A Brief Analysis of KuroKy’s Announcement

After a long absence caused by health problems, KuroKy is finally back. As captain of Nigma, his contribution to the team is essential and I do expect to see them return to the previous heights they had reached prior to Kuro’s injury. While he was inactive, Nigma managed to finish 3^rd at OMEGA League: Europe Immortal Division but then showed obvious signs of weakness at the next two tournaments: OGA Dota PIT S3: Europe/CIS and ESL One Germany 2020. In both cases, they finished 7^th – 8^th, which is not good at all given that these were regional events.

KuroKy’s Announcement

From Kuro’s statements, we’re reassured that he’s on his path to recovery, that he’s eager to compete again and that he will take part in his team’s matches related to EPIC League Division 1. So far, he’s played two of them. He lost the first against mudgolems (1 – 2) but won the second against OG (2 – 1). Overall, things are going well. Let’s just hope that KuroKy’s health will stabilize, even though he has restarted his training.

Another thing we learned from Kuro’s announcement is that his organization has offices in Europe and Egipt (Cairo). And that his intention is to expand into other esports. No details have been given yet, but a man of his talent and ambition is definitely going to make this step at some point. We’ve seen a similar pattern in the case of OG and Team Secret.

KuroKy is already 28. For esports, that’s not exactly young. Most players start at 16-18. So he’s already a veteran who needs to start thinking about the future. If his health problems persist, he may need to rethink his role in the organization sooner than he would like. Otherwise I definitely expect him to play for 5 more years. Possibly more.

Nigma’s Situation

Team Nigma was founded by KuroKy one year ago. And in spite of the ongoing global crisis that had a big impact on esports as a whole, he already managed to earn more than $455,000 in tournament prizes. The biggest amounts came from OGA Dota PIT S2, WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Mad Moon, WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020, OMEGA League: Europe Immortal Division and BEYOND EPIC: Europe/CIS.

Moving forward, the expectation is that Nigma will consolidate a top 4 position in Europe. They can’t compete with Secret and they probably can’t deal at this point with Liquid. But they should be able to win matches against everyone else. Right now, the situation in this region is extremely complicated. There are so many great teams with world-class rosters that it’s difficult to predict who’s going to win the next tournament. Secret is always a big favorite. But other than that, it’s just a matter of training and to some extent, luck. Because the amount of talent and experience brought to the table by each competitor is off the charts.

 

Photo credit: Valve