After recently facing off against each other in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Ninjas in Pyjamas’ CS:GO players Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg and Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund took to the pitch alongside West Ham’s Michail Antonio and Javier Hernandez to take on part two of the Betway Esports Challenge.
The Counter-Strike aficionados replaced their keyboards with a pair of football boots, and were coached by West Ham’s attacking duo, shooting at cardboard cut-outs of various West Ham and Ninjas in Pyjamas stars to gain points for their team.
This challenge follows on from part one of the Betway Esports Challenge, in which Hernandez and Antonio were tested in their CS:GO skills, facing each other in a 1v1 having been coached with each member of the Ninjas in Pyjamas team. Both parts of the challenge were hosted by popular esports personality and host, O.J. Borg.
Whilst Hernandez showed a more natural aptitude to Counter-Strike in part one of the Betway Esports Challenge than Antonio, his teammate f0rest also seemed much more comfortable on the pitch, making light work of Antonio and GeT_RiGhT.
This isn’t West Ham’s first foray into the world of esports, having previously signed professional FIFA player Sean ‘Dragonn’ Allen, who now represents the revived Lightning Pandas organisation. They are now represented by Jamie ‘Jamboo’ Rigden, who said upon his signing at the club that they “clearly believe in the esport vision”, so we can expect a lot more involvement in esports from West Ham in the future.
To find out more about the merging of esports and traditional sports, with multiple internationally-recognised football and sports teams involved, check out our own ESI Super Forum on March 22nd.
Esports Insider says: West Ham certainly seem to be one of the more forward-thinking Premier League clubs when it comes to esports, attempting to capitalise while they can and creating fun, enjoyable content with Betway brings the two worlds together in a natural way.
Disclaimer: This piece is in collaboration with Betway, a content partner of Esports Insider