Ninjas in Pyjamas bring in smooya for r1nkle at Fragville 2025

Owen “smooya” Butterfield is set to return to action this week as a stand-in for Ninjas in Pyjamas at Fragville 2025.

NiP have announced the British Counter-Strike 2 player as a replacement player for Artem “r1nkle” Moroz, who will miss the next tournament due to visa issues.

The American event, which will take place from September 5-7 in Knoxville, Tennessee, will be of great significance for Ninjas in Pyjamas.

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  Fast Payouts

It is one of the final tournaments in which they can secure Valve Regional Standings (VRS) points ahead of the October update, which will determine invites for StarLadder Budapest Major 2025.

Ranked 24th in the VRS, NiP sit just outside of the top-16 cut-off line. However, they have chances to climb the ladder with strong performances at Fragville, StarLadder StarSeries Fall, and Frag Blocktober, the latter scheduled for October 2-5 in Philadelphia.

The upcoming Fragville event will mark smooya’s first since United21 Season 35 at the start of August, when he helped Fish123 reach the grand finals.

The 26-year-old, who has been without a team since leaving Into the Breach in January, has remained active in the Counter-Strike 2 scene, but only as a stand-in or as a part of various mixes.

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  The bookies' bookie

Notably, he helped Iberian Soul win Galaxy Battle 2025 // Phase 3, came one map short of reaching Stage 2 of the European ESL Pro League Season 22 qualifiers, and secured another gold medal at EPIC.LAN 45 in July.

As one of the more sought-after stand-in players, smooya has averaged an impressive 1.13 performance rating this season.

He posted the fifth-highest rating (1.22) in EPIC.LAN 45 and the seventh-highest rating (1.17) in United21 Season 35.

While smooya is locked in for Fragville, it is unclear whether he will remain on the roster for Blocktober.