Cover Image Courtesy: Aftonbladet
After being tight-lipped for close to five years, Robin 'Fifflaren' Johansson made some heavy allegations on the Richard Lewis Show about Ninjas in Pyjamas' misconduct and vice. He alleged that the organization owed a considerable amount of money to various players, prohibited them from signing individual sponsorships while not paying them their share of sponsorship earnings, withheld charity money, and demanded that the players produce written permission to even have girlfriends.
I guess anyone looking for a BRIEF TLDR:
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) July 23, 2019
NiP owes players of multiple lineups money
Fifflaren was VASTLY underpaid
Fifflaren didn't receive money from merch/sponsors
Old NiP feared leaving the Org so stuck with NiP
Newer NiP players still owed BIG money from prize pools/stickers
Unpaid Dues
An organization that is really popular world over has also had a notorious past. NiP has faced everything from finding its owners wound up in legal troubles, to not paying their players a significant amount of cash and hence ousting its CEO from the organization. Well, it turns out that 'the significant' amount has still not been paid.
NiP owes players hundreds of thousands WHAT IS GOING ON
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) July 23, 2019
Fifflaren alleged that he is still owed a considerable amount of money along with other players including, Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund, Patrick ‘f0rest’ Lindberg and Richard ‘Xizt’ Landstrom. This unpaid amount consisting of tournament prize money dates back to 2013 when NiP was at their peak, having achieved the historic '87-0' win streak.
Fifflaren revealed that he had only made a total of $35,000 in the entirety of 2013 as the organization pocketed huge cuts from their prize pool winnings, sponsorship deals and even the in-game stickers that they sold. DreamHack Winter 2013 was the only event for which he received his prize winnings and only because the tournament organizers directly paid the players.
Along with not receiving their tournament winnings, Fifflaren and other players were not given any sponsorship earnings either, moreover, they were not even allowed to sign personal sponsorships with the reason being that it interfered with the ones that the organization had procured.
These instances are not limited to just the above-mentioned players but also people like Anders Blume, Mikhail ‘Maikelele’ Bill, Joona ‘natu’ Leppanen, Aleksi ‘Allu’ Jalli and William ‘draken’ Sundin, were wronged by NiP.
I remember after attending Dreamhack 2014 major with NiP, the old CEO told me I shouldn't get as much stickers money as the rest because I'm the new boy. Back then I accepted it because it was my first pro team and felt like I didn't have to much to say about it.
— Maikel Bill (@maikelele) July 23, 2019
Self Charity
In May 2014, Faruk ‘pita’ Pita had organised an event called Go4Balkan. It was a charity event to help the people affected by the storm ‘Tamara’ that had hit the Balkan region pretty hard. The event featured a series of show matches with everything being cast on NiPTV. Heaton had also promised to put in all the money gathered through ad revenue towards the fundraiser. In totality, the event was able to raise €22,726.
But what happened was that the money was never donated to any charity and the entire CS community trashed on pita thinking that he was the mastermind behind this fraud. But Fifflaren though disappointed with the organization for handling the situation poorly and being so careless about it, defended pita and suggested that the money was stolen by one of NiP’s owners.
What Even?
Another disturbing thing that was revealed by Fifflaren was that they (old NiP players) had to take permission via a written request from the organization if they wanted to have a girlfriend. This interference by the organization into a players personal life was the most absurd thing revealed by the ex-NiP player.
Some other things were also discussed by the two of them like Fifflaren commenting on GeT-RiGhT’s retirement and him wanting to work as a coach.
The entire interview will be available soon, as the video is scheduled to come out tomorrow.
I’ve already been contacted by members of other NiP esports besides CSGO about their troubles. Safe to say Richard has unleashed the beast on this one.
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) July 23, 2019