Dota2: Nigma winning Bukovel – #2

After a bumpy group phase and difficult playoffs, Nigma made the final at WePlay! Bukovel Minor.

Sunday night the first Minor Event 2020 came to an end, which should remain in the memory of many fans because of the incredibly high quality of play and the one or other surprise.

Nigma only narrowly escaped being eliminated several times during the tournament and managed to perform miracles at times.

Final at eye level

Even though RNG was the favourite for the final, the spectators and experts knew that it was going to be a duel at eye level. Nigma, whose core team has been playing together for almost three years, showed mental strength with their double run over the lower bracket and should not let themselves be beaten in the final.

Right in the first game, “Kuroky” finished the draft with a hero who hadn’t been seen for a long time, but who had been known as a match-winner before. Alchemist on “Miracle-” it should be. And even though the initial phase didn’t look wrong with an interim lead of 10,000 gold, RNG managed to take the wind out of the line-up’s sails. With a final score of 28-12, the Chinese team let Nigma bleed out in the end. Only two kills in the last 17 minutes of the game were scored by the top European team, which directly caused a deja vu to the last game of the two.

Map 2 also looked very good for the Chinese team at first, and again it was “Monet” on the Lifestealer with a strong performance. Two sides of the base had already fallen, and RNG withdrew with almost 30,000 gold lead to regroup. Nigma showed nerves of steel here once again. They took advantage of the tactical retreat and managed to take out RNG Gao “Setsu” Zhenxiong’s midfielder to buy some more time.

As soon as he was alive again, they started a smoke gang to load another pick-off. The new divine rapier of “Miracle-” did a great job and right in front of RNG’s base a decisive fight ensued in which Nigma reduced the gold advantage to only 10.000. From here on Nigma took the lead in the game more and more and after an incredible fight in the base of RNG, Nigma was able to equalize 1:1 after an incredible 80 minutes.

In the third game, the previous favourite RNG seemed to be broken. Game 3 was already over after just 23 minutes, and Nigma was now leading 2-1. But Royal Never Give Up showed that your name is also part of the game. After the last game, which was by far the weakest of the team on this minor, another demonstration of power followed.

Until the 51st minute, a lead of almost 40.000 gold was built up, but then the probably biggest surprise of the minor happened. RNG made a mistake in positioning and let the combination of Ivan “MinD_Control” catch Ivanov’s Darkseer and Maroun “gh” Merhej’s Earthshaker and was completely wiped out.

That was enough for Nigma to find his way back into a nearly lost game. Despite this feat of strength, RNG did not give up the game and repeatedly gained a 40,000 gold lead, including an Aegis on Monet’s Spectre.

They even managed to secure another side to Rax, but from here on Nigma thwarted RNG’s orderly retreat. “Monet lost the Aegis, and his life and Nigma made a decisive push through the middle for a game of decisive play. With “Miracle-” as a decoy, they managed to challenge RNG to a fight and focused all their firepower on the newly repurchased Spectre from “Monet”.

When it fell, Nigma was allowed to turn the almost certain defeat into a victory. The team didn’t let up and still ended the game behind with 13,000 gold and secured the ticket to Leipzig after two almost impossible comebacks.

There Nigma will fight next week together with 15 other teams for a total of 1.000.000 US dollars.