Nigma Galaxy’s Unexpectedly Good Performance Is A Highlight Of ESL One Bangkok

Dota 2

December 13, 2024

Marcus Wong

It’s not everyday when you get to see Nigma Galaxy in the limelight for playing well. However, Nigma did play well at the ESL One Bangkok 2024 and even advanced to the Playoffs.

Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan at ESL One Bangkok 2024 (Image credit: ESL)

Recap on Nigma in ESL One Bangkok 2024

Looking back at Nigma’s performance in the group stage, sure, some may argue that they had the easier group match-up. Competing against PARIVISION, BetBoom Team and Team Liquid is always much better than facing Team Falcons, AVULUS and Team Spirit in the opposite group.

Nevertheless, Nigma held their own against the stronges teams in its group. They drew every series, except against PARIVISION. But even with this single blunder, Nigma has good reasons for their loss. Particularly, Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi experienced health issues before the match versus PARISION, which was the last series in the group.

That aside, Nigma put up a strong fight in every match at the ESL One Bangkok 2024 thus far. Sure, the drafts can get unorthodox at times, but we somewhat expected this from a team under Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi’s coaching. KuroKy’s drafts are historically known for being out of meta, which unfortunately, backfired when the roster can’t make the draft work. Fortunately, Miracle- and Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan have stepped up their roles as cores in Nigma, especially Miracle-, who is even setting new Dota 2 meta trends for powerhouses like Team Falcons to follow.

Nigma Galaxy vs Team Spirit

Although Nigma did well enough to advance into the Playoffs of ESL One Bangkok 2024, they were still one series away from elimination. Their group stage placement earned them a spot in the lower bracket round 1 against Team Spirit.

From a glimpse, Team Spirit clearly are the fan favorites with their title as two-time champions. However, for the uninitiated, their active roster no longer consists of the founding members anymore, except Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov and Denis “Larl” Sigitov.

This should even the playing field for Nigma Galaxy, albeit Team Spirit’s performance in their own group wasn’t too shabby themselves. Of course, the outcome of this series will determine whether Nigma’s recent performance was truly improving or they just got an easy group match-up, aka a fluke at ESL One Bangkok 2024.