Dota pro KuroKy returns from five-month injury hiatus
Team Nigma captain Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi has returned to the team’s active roster following a five-month long hiatus to tend to an arm injury.
KuroKy announced his return on a video posted on Nigma’s official Twitter account early Saturday (14 November), revealing that he has been dealing with issues in his arms and hands “for a couple of years now”.
Guess who’s back!#StarsAlign pic.twitter.com/Tmt1glafom
— Team Nigma (@TeamNigma) November 13, 2020
“It just came from all the grinding I’ve been doing. I never really took proper breaks, never really took good care of it, and the [coronavirus] situation gave me an opportunity to just slow down and take good care of myself. I’ve just been on the path to recovery these past few months,” said KuroKy.
Nigma first announced that KuroKy was taking a break to tend to his injury back in July. He missed four tournaments in total, with Nigma coach Roman "rmN-" Paley filling in for him during that span.
Nigma fared well for the first couple of months of KuroKy’s absence, winning OGA Dota PIT EU/CIS Online Season 2 and finishing third in the OMEGA League’s European Immortal Division.
However, they have struggled mightily since then, finishing in 7th-8th place at back-to-back tournaments in Dota PIT Online Season 3 and ESL One Germany Online 2020.
KuroKy rejoins Nigma just in time for the EPIC League, where he and his team will compete against nine other teams from Europe and the CIS for the lion’s share of a US$500,000 prize pool until mid-December.
“I’ve just started scrimming with the team, we’ve been practising the past few days, and I feel really good, the guys feel really good. We’re just very excited to get to play together again and hopefully we’re gonna manage to give you guys inspiring games,” KuroKy said.
KuroKy is one of Dota’s living legends, boasting a career that began in the original Dota mod for WarCraft III and has spanned for well over a decade.
He is one of only two players, the other being Team Secret’s Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, to have played in every iteration of The International (TI).
He played in three TI finals (2013, 2017, and 2019), winning the Aegis of Champions in 2017 when Nigma was still playing under the Team Liquid banner in the first 3-0 sweep in the history of the tournament, over Newbee.
Team Nigma eyeing expansion, other titles
Aside from announcing his return to competitive play, KuroKy also shed some light on the state of affairs for Team Nigma.
He revealed that the team is currently focusing on promoting esports in the Middle East and is looking to “expand into a different territory” as well as other esports titles.
“It’s been around one year now since we made Team Nigma and we’re quite happy with how things are going. Obviously, our whole plan slowed down due to Covid-19, but overall we’re satisfied with how things are going,” said KuroKy.
Kuroky and Nigma will be looking to round back into form over the next couple of months in preparation for the expected restart of the Dota Pro Circuit early next year and the resumption of TI10 next August.
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