Ninjas in Pyjamas are the fifth team to be confirmed for EPICENTER, joining the likes of Natus Vincere, Liquid and MOUZ.

Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg and co. are the first team outside of the current top eight to be confirmed at eight-team EPICENTER 2018, with their invite following that of MOUZ and the announcement that current number one team, Astralis, is pulling out due to a congested schedule.

The Swedes received an invitation for the $300,000 event today

Ninjas in Pyjamas's recent offline results include a 9-11th finish at the Major and a 3rd place at BLAST Pro Series Istanbul. They skipped StarSeries i-League S6 and have only been playing online recently, but haven't been in great shape, winning only one out of ten maps played in ECS and ESL Pro League.

The current team list for EPICENTER is as follows:

Natus Vincere
FaZe
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Wildcard Qualifier Liquid
MOUZ
Invite
Wildcard Qualifier

The sixth and final invitee will be selected on October 19 from a five-team roster, with the highest side in HLTV's world ranking securing entry into the main tournament. The remaining four sides will square off in the wildcard qualifier, scheduled for October 22, for the last two spots in the $300,000 competition.

The following five teams are in contention for the last invite:

Virtus.pro
Swole Patrol
AVANGAR ENCE
5POWER Swole Patrol #40 Braxton 'swag' PierceRyan 'freakazoid' AbadirEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJordan 'Zellsis' MontemurroAustin 'Cooper' Abadir Liquid #3 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken MOUZ #4 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiRobin 'ropz' Kool AVANGAR #26 Bektiyar 'fitch' BahytovTimur 'buster' TulepovAidyn 'KrizzeN' TurlybekovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali Virtus.pro #30 Filip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiMichał 'MICHU' MüllerPiotr 'morelz' TaterkaMichał 'snatchie' Rudzki FaZe #6 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Ninjas in Pyjamas #9 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundDennis 'dennis' EdmanJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonFredrik 'REZ' Sterner 5POWER #68 Gan-Erdene 'dobu' BatboldBat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarZhiHai 'QKA' FuPeng 'xiaosaGe' SongWei 'shuadapai' Wang ENCE #18 Aleksi 'allu' JalliJani 'Aerial' JussilaSami 'xseveN' LaasanenAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenJere 'sergej' Salo Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg Age: 30 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1396 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.65 Natus Vincere #2 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov