Miracle- Will Take A Break From Competitive Dota 2

As confirmed by Nigma Galaxy, Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi will step down from the active Dota 2 roster ahead of the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season. As revealed, the 25-year-old will take a break from competitive Dota 2 and leave the carry position vacant.

Over the last week, Nigma Galaxy have started to announce its Dota 2 roster for the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season, mostly unveiling the return of former players. The process began with Nigma Galaxy announcing the return of the team captain Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi, who was initially expected to retire.

Later, Nigma also unveiled the return of Maroun “GH” Merhej, Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov, and Syed “SumaiL” Hassan, leaving them just one man short of completing the roster. And even though many expected Nigma to add Miracle- to the lineup, the 25-year-old announced on Tuesday that he will not compete with the team in 2023.

“I have decided that it’s time for me to go on a break from competitive play to take care of health issues. You will be seeing more of me behind the scenes supporting and helping the team,” said Miracle-.

This leaves Nigma Galaxy one man short of finalizing its lineup, with only three days left before the roster lock. However, considering Miracle-‘s decision to take a break has likely been known within the organization for a while, it’s likely that Nigma have already been actively looking for a replacement.

Although Miracle- decided to take a break from competitive Dota 2, Nigma Galaxy have unveiled that the 25-year-old will stay with the organization and help the team behind the scenes. To which capacity remains to be seen, but it’s likely that he’ll join as an assistant coach and work alongside Daniel “ImmortalFaith” Moza.

Miracle- taking over the assistant coach position would make a lot of sense, given his experience. He started his esports career in January 2015 with Balkan Bears and, in August, joined monkey Business, which later became OG.

As a part of the OG roster, Miracle- won The Frankfurt Major 2015, DreamLeague Season 4, DreamLeague Season 5, The Manila Major 2016, and ESL One Frankfurt 2016, quickly making a name for himself as one of the top players in the scene. But after a disappointing run at The International 2016, in which OG finished in ninth-12th place, Miracle- left for Team Liquid, where he spent the next three years.

With Liquid, Miracle- achieved new heights, leading the team to numerous Major titles, and he even helped the organization win The International 2017. Liquid dominated the scene for the next two years, adding a fourth and second-place finish at TI 2018 and TI 2019, respectively, before the roster left the organization to form Team Nigma (later Nigma Galaxy).

But despite fielding the same core that reached two TI finals in three years, Team Nigma struggled to achieve much and were particularly disappointing in 2022, failing to qualify for The International for the third year in a row.

Nigma Galaxy struggled in 2022, as the team failed to win a single notable tournament. Besides making it though DPC WEU 2021/2022 Tour 3: Division II and finishing GAMERS GALAXY: Invitational Series Dubai 2022 in third, Nigma Galaxy’s success was very limited.

The team’s lack of success suggested that Nigma Galaxy would look to make changes to its lineup for the 2023 season, but that turned out to be false. Besides replacing its head coach with ImmortalFaith, the team did not intend to replace any players.

Still, with Miracle- deciding to take a break, Nigma Galaxy will at least have a new no.4. Who that might be, remains to be seen, but we won’t have to wait for long to see the announcement. The DPC 2023 roster lock is set on December 9, meaning Nigma have just three more days to unveil their fifth.