Swedish esports organisation Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) took part in the Red Bull Wings For Life 2025 World Run on Sunday May 4, a charity event which raised an astonishing €8.6 million (£7.3m) for spinal cord injury research.
The charity event asked runners to start running at the exact same time, regardless of timezone, for 30 minutes before a virtual car catcher begins to race them. Each person’s race finished once they hit their personal target or the virtual car caught them, whichever happened first.
Ninjas in Pyjamas enlisted the help of 169 members of the organisation, including staff and pro players, to participate in the race. Together, they raised a wonderful £1,754.18 towards the aforementioned total and they ran an impressive collective distance of just under 162 kilometres earning the team a very respectable global ranking of 1,663. The race featured 310,719 participants overall who ran 2,639,348.18 km in total.
The org’s staff member Ludvig Bergqvist was the best performer for the team with a superb effort of 22.4 km at the official Stockholm event while out of the pro players, Samuel “MahaR” Horáček from NiP’s Young Ninjas Counter-Strike academy and Street Fighter 6 pro Vegard “Veggey” Kopangen Bugge were the strongest performers with 4.6km and 1km ran respectively.
Many of NiP’s players took part as their CS2, Impact CS, Young Ninjas, Apex Legends, EA FC, Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, and Street Figther 6 rosters all took part. That includes NiP’s former CS:GO in-game leader Richard “Xizt” Landström and one of the best CS players ever Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg. There were also a few British pros, including EA FC player-turned-coach Owen “Venny” Venn, CS2 pro Mia “aiM” Cooper from the Impact team, and Twitch streamer Paige “Padge” Thomas who used to compete in Valorant.
All Ninjas in Pyjamas esports pros and team members who took part in Red Bull Wings for Life World Run 2025 charity event
NIP Counter-Strike:
- Rafael “arrozdoce” Wing
- Michel “ewjerkz” Magalhães
- Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg
- “linda”
- Rasmus “sjuush” Beck
- Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer
- Daniel “sprayxd” Kogan
- “troels”
- Richard “Xizt” Landström
Impact Counter-Strike:
- Mia “aiM” Cooper
- Niels Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen
- Naomi “Nayomy” Janssen
- Kiara “Qiyarah” Janssen
- Anna “ramziiN” Ramsing
- Ksenia “vilga” Klyuenkova
Young Ninjas
- Maoz “BluePho3nix” Paz
- “hechitikal”
- Jacob “jocab” Nerheden
- Samuel “MahaR” Horáček
- Gareth “MisteM” Ries
- Rūdolfs “rud” Osmanis
- Rasmus “Zitte” Gustafsson
Apex Legends
- Miran “Amphy” Garib
- Casper “Gnaske” Præstensgaard
- Ali “Naghz” Naghawi
- Elias “raven” Ghribi
EA FC
- Olle “Ollelito” Arbin
- Owen “Venny” Venn
Rocket League
- Amine “itachi” Benayachi
- Nassim “nass” Bali
- Oskar “Oski” Gozdowski
- Nicolai “Snaski” Vistesen
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Daniel “dan” Maciel De Souza
- Diogo “FntzyDutra” Lima Britto da Silva
- Raul “kondz” Romão
- Gabriel “Hatez” Eduardo Kobuszewski
- Gabriel Fernandes “pino” Meliato Paravizo
- Gustavo “wizard” Gomes
Street Fighter 6
- Joel “Juicyjoe” Sundell
- Arman “Phenom” Hanjani
- Vegard “Veggey” Kopangen Bugge
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most proud of the latter.
