Dota 2: Miracle and SumaiL return to Nigma Galaxy as team gears up for comeback in the 2024 season

Nigma Galaxy will be looking to make a comeback in the 2024 Dota 2 season as fan-favourites Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi and Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan have returned to the team.

Miracle, widely considered to be one of the greatest Dota 2 players of all time, makes his return to Nigma Galaxy after he took a break from competitive play due to health issues in December last year. The team announced his return on Friday (22 December).

Miracle had been with Nigma Galaxy since the organisation formed and was part of the legendary Team Liquid roster that formed the initial team.

After bursting into the scene with OG in 2015, Miracle joined Liquid in 2017 alongside Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen, Ivan "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov, Maroun "GH" Merhej, and Kuro "Kuroky" Takhasomi and went on to win the Aegis of Champions in The International (TI) 2017.

That squad mostly stayed together, but with Aliwi "w33" Omar replacing MATUMBAMAN, and finished second in TI 2019. Shortly after TI 2019, the roster parted ways with Liquid and founded Nigma Galaxy.

Meanwhile, SumaiL returns to Nigma Galaxy after getting loaned to Team Aster in China from May to November. The team announced his return on Thursday (21 December).

SumaiL first joined Nigma Galaxy in May 2022, played with them for a year, then was placed on the inactive roster for six months before getting loaned to Aster.

SumaiL is also widely considered to be one of the greatest Dota 2 players of all time. He is the youngest player ever to win a TI championship, doing so in just the first year of his career and at just 16-years old when he led Evil Geniuses to the Aegis of Champions at TI 2015.

Nigma Galaxy's roster currently has three players, namely Miracle, SumaiL, and team captain Kuroky. While Kuroky is expected to reprise his role as the position 5 support, the team did not reveal which roles Miracle and SumaiL will be taking on.

Both Miracle and SumaiL etched their names into Dota 2 history as superstar midlaners, though both have also excelled in the carry role. During the last time the two played together in 2022, Miracle took the carry role while SumaiL was the team's midlaner.

Miracle and SumaiL's return to Nigma Galaxy follows the departures of four players from the team. Yuma "Yuma" Langlet, Kasra "Mikey" Mesbah, and MinD_ContRoL all parted ways with Nigma Galaxy while GH was placed on the team's inactive roster as he takes a break from competitive play.

This massive roster shakeup for Nigma Galaxy follows what has been another rough year for the team.

After Miracle 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, MinD_ControL, GH, and Kuroky, Nigma Galaxy were expected to at least be competitive in the cutthroat competition of the now-defunct Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 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 and Mikey in the hopes for a resurgence in the last leg of the season.

Nigma Galaxy then finished second in the Division II Summer Tour regional league. However, they failed to earn a spot in TI 2023 after bombing out of the tournament's Western European qualifier in 9th-11th place.

While Nigma Galaxy looked to be in dire straits following the departures of MinD_ContRoL, GH, Yuma, and Mikey, the return of Miracle and SumaiL suggests the team at least has a direction they want to follow back into relevancy. The team is expected to announce the rest of its roster in the coming days.

Nigma Galaxy Dota 2 roster:

1. Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi

2. Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan

3. N/A

4. N/A

5. Kuro "Kuroky" Takhasomi

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