Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov has officially returned to competitive Dota 2 after a prolonged retirement. His debut at European Pro League Season 26 marks his first pro match after three years since late-2022 when he announced his departure from competitive Dota 2.
Nikobaby returns to pro Dota 2 at European Pro League S26 (Image credit: Nikobaby)
Make way for Nikobaby
The Bulgarian Dota 2 player is one of the most celebrated players during his pro career days. His impressive skills at the hard carry role along with his intimidating playstyle leaves both fans and opponents alike in awe. Hence, how he earned his alternate nickname as the ‘Shark’.
Some of his best feats include his time in Mineski, where he won ninth place and $686K in winnings as a team in the International 2019 (TI9). And as part of Alliance from 2019-2020, where the team was a staple in major Dota 2 tournaments, up to the point where they won ninth again at the International 2020 (TI10) and $800K in winnings. Although Nikobaby’s achievements may not be of TI-winning level, there’s no doubt that Nikobaby is a phenomenal Dota 2 player.
Nikobaby and Team Level UP
Fast forward to the present, Nikobaby is now playing for Team Level UP with several promising allies by his side. Most notably, Nicolas “Gunnar” Lopez, who has his roots as Nouns Esports‘ player and Kim “DuBu” Doo-young, who is also just as accomplished, having played competitively for over a decade.
The rest of the line-up includes Danial “xsvampire” Alibaev, as the support player and Matin “Matson” v., an emerging young blood that will play the mid-player role. It’s not every day we see a team of seasoned veterans let an unnamed talent take up the mid lane, so this is an interesting line-up.
First look at Nikobaby and Team Level UP at EPL Season 26
We managed to get a glimpse of how Nikobaby and his team performed at EPL Season 26 versus Apple City Gang. Unfortunately, it was a disappointing game as their opponent stomped them.
Although Nikobaby remained a decent hard carry player in the first game, it felt like the rest of his team weren’t able to keep up against their opponents’ faster pace. We saw Matson getting completely shut down despite securing early items as a mid-lane Tiny. And as the game progressed, his role as the team’s initiator was irrelevant and unimpactful. In the second game, things went downhill from the beginning as Team Level UP lost all their lanes, and ACG’s mid-game drafts that has Templar Assassin and Tusk, completely overwhelmed their opponent.
Note that this team’s average Dota 2 rank is between 13000-14000 MMR, but we don’t have details on Matson’s MMR besides his rank being Immortal rank 88 at the time of this publishing. Nevertheless, the gist of it is Team Level UP is supposed to be a team of high calibre, that they are expected to be in the same league as the big boys, such as Team Liquid, PARIVISION and Team Falcons, to name a few.
Yet, here they are, losing to a stack of nobodies in the European Pro League S26. They say every team has to start somewhere, so here they are, participating in a minor tournament, like the EPL Season 26. But if this is the performance they are delivering on their debut day, then they have a lot to work on before attempting any major upcoming Dota 2 tournaments in 2025.