According to sources close to Sheep Esports, Yoon “Malix” Kyung-ho will be the coach of Ninjas in Pyjamas’ upcoming project. The organisation will compete in the China National Competition, aiming to qualify for Ascension and win it, to join the VCT China. The CNC is already well underway, with Season 4 about to wrap up, but NIP is counting on the upcoming Season 5 to catch up and earn enough points to qualify for Ascension.

The club, originally based in Sweden, now operates worldwide across multiple games. After stints in Europe and Brazil, NIP entered the Chinese VALORANT scene in 2023 in an attempt to reach the top level, but without success, and only returned in 2025. For more context, the organization has been present in the League of Legends ecosystem, in the LPL, since 2021, following the acquisition of Victory Five.

The first piece

The cornerstone of this new project will therefore be the South Korean coach Malix, who will be leading Ninjas in Pyjamas on this new journey. Mostly active in Southeast Asia early in his career, with teams like CERBERUS Esports, Revenant Esports, and Team Flash, he later moved to Europe with EXO Clan, and most recently coached Berzerkers in North America.

He has already proven his ability to lead Tier 2 teams to success, notably by winning the VCT 2022: Vietnam Stage 1 Challengers with CERBERUS, and more recently the VALORANT Challengers 2024 Vietnam: Split 1 with Team Flash. According to our sources, roster tryouts have been underway for several weeks, but the final five-man lineup has yet to be locked in. The selected team will go on to fight for a spot in VCT CN.

For more roster changes, check out our Transfers Hub.