NIP adds CS2 to EWC roster

Ninjas in Pyjamas is widening its Esports World Cup push, with Counter-Strike 2 now part of a 2026 slate the club is framing under the NIP.eStar banner. (nip.gl) In its EWC announcement, NIP said it will compete in Riyadh this summer as NIP.eStar, combining its Western brand with eStar’s Chinese operations for the Club Championship. (nip.gl) The club’s own roadmap says its Esports World Cup Foundation partnership opened the door to “four new titles,” and that NIP had already entered Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Fortnite and Apex Legends. (nip.gl) Counter-Strike 2 was not listed among those four new entries because NIP already had a long-running Counter-Strike division; HLTV’s current team page shows the organization active in CS2 in 2026. (hltv.org) NIP’s official site also shows the organization active in League of Legends and Apex outside that roadmap, which helps explain why fans are reading the EWC slate as broader than a single game announcement. (nip.gl 1) (nip.gl 2) The clearest published count from NIP is on its EWC tracker page. That page says the club had qualified four rosters so far: NIP Flash in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, NIP.Bilal in Tekken 8, NIP.Phenom in Street Fighter 6, and its Apex Legends roster. (nip.gl) That same page says two more qualification chances remained at the time it was published, including another Tekken 8 shot for K-Wiss and an EA Sports FC qualifier for Ollelito. (nip.gl) NIP separately rebuilt its Apex Legends lineup for the Esports World Cup and ALGS, naming Nicholas “Vein” Hobbs, Matias “Kurev” Riffel and Cole “McLovin” Wilson with Raven as coach. (nip.gl) The tournament they are chasing is much larger this year. Esports World Cup 2026 is scheduled for July 6 through August 23 in Riyadh with 24 games and a $75 million total prize pool. (esportsworldcup.com) The official EWC schedule puts Apex Legends in Week 1, League of Legends in Week 2, Tekken 8 in Week 5, and Counter-Strike 2 in Week 7, turning club depth across titles into part of the competition itself. (esportsworldcup.com) For NIP, that means the story is not a single roster move so much as a broader club strategy: keep its legacy Counter-Strike brand, add newer EWC-facing titles, and chase points across the summer. (nip.gl 1) (nip.gl 2)