Plopski Re-Signs with NiP, FLASHPOINT League Is Here, More – CSGO Recap 2/6/2020

Big news out of Sweden today as famed org Ninjas in Pajamas announced that Plopski re-signed a three-year contract with the team with the announcement reading:

“The natural-born fragger has played a pivotal role in the progression of our CS:GO team in recent months, simultaneously winning the hearts of countless fans around the world. At a mere 17 years of age, Plopski has been rocksteady in his performance all while being a solid teammate in and out of the server. NiP is where legends are born and Plopski is well underway to going down in history as one of the greats, destined to create a legacy of his own.”

The Plopski three-year deal comes as the team has begun to improve steadily since his signing in June of last year, with several top-six finishes, including a third-place finish in the Blast Pro Global Finals in December. Plopski has indeed shown himself to be a strong player despite his young age. If he can keep improving into his 20’s, he’ll undoubtedly become one of the biggest names in the game. We’ll have to wait and see how his development continues over the coming years with the squad.

FLASHPOINT Announcement

We got the announcement from B-Site of the official name of their new franchise league, FLASHPOINT. The new league, starting in March, consists of 12 teams competing in weekly tournaments to establish seeding for the playoffs. All of which use a standard double-elimination format for a share of a $1 million prize pool.

Ten of the league’s teams will come from buy-ins, giving them a share in the control of the league and a piece of the revenue generated. Two more will come in through open qualifiers in Europe, NA, and Latin America. So far, six teams are confirmed: Cloud9, MAD Lions, MIBR, Gen.G, Dignitas, and new entrant C0ntact Gaming, who bought out CR4ZY’s roster.

The league made big moves to acquire high-profile talent to help attract viewers. This includes signing Thorin as its creative director, picking up casters such as Moses, Bardolph, Anders and Seangares and talent outside of CSGO such as MonteCristo.

C0ntact Gaming CEO Drew McCourt released a statement. He expressed his excitement for the new event and the benefit it would bring to orgs, players and fans.

“We are fully committed to the future of CSGO and are thrilled to partner and invest with some of the top esports organizations in the world,” he said in a press release. “Our collective experience represents some of the most successful entertainment events seen to date across both traditional sports and esports. We are looking forward to starting a fresh with a winning league that benefits players and fans, first and foremost.”

The franchise league is a huge move for the tournament-circuit focused CSGO scene. However, many voiced concerns over it and the ESL Pro League franchise changes. Fans won’t get to see top teams compete against each other as often. Instead, they must wait for larger events such as Katowice or a Major. It’s surely a big change to how the scene operates. We’ll be keeping an eye on it as it kicks off its first season soon.

Fallen’s Shampoo

We’ve seen esports pros pop up in Logitech ads and Super Bowl ads, but this is a new one. According to a Reddit post from user Scruul, Clear-brand shampoo in Brazil has replaced the logo of Cristiano Ronaldo on its bottles with a picture of MIBR AWPer Fallen.

The strangest brand endorsement we’ve ever seen, but still cool to see new industries picking up esports players to receive endorsements from. We’re currently trying to get a hold of a bottle of the shampoo to review. Let us know if you happen to have an extra one laying around or know how to get it shipped here.

Dignitas Remain Undefeated

Our last story of the day takes us over to the new NiP, Dignitas, who’ve gone on undefeated since putting together their new lineup in January.

Of course, they’ve only played three match-ups in that time. None of the teams rank in the top 30. However, it’s still a good start. It’s great to see players haven’t fallen below the talent of second-tier teams.

Their big test will come with the upcoming closed European qualifiers for ESL ONE Rio next month. Seven top 30 teams will be in the qualifier, including No. 4 Fnatic and the squad’s old team NiP.

If they can show up there, it’ll be a huge boost for the hype they’ve built around their reformed roster. If things turn out badly, though, a lot of questions are going to start coming up about whether this roster can last long-term.

That’s all we have for today, thanks for reading. We’ll see you next time for more exciting CSGO news, so stay tuned!