Team Nigma have won the WePlay! Bukovel Dota 2 Minor, securing their spot in DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major. The best-of-five Grand Final saw the European squad take down Royal Never Give Up with a 3-1 scoreline. Along with a ticket to Leipzig, this victory awards Nigma 140 Dota Pro Circuit points and the $72,000 first-place prize.
Royal Never Give Up took an early lead in game one as Xue “September” Zhichuan claimed the opening kill on Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov. The game swayed back-and-forth, RNG racing to five kills before Aliwi “w33” Omar and Maroun “GH” Merhej pushed Nigma to nine. RNG stole back the momentum as Gao “Setsu” Zhenxiong found a double kill. Nigma’s gold advantage dwindled before a team fight allowed them to take Roshan, Su “Flywin” Lei stealing the Aegis of the Immortal as the game hit 30 minutes. RNG pushed forward, Setsu and Du “Monet” Peng securing the victory in 38 minutes.
Game two’s first blood went to Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi, the Batrider helping Nigma take a quick 4-1 kill lead. September found RNG’s second kill, though Nigma reached a 12-4 lead as they pushed into Radiant territory. The gold swelled in RNG’s favor as the kills evened up at the 40-minute mark. RNG took Roshan before pushing into the Dire base, reaching a 30k gold lead as Nigma held them off. RNG’s gold fell fast as Nigma found the kills they needed, w33 taking the next Aegis as the game neared one hour. The momentum swayed in Nigma’s favor as they pushed towards the base, RNG holding the European mix off before taking another Roshan. The final brawl soon took over RNG’s base, and Nigma evened the series score with an 81-minute victory.
RNG’s Flywin kicked off game three with first blood. Trades favored Nigma as the European side raced to a 4-2 kill lead, GH extending their lead with three more kills. Nigma held on to the gold advantage as RNG tried to fight into the game, the Chinese side trailing behind as Nigma pushed forward. Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi bought all the space his team needed, the Phantom Lancer reaching eleven kills as Nigma closed out the game in 23 minutes.
Now just one game away from victory, Nigma found three fast kills at the start of game four. RNG recovered quickly, finding five kills of their own. The gold swelled in the Chinese team’s favor as they maintained a kill lead. A game five seemed certain as RNG took control of the map, reaching a 40k gold lead at the 50-minute mark. Efforts from Miracle- and MinD_ContRoL held off the push, allowing Nigma to make their own way forward. The game flipped back-and-forth before Nigma went for a bold push, their confidence paying off as they took the series win after 64 minutes.
Team Nigma have taken the last remaining spot in the $1,000,000 DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major, which is set to begin on January 18th in Leipzig, Germany.
