Australian born Paladins player wins PWC 2019

Ninjas in Pyjamas have been crowned champions of the 2019 Paladins World Championship, with Australian born player, Dylan “DiGeDoG” Chainski, picking up the award of Most Valuable Player.

DiGeDoG has been at the top of his game since joining Kanga Esports back in February of 2017, where he was labelled as the best player in Australia, representing the region in multiple offline events across the world and maintaining a lengthy unbeaten record against Australian teams. 

On the 7th of June last year, DiGeDoG announced his departure from Kanga Esports to reveal that he had signed with Ninjas in Pyjamas and would be moving to Europe to compete alongside his new teammates. He is the only Australian player in the title to ever make this move, outside of Kanga Esports acquiring a spot in the Paladins Premier League earlier this year.

Since joining the Ninjas in Pyjamas organisation last year, the team has gone on to place second in the PPL 2018 Europe Fall, first in phase one of the 2019 PPL, second in the 2019 mid-season invitational, and second in the second phase of the 2019 PPL. Despite those strong placements, Ninjas in Pyjamas finished tied for fifth in the 2019 Paladins World Championship, losing to Spacestation Gaming in a 1-3 set. But nonetheless, they redeemed themselves this year by winning the whole tournament.

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Tournament Breakdown w/ DiGeDoG:

• 3rd - PPL Summer 2018
• 2nd - PPL Europe Fall 2018
• 5th/8th - Paladins World Championship 2018
• 1st - PPL 2019 Phase 1
• 2nd - Mid-Season Invitational 2019
• 2nd - PPL 2019 Phase 2
• 1st - Paladins World Championship 2019

Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) kicked-off their run in the 2019 Paladins World Championship with a quarterfinal match against a promising Renegades side, although despite some back and forth sets, NiP managed to edge themselves over the line and secure the series with a 4-2 scoreline; putting themselves into the semifinals against Virtus Pro.

Virtus Pro were one of the other teams that tied for fifth place in last year’s World Championship, so this match was do or die for both sides. After a slug fest of back and forth sets, NiP managed to replicate their quarterfinal series by pushing themselves into the grand final with a 4-2 scoreline. 

Coming into the grand finals, NiP needed to beat the team who had just taken down last year’s champions, Team Envy. It seemed that the Pittsburgh Knights were poised to lift the trophy from the get-go, as they secured the first two maps of the series and ultimately put Ninjas in Pyjamas on the back foot. But nonetheless, NiP managed to mount a monstrous comeback and claimed the next four maps in a row to be crowned champions of the 2019 Paladins World Championship.

Once the dust had settled following his grand final appearance, DiGeDoG was given the award of Most Valuable Player during the trophy raising ceremony. A lot was made of his story and the sacrifices he made to compete in the Paladins Premier League, such as moving from Australia to Sweden, and ultimately winning it all at their biggest event of the year.

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Following the tournament, DiGeDoG took to Twitter to express his emotions by stating “we actually won. I honestly cannot believe I got MVP. It’s truly a team game, and we won because we are the best team in the f**king work baby.”

“Thank you so much for the support guys and girls,” concluded DiGeDoG.

Later in the week, he went on to state “on my way back to Australia today. What a crazy adventure the last year and a half has been. I’m sad that I’ll be leaving my boys, however I could not be more grateful to them, specifically Bird.”

When talking about Bird, he is referencing the team captain of Ninjas in Pyjamas, Erik “Bird” Sjosten, who has just announced his retirement from competitive Paladins following their win at the Paladins World Championship.

After DiGeDog posted his last tweet, members of the community asked him what his plans were for next year, which he then responded by stating “we’ll see if the support of the scene is there next year,” which indicated that this could have been DiGeDoG’s last competitive tournament. 

Regardless of whether this was his last tournament or not, DiGeDoG has achieved something that not many people in the Paladins competitive community can say they have done – win the world championship. Details of his future will be sure to come in the near future, but for now we can sit back and celebrate his success.

Congratulations to both DiGeDoG and all those at Ninjas in Pyjamas on their recent success.

You can stay connected with DiGeDoG by following him on Twitter.

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Credits:

• Written by Ben Scott.
• Edited by Adam Taylor.