Everything you need to know about Dignitas: Europe Closed Qualifier profile

Click here for all links to all sixteen of the team profiles for the Europe Closed Qualifier for ESL One Rio.

Ranked (HLTV/ESL): #44/#29

Invite or Qualifier: Open Qualifier #1

Lineup

• Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg
• Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund
• Richard "Xizt" Landström
• Adam "friberg" Friberg
• Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli
• Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson (coach)

Most recent result

• Europe Minor Open Qualifier #1 = 1-2nd (Online)

Brief rundown

The iconic core of the 87-0 Ninjas in Pyjamas team now playing under Dignitas is something not many could have predicted happening in 2020.

As the first true superteam of CS:GO, NiP dominated the competition before struggles in subsequent years slowly saw the remaining four players split apart until only f0rest remained.

Xizt spent time on FaZe Clan and Fnatic, friberg's initial time on OpTic Gaming led to him finding himself on Heroic while GeT_RiGhT went inactive from the team he had spent seven years playing on in September until the Dignitas project was revealed.

While Fifflaren is part of the team, he is instead coaching while Norweigian talent hallzerk, younger brother of 1.6 pro Martin "hellzERk" Solbakken, completes the lineup.

hallzerk isn't the only Norweigian on the team, as Halvor "vENdetta" Gulestøl has joined as an analyst for the team just ahead of the Closed Qualifier.

The ease in which Dignitas made it through the first Open Qualifier has many people excited but the consensus is that no one expects the team to manage to replicate their past or try become the best team in the world.

This is not to say Dignitas won't be competitive, but there are hungry young talents that will put the older names (the team's average age is 27.7) through their paces as time goes on. Experienced players that are used to a LAN environment at the top level of play will need to keep their wits about them in an online Open Qualifier setting to avoid upsets.

Player to watch: hallzerk

The young Norweigian is surrounded by the most iconic foursome in CS:GO but many eyes will be on him as the community comes to know who he is. Picked by rain as a bold prediction for 2019, hallzerk will be looking to show that the pick was justified.

With family pedigree in Counter-Strike and his former team, Nordavind, also in the Closed Qualifier, hallzerk will be looking to help take Dignitas further than Nordavind can go and all the way to Rio for the European Minor.

GINX prediction

While teams often struggle with the difference between LAN and online matches, Dignitas made the first Open Qualifier look easy. This was the first official outing for the players and it will hopefully not simply be a result of the unknown factor that a 'new' lineup brings in a honeymoon period.

FLASHPOINT will be the home for the team going forward and so a strong result going into the ESL One Rio Major should help to convince those who doubt the new league's literal firepower.

The bracket has a lot of potential hurdles and teams on the rise but the experience of the Dignitas roster should hopefully be enough to secure them a top eight spot.