GH Talks About How Team Nigma Dealt With the TI9 Loss

Maroun “GH” Merhej, who has been the staple position four player for Team Nigma, talked about how Team Nigma dealt with their loss at TI9. Team Nigma (then played under the Team Liquid organization) had faltered in the TI9 grand finals to OG, finishing as the runner-ups. GH while answering a question in a recent Q&A session uploaded on the team’s YouTube channel, stated that the TI9 defeat had hit them hard and everybody had taken their time to move on. GH mentioned that none of the players blamed anyone for the loss, nor there was any negativity among them. Besides this, Team Nigma’s members answered several questions including their strongest opponents and plans for the development of esports in the Middle East.

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Nigma GH and KuroKy talk about the TI9 defeat and their current strongest opponent

While talking about the TI9 loss, GH mentioned that his team’s aim is to stick together in times of winning as well as losing.

“Well our motto for the game is usually, you win together or you lose together, that’s what makes us a team. So after the loss, it hit us hard for a couple of weeks, some worse some less, but we all needed time to just relax and de-stress, take some time off and think about things. But I wouldn’t say it made us blame each other or put any negativity in our hearts, just had to adapt and accept the defeat, then try to win the next one.”

Captain, Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi, then mentioned Team Nigma’s strongest opponents at the moment. (the Q&A session was recorded before the Singapore Major 2021)

“Currently, I would say it’s Secret and Virtus.pro. Hard to choose, they are right now the top teams, but it might change. But they are the toughest opponents, at least right now.”

Team Secret and Virtus.pro, who were also considered as the favorites to win the Singapore Major, finished in the 4th and 7th-8th places respectively.
Image Via Liquipedia

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KuroKy talks about the Dota 2 talent in the MENA region

Talking about their plans to promote esports in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) regions, KuroKy mentioned that a lot of players from this region have the potential to grow into superstar players but do not get enough chances to showcase their talent. A typical example of this was the team’s support player, GH, KuroKy said.

“We do have a lot of plans. We recently, some months ago, we made a tournament, the Rising Stars one and we hope to continue doing that. My personal wish is that the MENA region gets a DPC spot in the future. I hope we can push for that and I believe there’s a lot of talented players here, they are just not given chances. The proof is my team. We have someone like GH who comes from Lebanon. Not a lot of Lebanese players are given chances, and now you can see he’s pretty much a world champion, sitting right here. There are so many issues, of course, the infrastructure, internet and travel itself, visas. Hopefully, it’s gonna become easier within the next few years. We are just hoping for goodness.”

As part of the Abu Dhabi Gaming initiative, Team Nigma had recently shifted their team headquarters to Abu Dhabi. “From Abu Dhabi, Team Nigma are set to become a driving force behind the continued growth of the Middle East’s video game and esports industry,” the collaboration statement read. 

Source: https://afkgaming.com/articles/dota2/News/7408-gh-talks-about-how-team-nigma-dealt-with-the-ti9-loss