Nigma Galaxy qualify for their first ever The International

It took Nigma Galaxy five years to qualify for The International, but the wait is finally over.

There are quite a few wonderful storylines to follow at The International this year, and one of them is Nigma’s resilience and determination. A lot has changed at Nigma since the organisation was formed at the end of 2019. Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi is now the team’s coach. The king, Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan, has been in and out of the team a few times already and has played a TI with a different team before qualifying now with Nigma. However, it’s been three years already since his last appearance, with OG in 2021. Maroun "GH" Merhej, probably the most beloved player by the Dota 2 community, has patiently waited for this moment to come, and for five years he’s been by his captain and now coach's side, working his way back to TI.

Unfortunately, no matter how much the fans would love to see Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi also back, he is still sidelined by medical issues. Nigma Galaxy has played with Daniel "Ghost" Chan standing in for Miracle on numerous occasions last year.

Their first breakthrough with the Malaysian carry came at Clavision: Snow Ruyi, a tournament held in China in August 2024. However, as Miracle felt fit to compete every now and then, Nigma would never deny him the spot. They had ups and downs throughout the past year, but starting with BLAST Slam II in February this year, Nigma has shown steady improvements. They made it to a few LANs in 2025, and the TI regional qualifiers confirmed that they are finally ready to show their worth at the pinnacle Dota 2 tournament.

Nigma Galaxy vs OG 2:1

Nigma had an explosive start to the series with a Marci-Io safe lane combo. Their undisputable domination in the laning stage was built on four kills and three Bounty runes before the horn sounded. That gave SumaiL a great advantage on his puck right from the get-go and with Io-Maric always ready to join the fights, OG found themselves overwhelmed and one game away from elimination.,

Nonetheless, the fans were in for a treat as OG struck back hard in game two with a Doom carry that went 11/1/7. Game three featured a signature Sven from Nigma’s Ghost and an Arc Warden mid for SumaiL. A crucial teamfight around the 35-minute mark, where Ghost died for the first time in the game, gave OG a window of opportunity. They tried to extend the game for as long as possible to give their Alchemist carry the time to farm, but the late game scenario was not in their favour. Especially when Nigma’s Arc Warden and Sven would get killed just once in 45 minutes.

The regional qualifiers for The International 2025 came to a close with Nigma Galaxy’s victory over OG, and the fans will now move their attention over to PGL Wallachia Season 5, coming up next week, followed by the Esports World Cup set to commence on the 8th of July. The International 2025 will kick off in Hamburg, Germany, on the 4th of September with a Swiss group stage, and will conclude in the Barclays Arena on the 14th of September, 2025.