Nigma Galaxy relegated to the lower division after six straight losses

Nigma Galaxy were officially relegated to the lower division of the Western Europe Dota 2 Pro Circuit on Tuesday after their sixth loss in a row. The team has not won a game since returning from GAMERS GALAXY: Dota 2 Invitational Series Dubai 2022.

Led by veteran captain, Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi, Nigma Galaxy were one of the most successful teams in the Western Europe DPC — and they still are one of the most experienced teams in the region. Four members of the squad, Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi, Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov, Maroun “GH” Merhej and KuroKy, have been playing together since The International 2017 and even won the prestigious championship in the same year.

Despite past successes, the team has struggled in the DPC leagues as of late. The last DPC tour saw the team on the verge of relegation. However, during the GAMERS GALAXY: Dota 2 Invitational Series Dubai 2022, the team seemed to return to form in a LAN format. They reached the winners finals in an incredibly stacked international tournament.

KuroKy mentioned how an online format affected the team during the DPC season and referred to playing on LAN as real Dota. The success from the Invitational did not transfer over, however.

Nigma Galaxy join Alliance as two staple high level Dota organizations that have been relegated over the last few years. It also feeds into discussions about online Dota and the overall format of the DPC. In an interview on OG’s Monkey Business show, analyst Kyle “Kyle” Freedman described the inherent problems with the DPC format — mainly that teams have to play online and only play one match a week.

Kyle argued that the format of the DPC does not accurately depict the formats for the tournaments that matter, mainly the International. While Nigma Galaxy have not played the best Dota throughout this tour, many fans and analysts say they are capable of more, and that their lack of success might be attributed to a broken format.