Cover-Credits:
Nigma Galaxy kicked off the 2024 competitive season with a revamped roster with hopes of a turnaround after a challenging few years. However, the team’s poor performance over the last two months persisted despite experimenting with a couple of roster iterations. In a recent podcast hosted by Dota 2 caster Austin "Cap" Walsh, Team Liquid’s captain Aydin "iNSaNiA" Sarkohi, Shopify Rebellion’s offlaner Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek, and Gaimin Gladiators’ midlaner Quinn "Quinn" Callahan shared their thoughts regarding Nigma's prolonged poor performance. According to iNSaNiA and Quinn, there appears to be a lack of conversation within their team with the absence of a strong voice, as well as outdated ideas. SabeRLight believes the Nigma players are also not performing at their peak right now.
INSaNiA, SabeRLight-, and Quinn share their thoughts on Nigma’s poor form
INSaNiA stated in the podcast that it is hard to determine the specific reason for the poor form without being actively involved, but considering the current Nigma team composition, he feels that there is a lack of direction.
“I mean, it’s always hard to know so it’s purely speculation. I feel like watching from the outside, I assume Kuro always used to be the strong voice in their team but knowing Sumail and having somewhat of an idea of Miracle-, neither of them are like Quinns. Neither of them is the type to take the game and move it forward in the same way. I think they might be lacking a bit of good ideas on how to progress games forward or which heroes allow them to play the way they want - get everything to come together.”
As outlined by iNSaNiA, players still bring quality, but ways of approaching the game have become obsolete.
"I feel they are not bad players but it doesn’t look like a 2024 team playing Dota to me. So, a lack of voice or maybe a lack of the correct ideas or the correct way to move games forward. In some way, the way that they feel is outdated. Their ideas just don’t work. I think that is the most accurate thing to say.”
Quinn agreed with iNSaNiA, pointing out how Dota 2 has evolved and how young carry players, such as Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk and Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov, are heavily involved in the game these days, even in pubs.
“I think that’s pretty apt. Dota has changed a lot. In an era where Kuro and Puppey were extremely dominant was an era where it was kind of expected for cores to be mute. That was just kind of the norm. Cores were mute. Yeah, your supports talk but your cores are mute. And maybe once in a while, your carry player says - go high ground - and that is his contribution to the game. But Dota is not like that anymore.”
“You play with Yatoro in a pub and he’s like talking nonstop. Anton (dyrachyo) talks all the time,” Quinn mentioned, adding that more players are participating in conversations and that this has become a mainstream activity.
According to SabeRLight, he did not think Nigma had the right ideas after playing it in a scrim recently. As an example, he compared the squad to Shopify last year, which despite having some of the best players, failed to perform.
“There is team cohesion but it is just the wrong ideas and on top of that, sometimes, it’s just that the players are not that in form individually. They make really dumb mistakes. One of you guys is just feeding kills for no reason. No one specifically but just..”
Nigma Galaxy played in the qualifiers for BetBoom Dacha Dubai, DreamLeague Season 22, and ESL One Birmingham 2024, but did not even advance to the grand final once. The team's future is uncertain, and it remains to be seen whether more roster changes will occur in the coming months.
