He has a “1” in his nickname, but it’s not s1mple. R1nkle is the new NIP sniper.
Artem "r1nkle" Moroz is Ninjas in Pyjamas' (NIP) latest addition to its CS2 roster. The young Ukrainian arrives from B8 after three years with the team. At 19 years old, r1nkle signs with the Swedish organization and will have the task of being the team's sniper.
With the hiring of r1nkle, NIP is just one piece away from closing its CS2 team. In the next games, the team will play with a member of the academy team.
Who is r1nkle?
At just 19 years old, r1nkle has been on the radar of the competitive CS:GO scene for some time. The player was Robin "ropz" Kool's Bold Prediction in early 2023 on HLTV's top 20 players of 2022. The FaZe player was full of praise for r1nkle: "This guy has a bright future when he gets the right chance. We played them a lot in practice in 2022 and they sometimes destroyed us."
With his now former team, r1nkle had his collective peak at the RMR of the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023. The Ukrainian team was last in the fight for a spot, losing to Cloud9 in a decisive game of the RMR Decider.
What drew attention was always his ability with AWP and his statistics in that role. According to HLTV, the player has the following statistics for 2024:
- 1.12 Rating
- 1.10 Impact
- 73.9 Average damage per round
For the player, the numbers have been better in the last two years, but r1nkle is still in shape.
NIP continues to fill the team's sniper position with a Ukrainian player. Now on the bench, the position was occupied by Daniil "headtr1ck" Valitov, also 19 years old.
NIP finishing the CS2 team revamp after signing r1nkle
NIP continues its process of restructuring its CS2 roster for 2024. After the failure at RMR, the organization benched the aforementioned headtr1ck, in addition to Patrick "es3tag" Hansen and Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke.
Of the old lineup, only Fredrik "REZ" Sterner and Alejandro "alex" Masanet remained. Max "maxster" Jansson was promoted from the academy squad and now with the signing of r1nkle, there is just one piece missing.
To lead NIP's new era, the organization recruited a familiar face. Richard "Xizt" Landström returns to NIP now as a coach. The new coach left words for the signing: "r1nkle has been on my radar since BLAST RMR 2023. He's a young talent that already plays smart CS considering his experience."
NIP also left some considerations about the signing of the fifth player in a statement:
Keep an eye on esports.gg for more CS2 news and updates.