Ninjas in Pyjamas has forced to make an unexpected lineup change just a few games into the spring 2023 CS:GO season since one of the team’s key players must once again take a prolonged hiatus due to illness. To replace rifler Hampus “hampus” Poser, who is taking the remainder of the spring season off with the full support of the organisation after consultations with NiP’s performance director and medical experts, Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke, a veteran from Denmark, has been signed by NiP to a “long-term” contract.
In the roster update announcement, NiP said it wanted to find a “long-term solution” that could fill the fifth spot on the roster, resulting in the addition of k0nfig, who will make his NiP debut at the IEM Katowice play-in starting on Feb. 1.
The move to NiP is the latest development for a player in k0nfig who has had a dramatic past couple of years. In 2021, he was forced to miss time due to a hand injury and eventually parted ways with Complexity to join Astralis. But in 2022, he was removed from Astralis following a “fistfight in Malta” that resulted in another injury, as well as an “aggressive incident” toward a member of the broadcast talent at IEM Cologne.
He had a brief stand-in performance with Heroic to close out 2022 at the BLAST World Final and was actually set to stand in for FaZe at the ongoing BLAST Spring Groups but was not allowed by BLAST to compete because he was registered to another team.
NiP COO Jonas Gunderson said the addition of k0nfig is a “silver lining” to hampus’ unexpected departure: “We just started the season and are still getting headtr1ck introduced, and k0nfig is a great player who fits the team well.”
NiP has had to navigate these waters before. In 2021, it brought in superstar AWPer Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz on a massive transfer, but he went on an extended medical leave for most of his tenure there, including all of the 2022 season.