The qualifiers for the initial Dota 2 tournament following The International 2023 are currently in progress, but Nigma Galaxy has yet to finalize its roster plan for 2024. The team’s latest update raises more questions than answers about its future.
In their most recent appearance, Nigma experienced a setback, failing to qualify for TI12 and ending in a bottom tie at BetBoom Dacha after a disappointing season. The absence of Miracle-, who took a hiatus in December due to undisclosed health concerns, contributed to Nigma’s relegation to Dota obscurity, marked by a lack of DPC Major participation and limited success in tournaments.
Throughout the year, Nigma fielded various lineups built around its remaining core of MinD_ContRoL, GH, and captain KuRoKy. That saw a rotation of ATF, SumaiL, Yuma, and Mikey playing positions one and two for the team during the DPC season—though no lineup saw success in the stacked WEU region.
Now, heading into a 2024 season where Valve has ended the DPC, Nigma is in a prime position to use its seniority to claim spots at big events. However, the team has now confirmed it will not be finalizing its roster in time for the ESL One Kuala Lumpur qualifiers and is keeping plans vague for now.
In the first real update since Nigma brought in Yuma and Mikey, the organization said on Nov. 15 that it will not finalize its new lineup until at least mid-December. In the meantime, MinD_ContRoL attempted to qualify with a separate stack to compete, though his komanda X roster fell to Alliance in the match for third place.
The two biggest questions for Nigma revolve around the future of Miracle- and KuRoKy, though the team did not clarify its status at all. Instead, the social team posed the question of whether Miracle “was ever really gone” from the team and refused to comment at all on Kuro’s potential retirement—saying it is “above our paygrade.”
This most likely means both Miracle- and KuRoKy will return to the team for the 2024 season, but Nigma is not ready to share its full lineup just yet.
As for the rest of its roster, Nigma noted that Mikey and Yuma will appear more frequently on the team’s social media pages. No information on GH was shared at all, but if the rest of the core four is back, GH will likely return as well.
Additionally, this update confirmed that SumaiL’s contract did not revert to Nigma after his stint on loan with Team Aster, rather the former Evil Geniuses star just forgot to update his Twitter properly. The status for SumaiL is still up in the air, though a return to Nigma isn’t out of the question.