Nigma’s unending string of failures

The Nigma Galaxy organization, which started as Nigma, was created after the end of The International 9. Team Liquid lost in the Grand Final against OG, and Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi decided that he wanted to have his own team and stop using his skills to make other organizations famous.

At the time, his decision made perfect sense because he was one of the best captains in Dota 2 and one of the most successful players in the history of the game. He still is, by the way, despite what happened in the last four years.

Another reason why he probably chose to create his own team is that his good friend and former teammate, Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, did the same.

But there’s a huge difference between what Puppey has managed to do with Team Secret and what KuroKy managed to do with Nigma Galaxy. The latter seems to thrive when managerial worries are completely taken away from him.

One thing that might have influenced Nigma’s four-year failure was the health condition of some of the team’s members. Kuro suffered an arm injury and Amer “Miracle” Al-Barkawi suffered from some digestive issues. These problems hugely impacted their ability to train and compete at the highest level, in a game that’s more demanding than ever before.

Last game of the day🌟

🖥️https://t.co/Ba2FwjUnq5 pic.twitter.com/lzVpx83QqT

— Nigma Galaxy (@NigmaGalaxy) January 16, 2024

Why the project has been a disappointment so far

KuroKy is a TI champion, a two-time TI runner-up, and a Major champion. Over the course of his career (and we can mostly exclude the last four years when doing the math), he has won $5.3 million just from tournaments alone. The level of his success is hard to match, and his ambition is well-known in the Dota 2 community.

For a player like him to go on for four years and not even qualify for a single edition of The International must be truly painful. When he started Nigma, everyone expected this team to be among the best in Western Europe. It failed.

Now, more recently, we’ve seen Nigma competing in the MENA region. But, there too, they have to beat Team Falcons. And it’s not easy. In the qualifiers for BetBoom Dacha Dubai and DreamLeague S22, Nigma finished 4^th. This is absolutely unexplainable. We could understand why they are losing against Falcons. But to lose against the likes of Winter Bear is just absurd.

Kuro should probably consider retiring at this point. His career was, despite the later years, a great success and a huge inspiration for upcoming players. But if he cannot win with teammates like Sumail and Miracle, in one of the world’s easiest regions, there’s no point in continuing to play.

Header: Nigma Galaxy