It’s the news all Nigma Galaxy fans have been waiting for – Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi is returning to help his struggling mates. As a founding member of the team and a core part of the original lineup, Miracle-‘s return marks an important chapter in Nigma’s upcoming Dota Pro Circuit 2023 (DPC 2023).
For those who don’t know, Miracle- has been inactive since December 2022 due to health issues, skipping a large chapter of Nigma’s DPC 2023 journey. However, before his hiatus, he helped earn Nigma a Division 1 slot.
Since his absence, Nigma’s performance has been lackluster, sinking lower until they finally landed in the Division 2 bracket once again. The recent DPC 2023 Tour 2 Western Europe saw Nigma barely avoiding demotion at sixth place. Unfortunately, competition has grown evermore fierce, with established trio Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid, and Tundra Esports monopolizing the top seeds, leaving only one remaining slot for other decent teams, such as Team OG and Ooredoo Thunders to compete.
Nigma’s hot losing spree in the recent Tour 2 is a telltale sign that they need a bigger reform than just switching out pos1 players every season. The team is comprised of old horses, who can’t be taught new tricks anymore. Perhaps there should be talks about passing the torch to younger players instead.
In the meantime, Miracle- is returning to replace Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf temporarily for the DreamLeague S19. However, considering Nigma’s poor performance, fans are looking forward to ATF and Syed “SumaiL” Hassan’s departure soon.
Despite SumaiL’s phenomenal gameplay, which proves that he’s still eyeing the International Championship, money is still his motivation to compete and play in a more relevant team. However, based on historical roster decisions, Nigma is likely to keep its four founding players. This occurred when they kicked Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen merely months before the International 9, followed by Aliwi “w33” Omar and Igor “iLTW” Filatov.
The ship has sunk for Nigma as the last Tour in Division 2 is obsolete in terms of qualifying for TI12. At best, Nigma can consider attempting the TI12 regional qualifier, but even then, fans are skeptical about Nigma’s capabilities. Instead, SumaiL’s future whereabouts in DPC 2023 are a more relevant topic for discussion. Besides the Division 1 teams that might be looking for a new mid-player, such as Entity and Ooredoo Thunders, the upcoming winners of Division 2 Tour 2 could also be potential teams for SumaiL.
Miracle-‘s return marks an exciting chapter for Nigma Galaxy, but it might just be too little, too late for the former champions. Nevertheless, we will keep our eyes peeled and see what the future holds for Nigma and its players.