Qojqva Thinks Nigma's Kick of MATUMBAMAN Was a Mistake

A bleak form has defined Nigma Galaxy recently, as it had lost all four of its series in the Western Europe (WEU) Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Tour 2: Division 1. This puts Nigma Galaxy among the likely candidates for relegation to Division 2. Former Team Liquid midlaner and current livestreamer Max "qojqva" Bröcker, in sharing his thoughts about Nigma Galaxy's current performance, stated that the team made a mistake in kicking Lasse Aukusti "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen in June 2019. Despite Igor "iLTW" Filatov and Aliwi "w33" Omar both being good players, qojqva said MATUMBAMAN was precisely the right person for Nigma who helped other players, particularly Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi, stand out.

Qojqva cites the absence of a player like MATUMBAMAN as a reason for Nigma Galaxy's present underperformance

A Twitch user during qojqva’s livestream asked if Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi was still "stuck in 2017 (when KuroKy and co. won The International)", to which qojqva replied that he didn't think so, but mentioned that kicking MATUMBAMAN later in 2019 was a bad decision. qojqva compared MATUMBAMAN to Nigma's current carry, iLTW, saying that the former gave Miracle- an opportunity to shine much more.

“I think them kicking Matu was a really wrong decision. Matu brought out a lot of…Matu kinda made the other players shine I think on that team. I think that’s exactly like what Miracle- needs. And I think it’s kind of still what he needs. While I think iLTW is a great player, he doesn’t let Miracle- shine. And I think Miracle- feeds off kills, excitement. He is a really really snowbally player.”

In addition, qojqva argued that, due to multiple factors, it is simply impossible for one player- in this case Miracle-, to dominate every game in the midlane and win from there for his team. However, qojqva said that when MATUMBAMAN was on the team, he would tank the bad matchups with his signature heroes in the midlane in order to ensure that Miracle- had a good game.

“If you expect to snowball every single game, you are just f***ing wrong. There will be games where you don’t get every single rune. There will be games the other guy is last-hitting better than you. There will be games where you are just counter picked. Being able to snowball mid every single game is really unexpected so when you have someone like Matu who just goes mid on a f***ing Veno or Viper and you get to free farm your little Morphling on the safelane and have a 12-minute Linken’s, then you feel fu***ing amazing about yourself and that’s Miracle-. If you give that guy a good early game and just let him be for a little bit, he's going to make the plays and he’s going to win.”

As a result, MATUMBAMAN was a very viable midlane player when the team knew they were in a bad matchup, qojqva said and that both iLTW and w33, the former Nigma midlaner, were not the best fit for the role. He conveyed that both of these players have an element of greed in their playstyle which does not complement Nigma's playstyle. As a result, qojqva believes that Nigma should change its style to some extent to accommodate new players.

While Nigma isn't doing well in the ongoing Tour 2, it showed excellent form at Gamers Galaxy 2022 in March where it placed third. It has particularly performed well in the two LAN events with its full roster that it has attended since the DPC 2021 - the WePlay AniMajor and the Gamers Galaxy - but has not been able to demonstrate its potential in online competition. Nigma’s last tournament win came back in July 2020 when it defeated Alliance to win the OGA Dota PIT Season 2.