NiP claim last invite to IEM Oakland
To little surprise, the Swedish quintet Ninjas in Pajamas were handed the final invitation to IEM Oakland, where they look to prove yet again, that they have what it takes to lift the IEM trophy.
This time around they will be down two of their prior championship winning teammates Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvi and Adam 'friberg' Friberg. After a prolonged wrist injury Mourujärvi was benched and William 'draken' Sundin was signed to take his place. Earlier this year in July, long standing member Friberg stepped down and the 19 year old Fredrick 'REZ' Sterner was brought in to fill out the roster.
Despite the significant roster changes the Ninjas have been performing as well as could be hoped for as of late. They secured a 1st place title at Dreamhack Open Valencia, a 3-4th place finish at Dreamhack Masters Malmö, and a 5-8th place result at ESL One Cologne in July.
IEM Oakland will again be held at the Oracle arena in Oakland, California with a $300,000 prize pot up for grabs. Nine of the twelve competing teams will be attending by invite while the remaining three spots will be fought for in qualifying events in Europe, North America and Asia regions. The event will run from November 16-19.
The team list for IEM Oakland now consists of:
 Astralis |
 FaZe |
 G2 |
 SK |
 Cloud9 |
Liquid |
 Gambit |
Immortals |
 NiP |
EU Qualifier |
 NA Qualifier |
 SEA Qualifier |
