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OG bounced back from the lower brackets of Dota 2 EU qualifiers with a 2-1 victory against Nigma.
The OG dream of a TI hat-trick lives on. Their road to TI is now blocked only by Tundra Esports, who have proven to be a formidable thorn in their side. So far, Tundra Esports have not lost a single Dota2 match in the qualifiers. However, a battle-hardened OG squad might also have some tricks up their sleeves to secure their ticket to the ultimate Dota 2 tournament.
Nigma is among the newest Dota 2 teams among the European ‘heavyweights’
Previously, the same stack played in Team Liquid colors under Kuro ‘KuroKy’ Salehi Takhasomi’s leadership. But the fact that they formed in 2019 does not put them in the same row as other younger teams like Hellbear Smashers or Vikin.gg. Incidentally, Nigma’s last series before the OG matchup was against their former team.
As good as the new Liquid roster is, they could not hold their ground against one of Dota’s most star-studded stacks. All five of their players are among the finest of Dota 2 in their respective positions, especially Amer ‘Miracle’ Al-Barkawi.
In fact, this is the first time that Nigma captain, KuroKy, will not attend The International, the premiere Dota 2 annual championship. KuroKy’s drafting was a big factor behind their 2017 TI victory back when they were Team Liquid. In 2021, Kuroky is no longer the top drafter on the pro scene. Case in point, Nigma's game plan seemed to waver a lot back in the last Dota 2 Major.
In any case, Nigma arguably performed better in the ongoing qualifier games than they did in the AniMajor. They adapted well to OG’s trending stack-farming Alchemist game plan, which lost them their upper bracket encounter with OG the day before.
The first game of today’s series was among the most picture-perfect games in Nigma’s recent history. There was only so much OG could do after a double rampage from Miracle. In game 2, Nigma even tried to replicate the OG strategy with a surprise Alchemist pick on Ivan ‘MinD_ContRoL’ Ivanov, instead of respect-banning it.
But even with all that mental lead, the result of the series was a repeat of yesterday's Nigma vs OG ‘el clasico.'
Other than Syed ‘SumaiL’ Sumail Hassan’s sheer competence as a carry, part of the OG comeback formula was Topias ‘Topson’ Taavitsainen, who demolished Miracle’s mid Ember with an off-meta Windranger.
His dominating Razor in the third game was also reminiscent of Leo ‘Nine’ Kirilin’s Razor from game 2 of Tundra Esports vs OG, which dropped them down to the loser’s finals to begin with.
Nigma might have been pushed out of TI, but they went out in style. As expected, OG vs Nigma was a tight fixture between two Dota 2 giants, where both sides pushed their limits. In an ideal universe, a lenient DPC system would even allow both OG and Nigma to fight in TI.
