Despite Team Liquid’s failure to win The International 2023, the core of Boxi, iNSaNiA, and miCKe carved their names in Dota 2 history in another way via a record that probably won’t be beaten for years.
During their second match against Talon Esports in the upper bracket quarterfinals, they marked their 1,119th game together—matching the record once held only by Team Nigma’s GH, KuroKy, and MinD_ContRoL.
Their journey didn’t stop there, either. By the time they lost against Gaimin Gladiators in the lower bracket quarterfinals and were eliminated from the event, they had surpassed the record by six games.
Their win-loss ratio isn’t as impressive, unfortunately. In the 1,125 games they’ve played together, they’ve racked up 624 wins and 501 losses according to data compiled by datdota. This doesn’t quite match up to Team Nigma’s trio, who have 670 wins against 449 losses. Still, it takes nothing away from their achievement.
Other combinations of the same Nigma lineup hold the third, fourth, and fifth spots in the record books, really pushing home the longevity of the Nigma core. The next closest is the iconic Alliance trio from days long past—Akke, AdmiralBulldog, and Loda—followed by 9pasha, Noone, and Solo who dominated for years with Virtus.Pro.
Team Liquid might feel let down by their fifth-place finish at TI 2023, and with rostermania season upon us, a shuffle is never out of the question. Yet, there’s a good chance Boxi, iNSaNiA, and miCKe might continue playing together for another season or more. If they do, their record could be unbeaten for a long time—possibly forever.
They might never be able to close the gap to the duo record, though. INSaNiA and MiCKe have played the most games together out of the trio—1,219, to be exact—but this number still falls short of the staggering 1,755 games played together by Chinese duo BoBoKa and Xxs.
