Team Nigma Without KuroKy at Omega League

Omega League: Europe Immortal Division has started and one of the favorites is playing with a huge disadvantage. KuroKy, Team Nigma’s captain, is unable to play due to an arm injury.

KuroKy’s Injury

It may sound ridiculous, but years of competition and hard training are actually quite damaging to a gamer’s body. Especially if he’s not taking great care of it by exercising regularly. Having seen KuroKy at many tournaments and knowing that he also likes to smoke, I doubt he’s been going to the gym.

Of course, nobody knows for sure if the injury is a result of heavy training and careless living or if he actually had a physical accident in recent weeks. Judging by the history of injuries in esports, I’d say he developed the same types of problems that other people did in the past: olofmeister (CS:GO), Fear (Dota 2) and others. It’s an unpleasant thing and you never think it could happen to you, until it does.

We don’t know how much longer will Kuro miss from his team, but by the looks of it he may be out for months. To be fair, if there ever was a time to get injured and lose all the action with minimal consequences, this has to be it. There are very few important events in Dota 2 right now, and The International 10 has been delayed by many months. Normally, it should have started tomorrow. Instead, we’ll probably see it in 2021 if everything goes according to plan. Most likely, it won’t. Because the situation is worsening. But that aside, I expect to see KuroKy back somewhere around October – November. Until then, Team Nigma will face all sorts of challenges.

KuroKy’s Impact

KuroKy is widely regarded as one of the best captains in the history of Dota 2. Maybe not the best, but top 5 for sure. He’s been a part of this roster for more than 3 years and during this time, there’s only been one change: MATUMBAMAN got replaced by w33. The accomplishments, first of Team Liquid (his former organization) and now Nigma speak for themselves. With Liquid he obtained two Grand Final qualifications at The International and won The Aegis of Champions in 2017. With Nigma he had fewer opportunities because this season was a mess due to the pandemic. But he still managed to win several smaller trophies, such as WePlay! Bukovel Minor and OGA Dota PIT S2.

With KuroKy out of the picture, it will be interesting to see what Nigma can do on their own. His replacement is rmN-, the team’s captain and a high MMR player with lots of impressive results in the coach role. As a player he hasn’t done much so far, but he did prove himself at the recent OGA Dota PIT S2, where he managed to win the title. Based on these statistics, we can be somewhat optimistic for Nigma, even though KuroKy seems irreplaceable.

 

Photo credit: Valve