Nigma Galaxy seeks individual and collective excellence | TI14 Team Preview

The name Nigma Galaxy carries a lot of weight in Dota 2. To say they have the most passionate fans in the world would be a gross understatement. Through thick and thin, the Nigma faithful will follow them to hell and back, and back again.

It’s a little ironic, therefore, that two of the biggest reasons this organization became this famous to begin with aren’t even in the active roster right now. Neither superstar talent Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi nor grizzled veteran and fearless leader Kuro Salehi “KuroKy” Takhasomi are playing for the team at The International 2025 (TI14), or for most of this season, for that matter. And yet, the squad itself still has the attention of the entire Dota community, as evidenced by all the discussion about their performances this year.

That’s what happens when your legacy is tied to winning TI7 and a history of individual and collective excellence.

Two sides, same coin

This Nigma Galaxy squad is not anything close to the roster that lifted the Aegis of Champions in 2017. Hell, they weren’t even called Nigma Galaxy back then; they were still playing under the Team Liquid banner at the time. But it was them, minus Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen, that decided to break away from the Liquid organization to form their own in 2019.

With the TI9 roster on board, things looked fairly promising for Nigma in their first two months under the new outfit. They won the WePlay! Bukovel Minor (has it really been that long since we had majors and minors?), though they did put in a lowly 12th place finish at DreamLeague Season 13 just over a week later.

Unfortunately, the lockdowns began just two months after that DreamLeague. The world stood still, and so did esports for a little while. And although Nigma did relatively well staying afloat in the online-only era of Dota 2, the lack of international competition seemed to really stunt their growth as a new organization.

Fast forward to today, and it’s clear that they’re still feeling the effects of the pandemic — though thankfully, probably not in a physical sense. What I mean is that Nigma were never truly able to recover competitively and get back to being a top tier squad like they were prior to their formation. The roster is vastly different from what they had in their heyday, but at the same time, the same struggles are still present.

Built-in debuff, or just out

“What is it about this lineup that prevents them from reaching their full potential”, I hear you ask.

Nigma Galaxy just seem to have this extremely baffling tendency to just fall apart in games where they actually manage to get ahead of their opponents.

They tease their fans with a fantastic laning phase here and there, only to completely forget how to play Dota once the game lands on the 20 minute mark. And while they do sometimes claw their way out of these holes early in tournaments.

Take PGL Wallachia Season 4 as an example.. The Nigma train runs well for a bit, and just runs out of steam when they play teams that are, you know, actually good.

Communication and cohesiveness are lost on this squad. They execute what looks like a well-crafted plan in the early game, only for some players to go off doing their own thing in their own world once they feel like they have a big advantage. Syed “SumaiL” Hassan, for all that he has accomplished in his career, is especially guilty of this — as he tends to play alone for no discernible reason when doing so is totally unnecessary and even detrimental to the team.

Incidentally, it was like this when KuroKy and Miracle were still active players. So basically, this is just Nigma being Nigma, and at this point it feels like no amount of retooling the lineup will fix that.

Better than nothing

At least, that would be true, if the small improvement in results wasn’t there. As it stands, this roster is already significantly better than the one that tried too hard to cling to their glory days. Having Daniel “Ghost” Chan around in particular has done good for this team, as he brings a fresh perspective and plenty of talent to boot.

Sadly, “better” is not yet good enough to get them over the hump in most tournaments. They’re still tripping over their own toes more often than not, as seen in the mediocre results they’ve seen this season. They placed in the Top 4 of a Tier 1 tournament only once this year.

The cycle of “it’s so over” versus “we’re so f***ing back” continues for them and their fans.

At this rate, it’ll probably be the same at TI14.

Nigma team grade and players to watch at Ti14

If you’re anything like me and adore old school, feast-or-famine mid laners, look no further than the King himself, SumaiL. Although he does tend to be out of position a lot of the time, he is still as entertaining as anyone else out there — provided he gets a good start.

Nigma’s biggest challenge is pretty much everything but the early game, if I’m being honest. Getting their act together past the laning phase has been a huge pain point for them this season, so fixing their communication is priority number one if they want to do well at TI14.

I can’t give Nigma Galaxy anything higher than a C. The overall skill is obviously there, so they get a passing grade, but the chemistry is very much lacking. I would be extremely surprised if they made it past the top 8.