KheZu assessed the level of play by lorenof and Nigma Galaxy at The International 2026

One of lorenof’s strengths is that he doesn’t overdo it with pressure. He strikes a very good balance between applying pressure on the lane and maximizing his own farm. He didn’t even buy Boots [on the first map against Vici Gaming]. SF was killed, and lorenof’s first priority is to get the Ring of Health [on Viper] so his health bar stays high and he doesn’t have to waste money on Tango and other items.

He also doesn’t max out Poison Attack to level three. They’d already killed SF once with it at level two. This lets him plan ahead: by 8:30, he’ll have level-three Nethertoxin and will be able to steal stacks while farming the creep wave at the same time. This is exactly what allows him to earn so much. We call these camps [in the Dark side’s forest between the top and mid lanes] “lorenof camps.” And rightly so. In most games, he finds a very early window to farm them.

lorenof was perhaps one of the most impressive players of this tournament for me. This is largely due to his support role, and I’d say that everyone on Nigma is playing incredibly well.

First and foremost, I’d like to highlight GH, because when you think back to this player during TI 7, his Io and KotL were always banned. They were unstoppable—you’d lose every match where you let them play. And now they’re reaching a similar level of dominance. If you look at the team’s last two games against Team Spirit, they banned Io and KotL in the first phase, but in the end, they couldn’t handle his Winter Wyvern.

Look at what happened in the second game: they banned Io, KotL, and Winter Wyvern, but it didn’t help because he found a replacement—Dazzle. Dazzle works very well with many of the heroes the team flexes. They often pick Winter Wyvern or Dazzle alongside Ember. These are combinations that Nigma should keep an eye on in their future games.

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I like what Nigma is doing. In my opinion, they have a decent chance. In my opinion, the Falcons are better than them, but if Nigma can stick to this strategy, if they find a way to get what they want and play the way they want, and continue to show this style of play, then they have very, very good chances in the playoffs.