From a near-disastrous season to a top-6 finish at The International 2026: Lorenof on Nigma Galaxy's journey

Nigma Galaxy midlaner Artem Lorenof Melnyk spoke in an interview with Maurice KheZu Gutmann about his time with the team, its progress throughout the season, and the problems that prevented the squad from consistently delivering good results.

Before Melnyk joined, Nigma was going through a difficult period. According to the player, the team sometimes failed to make it through open qualifiers and finished last at tournaments. Despite this, he saw potential in the roster and believed the team could compete for a spot at The International 2026.

I thought we had potential. I trusted our first and fifth positions and believed that if I joined the team, we could make it through the qualifier. For me, the most important thing was to qualify for The International.

Lorenof joined Nigma Galaxy on June 8, replacing Tony No!ob Assaf in the midlane. At the same time, Sumail SumaiL Hassan returned to the roster, moving to the carry position and replacing Denis Rincyq Bogushev. Thus, ahead of the TI15 qualifier, the team made changes to two positions at once.

Almost immediately, Lorenof began actively sharing his vision of the game and revealed that ahead of the qualifier, the team went through around 20 days of intensive practice, taking only one day off during that period.

The team ultimately made it through the qualifiers and later finished first in its group at Esports World Cup 2026. In the playoffs, the team lost 0:2 to BetBoom Team and finished the tournament in 5th-8th place.

However, according to Melnyk, after the first good results, the team relaxed somewhat and decided too early that it had already reached a high level.

After we made the top eight, we probably thought that we had already become a really good team. We thought we were already strong enough and could just beat other teams. But it does not really work like that. You need to consistently do the right things and work very hard to perform well at every tournament.

Over time, Lorenof also became dissatisfied with certain aspects of the work within the club. He expected greater involvement in the practice process and communication from some members of the team, although he did not name anyone specifically.

At the next tournament, 1win Essence II, Nigma Galaxy failed to advance from the group after losing 0:2 to 1win Team, Vici Gaming, and Team Falcons. The team won its only map in the final series against OG, which ended 1:1. As a result, the team finished last in its group and ended the tournament in 9th-10th place.

Ahead of The International 2026, the problems continued despite the team successfully qualifying for the tournament. Nigma Galaxy showed poor results in practice, so Melnyk had little expectation of a successful performance at the biggest tournament of the year.

Before The International, we were really bad. So I did not expect us to finish high at all. But when we arrived at the tournament, I thought that we could at least make the playoffs.

Despite the difficulties ahead of the tournament, Nigma Galaxy finished TI15 in 5th-6th place. The team took second place in the group stage and defeated Team Spirit. In the playoffs, they beat Team Falcons, sending their opponent to the lower bracket, but then lost to Team Yandex and BetBoom Team and were eliminated from the tournament.

At the same time, Lorenof believes the team could have gone even further, as they had opportunities to achieve more in the decisive matches. Nevertheless, the result at TI2026 was the club's best of the entire season and stood in stark contrast to the team's form before the tournament.

Earlier, Cyberscore reported that two BetBoom Team members announced career breaks.