Dota 2: Nigma Galaxy bomb out of TI 2023 Western European regional qualifier

Kuro "Kuroky" Takhasomi and Nigma Galaxy will once again be missing out on Dota 2's The International (TI) 2023 after they bombed out of the tournament's Western European regional qualifier with a 1-2 loss to Alliance on Monday (28 August).

Western Europe has been far and away the best region in the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season and its regional qualifier for TI 2023 was expected to be a bloodbath, even if there were two spots up for grabs. While not many expected Nigma Galaxy to come out of the qualifier, they were at least pegged to be one of the stronger teams there.

Nigma Galaxy started the qualifier's double-elimination bracket in the upper bracket, where they faced Entity in the first round. While Nigma Galaxy won the first game of that series, Entity pulled off the 2-1 reverse sweep to send them down to the lower bracket to face Alliance.

Nigma Galaxy were the heavy favourites to win over Alliance. While both teams have struggled through the 2023 DPC season, Alliance had lower lows and were even knocked out of Division II altogether with a seventh place finish in the Summer Tour regional league.

While Alliance won the opening game of the series, Nigma Galaxy bounced back in game two and were expected to take the series in three games. However, it was Alliance that ended up winning in the decider after 41 minutes to knock Nigma Galaxy out of contention for a spot in TI 2023.

Nigma Galaxy's embarrassing showing in the TI 2023 Western European regional qualifier is the final nail in the coffin of what has been an abysmal 2023 DPC season for the team.

There was initially a lot of optimism surrounding Nigma Galaxy prior to the start of the 2023 DPC season. After Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi announced an extended health break last December, Nigma Galaxy announced one of the biggest signings of the offseason as former OG offlaner Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf joined the team as Miracle's replacement on the carry role.

With ATF joining a roster that also included big names like Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan, Ivan "MinD_ControL" Ivanov, Maroun "GH" Merhej, and Kuroky, Nigma Galaxy were expected to at least be competitive in the cutthroat competition of the Western European regional league.

Instead, Nigma Galaxy failed to make a splash, finishing the Winter Tour in sixth place before getting knocked down to Division II following an eighth place finish in the Spring Tour.

Following the Nigma Galaxy's demotion to Division II, ATF was placed on the inactive roster and Miracle- was forced to return as a stand-in for DreamLeague Season 19, where the team finished in 13th-14th place.

Nigma Galaxy's roster shakeup continued in May, when they announced that SumaiL was loaned to China's Team Aster while ATF was loaned to rising Western European squad Quest Esports. The team replaced their departing players with standout rookies Yuma "Yuma" Langlet and Kasra "Mikey" Mesbah in the hopes for a resurgence in the last leg of the season.

Nigma Galaxy managed to earn a return to Division I for the 2024 DPC season after they finished second in the Division II Summer Tour regional league. At the time, this was seen as a sign that the team could be a contender for TI 2023, which we now know ended up not being the case.

After two-straight seasons of failing to qualify for TI and bouncing between Divisions I and II, it remains to be seen what's next for Nigma Galaxy and its aging core of Kuroky, MinD_ControL, and GH.

TI 2023's regional qualifiers will run until 31 August, with the competition being split into three five-day phases where two regions will compete in each phase. With the qualifiers for North America, China, South America, and Eastern Europe now concluded, Western Europe and Southeast Asia will then close things out from 27 to 31 August.

China's Azure Ray, North America's Nouns Esports, Eastern Europe's Virtus.pro, as well as Vivo Keyd Stars and Thunder Awaken from South America were the first five teams to earn a spot in this year's world championship tournament for Dota 2 through the regional qualifiers.

TI 2023 will be hosted across multiple weekends from 12 to 29 October in Seattle, the United States. This year's tournament also features a revamped format split into two distinct phases, called 'The Road to The International' and 'The International' itself.

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