MinD_ContRoL returns to Nigma Galaxy – only as a stand-in due to visa issues

Nigma Galaxy has run into visa issues before they head off to FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2 later this month. Although the team is not involved in BLAST Slam IV, their preparations for the upcoming event have been stunted. While Nigma is still without a full roster, after the departure of Maroun “GH” Merhej, the team brought in a trial player. However, have now been forced to find two stand-ins for the upcoming FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2.

Although technically Nigma might not have a complete roster, the team has been doing quite well with Daniel Chan “Ghost” Kok Hong playing alongside them. While he continues to do so, with Tobias “Tobi” Buchner as a trial support, things will be fairly different when FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2 comes along. Unfortunately for the team, with the event being held in Belgrade, Serbia, two of their players were met with visa issues.

In a post made via their X account, Nigma stated that visa issues would prevent both Omar “OmaR” Moughrabi and Tony “No!ob” Assaf from attending the upcoming event. However, in their places would be Kirill "Hellscream" Lagutik, as well as Ivan "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov.

While Hellscream is most well-known for his recent time with Shopify Rebellion, Mind_Control will finally be reunited with Kuro Salehi “KuroKy” Takhasomi. Having not played together since 2023, when MC departed from Nigma, the two have been through a lot together. Back at TI7, the two, alongside GH, were part of the Team Liquid roster that lifted the Aegis of Champions together.

While the reuniting of the two players is something many anticipate being fantastic news, it may be short-lived. As a stand-in, it is unlikely that MC will remain with Nigma beyond FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2. With the current roster delivering fairly decent results, Nigma may return to their original duo after the event. With two more events on the horizon, MC's return might be a surprise in the making for the Nigma faithful. However, for now, we will have to see how the team fares with two stand-ins.

The full Nigma Galaxy roster for FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2 is:

With only a few days to practice together, Nigma might have a tough time at their upcoming event. We now wait to see if more teams will suffer a similar fate as Nigma with visa issues.