Fighting to avoid relegation: Team Secret vs. Nigma Galaxy

It’s never fun to watch a battle for survival between two of the most beloved teams in an esport. Dota 2 has been around for more than a decade and the captains of Team Secret and Nigma Galaxy were part of it from the very beginning.

Clement “Puppey” Ivanov won The International 2011 and played in four TI Grand Finals. Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi won The International 2017 and played in three TI Grand Finals. Needless to say, both of these men are very skilled. But in recent years, KuroKy struggled to remain at the top.

Nigma’s struggles

He hasn’t played at The International since 2019 and was hoping to qualify in 2023. But his team, Nigma Galaxy, has been struggling from day one. It’s well known that the Western European region is the most competitive of the six. Nigma aren’t a bad team. They’re simply not strong enough to beat the likes of Team Liquid and Tundra Esports.

Both of these teams were in the top three at The International 2022. And Team Secret were also one of the Grand Finalists at the event. This makes KuroKy’s mission extremely difficult.

Team Secret’s struggles

After The International 11, Secret lost their most valuable player. Michal “Nisha” Kankowski was known to be a world-class position 1 or 2 competitor and he even won the Esports PC Player of the Year award in 2020 for his formidable performance during that season.

When Nisha left and joined Liquid, everyone knew that Liquid were going to be the best team in the region. But nobody suspected just how much Secret would drop as a result of losing him.

In the past, Puppey was always successful in finding good replacements for the players he lost. One of them was Nisha himself. But in 2022, his decision to sign Miroslav “BOOM” Bican seems to have been a bad one.

It’s not yet clear whether or not he’s the one to blame for Secret’s failures, but it’s obvious that the new roster isn’t functional. Or at least, it is not strong enough to thrive in this region.

Nigma vs. Secret

These two teams played against each other many times and the winners were often Team Secret. However, under the current circumstances, the odds seem to be perfectly equal.

Some might even regard Nigma as the favorite because of their recent victory against OG. And they do have a point. The match will take place later today (January 27), from 21:00 CET.

Header: Nigma Galaxy