Dignitas are hurting, and much of it stems from their inability to qualify for PGL Major Antwerp 2022. The winds of change are blowing as the organization announced a roster-revamp.
But the big question remains: Is this a knee-jerk reaction or a well thought out strategy aimed at a rebuild?
Source: © PGL Photo Depository
One may argue that it’s entirely possible the players on the transfer list may come back in a rejigged roster, but for the moment, they have all been told to pursue other options if available. It can’t even be a cryptic way of putting the message out when the team says they want to build a competitive roster by letting go people. It’s as direct a message as it can get. Point blank.
What Dignitas have done is they have applied the same yardstick to the entire squad, irrespective of whether it is a CS:GO stalwart – and the side has plenty – or a younger name.
For example, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Adam “friberg” Friberg and Håkon “hallzerk” Fjærli all signed in February 2020 with the hope of a brighter immediate future. At the time, they held out hope to move from a middling side to a competent outfit that could challenge the top sides. The results have, however, been modest as they have continuously hovered outside the top 20.
For the record, HLTV currently ranks them at No. 35. The two events they won – two Nordic Masters tournaments (Spring and Fall 2021) which served as BLAST qualifiers – along with a few other lesser titles such as Elisa Invitational Spiting 2020 merely lifted the pall of gloom all too temporarily.
Struggles and inability to qualify for the main tournaments of the season proved to be the final straw. They’ve been languishing in tier-2 of the European circuit where they’ve been eliminated in the early stages of the Playoffs.
How did they let it slip this badly?
The current version of Dignitas promised a slightly different avatar to the legendary previous one – Ninjas in Pyjamas – from 2012-14. There has been a history of chop and change, but when the current roster was finalized in March 2021, they held out a hope that they weren’t going to be influenced by short-term results. And that it wasn’t going to come in the way of their long-term vision. However, two seasons later, we’re back to square one. The Swedish squad have struggled – and struggle is an understatement – and lack of significant success or even wins have pushed them further down the pecking order, which has called for a reshuffle.
Cut-throat competition in the CS:GO sphere merely dictates the age-old saying that ‘time doesn’t wait for anyone’. In the day and age of multi-million dollar contracts, massive sponsorship revenues and viewership, results are the only currency teams and players are judged by.
No shade thrown at the CS:GO legends in the previous roster, but at this stage it seems any new roster will be an improvement. They can even sign Bad News Eagles in their entirety and have a quality up-and-coming squad ready to go for bargain price. The former Virtus.Pro roster (now Outsiders) may decide to go down the path ex-Gambit took, and just sign with a new organization. We don’t quite know how far their loyalty goes.
When looking at free or soon to be free agents; Dev1ce comes to mind as NiP don’t seem like they want to play him anymore. If we look at this scenario, there might not be a need for an entirely new roster just a minor tweak. Another alternative would be waiting for summer break, and looking at players from released rosters like MAD Lions, Savage or players that get released after the Major.
Either way, there is plenty of quality talent in the scene to build a solid competitive roster. It all comes down to how big the bank is and how good they are at scouting a roster with proper synergy.
LOL
CS2
Dota 2
Valorant
Fortnite
Call of Duty
Mobile Games
Gaming
EN Global 
JP 日本語
BR Português