In the last two years in the case of Puppey, and in the last four years in the case of KuroKy, almost everything that could go wrong went wrong.
The two Dota 2 legends, friends, and former teammates have been unable to keep up with the game’s rapid development. The patches released since 2020 have introduced massive changes that require an enormous amount of effort to master.
When you’re 20, a major patch is always exciting. When you’re 30+, it’s more of a headache.
Puppey’s Results in 2023 – 2024
Painful loss. Tough year. Dota is an amazing game, but also very hard to compete in. Can’t win them all, you know? I know I have lost the title of going to each TI, but maybe it was finally time to lose it. No regrets, life always changes. Peace ✌️
— Clement Ivanov (@CLEMENTINATOR) August 31, 2023
Puppey came close to winning The International in 2022. Team Secret qualified for the Grand Final but lost 0 – 3 against Tundra Esports. That was the last time when the Dota 2 veteran had a highly competitive team that could beat almost anyone in the world.
After The International 11, Team Secret lost Nisha, who was signed by Team Liquid. That simple change ruined everything for Puppey, as he would soon find out just how much the young Polish midlaner was carrying the rest of the roster.
In 2023 and 2024, Secret’s results were very poor. The team was constantly last in DPC WEU Division I and failed to qualify for the Majors. When it did qualify for an event like DreamLeague S20 or DreamLeague S22, the team failed to get a good result.
In two years, the only success, if you can call it that, for Team Secret was the 9th – 12th place they obtained at Riyadh Masters 2023. Because it was a $15 million tournament, for a while this made them look like a top-16 team again.
More recently, Puppey failed to qualify for Riyadh Masters 2024 and will most likely fail to qualify for TI13 as well. At DreamLeague S22, his team finished 11th – 12th out of 16 competitors. At Elite League Season 1, 17th – 19th out of 24. At PGL Wallachia Season 1, 9th – 11th out of 16.
Of course, Puppey could choose to continue playing for another season even if he fails to qualify for TI13, but at 34 he’s starting to be an esports grandpa. If he can keep his enthusiasm despite the numerous failures, he could easily continue. Or maybe he just made the decision not to give up until the day when KuroKy gave up as well.
KuroKy’s Results in 2020 – 2024
The wait is over🌟
Please welcome @SumaaaaiL to our #NGXdota EU roster. Long may he reign👑#StarsAlign pic.twitter.com/KdLj7FiN94
— Nigma Galaxy (@NigmaGalaxy) May 28, 2022
KuroKy’s team, Nigma Galaxy, looks amazing on paper. But the results have been poor from the start. This team has now been around for more than four years. And in all that time, apart from a 5th – 6th place at Riyadh Masters 2022 and a 1st place at Tier-2 events like WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020, absolutely nothing impressive was achieved.
KuroKy’s last TI participation was in 2019. Right now, he’s competing from the MENA region. Team Falcons never has to qualify for anything because they are the number-one team in the world.
In theory, that should give Nigma an easy way to qualify for every international tournament. But they can’t do it, because PSG Quest, a team whose players are far less accomplished than KuroKy, Miracle, and SumaiL, are always beating them in the regional qualifiers.
Header: Valve
