Dota 2: NGX's Miracle, Fnatic's Raven to miss ESL One Malaysia due to health issues

• Nigma Galaxy's Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi and Fnatic's Marc Polo "Raven" Fausto will miss out on ESL One Malaysia 2022

• Miracle encountered "health issues" while Raven tested positive for COVID-19

• A total of four teams at ESL One Malaysia 2022 will be playing with a stand-in

ESL One Malaysia 2022 is almost here, and it will be the last major tournament before the regional qualifiers for Dota 2's The International 11 (TI11). The Arena of Stars in Genting will host 12 invited teams from all over the world as they compete for their slice of the US$400,000 prize pool.

Unfortunately, some teams will not be able to attend the tournament with their full roster.

Among them are Nigma Galaxy's Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi and Fnatic's Marc Polo "Raven" Fausto, who will both miss out on the event due to health concerns.

Nigma Galaxy announced Miracle- would be absent from ESL One Malaysia due to undisclosed health issues on Sunday (21 August).

This will not be the first time that Miracle- is unable to compete this year, as he also missed two matches during the Winter Tour of the 2021-2022 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season.

Team coach Roman "rmN-" Paley stood in for Nigma Galaxy in those two matches against Tundra Esports and Gaimin Gladiators. Unfortunately for the team, they ended up losing both series 0-2.

Former BOOM Esports carry player, Randy "Dreamocel" Sapoetra, will be standing-in for Miracle.

Similar to Miracle, Fnatic's Raven will not attend ESL One Malaysia after he tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Paolo "KTM" Bago, Fnatic's Dota 2 team director, Raven is recovering well and the rest of the team were unaffected.

Execration's Jinn "Palos" Lamatao will be standing-in for Raven, having taken a flight to Malaysia to join Fnatic shortly after returning to the Philippines from competing in the GAMERS GALAXY Thailand Invitational.

Other teams missing players

Nigma Galaxy and Fnatic aren't the only ones who won't play with their full line-up, as OG's Mikhail "Misha" Agatov will miss the team's third LAN event of the year while Alliance's Adam "Aramis" Moroz encountered visa issues.

Perhaps the unluckiest player of the year is Misha, the captain of OG. In both the ESL One Stockholm and PGL Arlington Majors, he was unable to attend and was replaced by the former team offlaner and two-time The International champion Sébastien "Ceb" Debs.

OG ended up winning the Stockholm Major and placing fourth at Arlington.

This time OG, will not be playing with Ceb, with team coach Evgenii "Chuvash" Makarov standing-in instead.

Alliance are the third European team to play with a substitute at ESL One Malaysia. Aramis will miss out and will be replaced by Greek player Sakis "dEsire" Kartsampas from Brame.

With four teams missing at least one player, it will be interesting to see how the tournament shapes up.

The Arlington Major featured numerous upsets due to multiple teams having stand-ins and it looks like the same could happen in Genting.

ESL One Malaysia 2022 will take place from 23 to 28 August, starting with the Group Stage on 23 August while the Playoffs will begin on 26 August. The tournament features OG, Fnatic, Alliance, Team Liquid, Team Secret, Nigma Galaxy, Entity, Team Aster, BOOM Esports, Talon Esports, and Fnatic.

Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.

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