Why Do NiP No Longer Stand With Ukraine?

The Swedish organisation deleted all references of supporting Ukraine from their socials. Sources contacted this publication to explain why.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year the world was shocked to see an escalation of tensions in that region that would claim the lives of tens of thousands. Sporting organisations from across the world expressed support for the people of Ukraine and a desire for peace. Esports was no different and top organisations from across the world echoed that sentiment and changed their logo to the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Swedish organisation Ninjas In Pyjamas were among them posting “We stand with the people of Ukraine and for peace in Europe” on the 24^th February. A year on and with the conflict having no end in sight those posts remain as a testament to a misguided hope of a swift resolution.

Except NiP’s posts are no longer there. We know they were. The existence of the tweet was reported at The Daily Dot, Talk Esport, Jaxon, Esports Times, Fragbite and many more. It begs the question, why would such a mainstream sentiment need to be deleted and why would NiP do so given that this would make it appear they no longer “stand with the people of Ukraine.”

Sources from within the organisation have reached out to this publication to share internal slack communications that show that, according to NiP’s executives, they took the decision to delete the tweet at the behest of Riot China who made the request in September 2022. NiP, despite being a Swedish organisation, have a team that participates in the Chinese League of Legends competition LPL, something that came about following a merger with Chinese digital group ESV5. Their Chinese fans noticed the posts about Ukraine and complaints about the organisation being “political” went viral on Chinese microblogging website Weibo.

The resulting conversation, posted in a Slack channel that had dozens of people able to access it, showed NiP CEO Hicham Chahine specifically requesting for their post to be deleted and to remove “all Ukraine related posts” as “Riot China” is pissed.

Chahine then goes on to explain that Riot China “were nice about it” and that LPL was a “non political league” before instructing everyone to remove all references about the situation in Ukraine from their channels. “It’s new times when you want to go into China” he remarks.

Then joined by fellow staff members Chahine joked that “next time I land in China I will end up in a camp somewhere.” Another staff member joked that NiP should rebrand its colours to “Soviet Red.

With the removal taking its time Chahine continued to joke with COO Jonas Gundersen about the situation, with the former pointing out the Weibo threads had got 60 million impressions and saying he would be assassinated.

That post would then be followed up with Chahine posting a screenshot of Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Finally Chahine communicates with his team that NiP are being “vetted” by the LPL and would be going through all their accounts for any tweets showing support for Ukraine.

Searches on Chahine’s and the NiP Twitter account now show no references to supporting Ukraine or the Russian invasion at all. Despite that NiP’s social media team does seem to have overlooked their Facebook page which still has their logo in Ukrainian colours.

The exchanges and subsequent actions are illustrative of a persistent problem that sports, and by extension esports, has. For the purposes of profit organisations continually align themselves with entities that don’t share their values. That in itself can be debated but it will be viewed as unpalatable in the eyes of many when these organisations want to play both sides for maximum returns. In this instance, to gain the cultural capital and engagement from Ukrainian fans by expressing support for their nation only to flippantly recant that support because a Chinese esports league requests that they do so, makes the initial support seem empty. Equally it shows where the priorities lie, that the expression of support isn’t worth friction with another business partner from whom they stand to gain more. Based on the tenor of the jokes it also shows an awareness of the issues with the Chinese government meaning of course this isn’t a partnership founded in ignorance.

The Swedish organisation also came under criticism this week for similar matters having announced expansion into Abu Dhabi. In the past NiP have been outspoken about women’s rights and expressed support for the LGBT community publicly. The United Arab Emirates is a country that still operates guardianship laws for women and criminalises LGBT people. Despite these facts the COO publicly maintains that there’s “good times ahead” as a result of the deal but most likely not so much for either of the two aforementioned groups.

The majority of Western esports fans might very well want their favourite players and organisations to act as role models and champions for causes they care about but they are also going to be highly critical of insincerity. The rise of sportswashing, going hand in hand with Saudi and Chinese expansion into the esports landscape, has exposed a lot of organisations in ways they couldn’t have anticipated. They are learning that if they wish to take the money from these groups it’s best to say nothing at all then have to recant something you stated was core to your values.

We have reached out to NiP and Mr. Chahine for comment on this story and will update it as soon as we’ve had a response.