ratio, coupled with a positive thirty-six round differential. The chances for NiP to qualify for the finals are slim, however it is theoretically possible for them to qualify, given an outstanding performance whereby the Swedish/CIS mix absolutely demolishes the Frenchmen in two consecutive maps with colossal round differences.

Having said the aforementioned, the stand-in announcement was met with a somewhat surprised reaction on social media, as both industry professionals and enthusiasts have expressed that the addition of arguably two of the strongest CIS representatives may significantly impact the outcome of the match.

The match in questions will be taking place this evening at 20:00 CEST. The best-of-two series will be streamed on FACEIT's YouTube Channel and StarLadder's Twitch.tv Channel for the Russian-speaking community.

Image courtesy of NiPgaming Twitter