Team Nigma’s star carry duo of Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi and Aliwi “w33” Omar led their team to victory over rising CIS squad, Cyber Legacy, in an action-packed game three of their group stage matchup at the ESL One Los Angeles EU-CIS online regional league.

Nigma dominated their opponents to open the series, but Cyber Legacy bounced back in game two to force the match to a deciding game three with all the momentum on their side.

The CIS squad looked to take it late with a Spectre for Nikita “Palantimos” Grinkevich, while Yaroslav “Pikachu” Vasylenko was put on a mid Dazzle, stand-in offlaner Oleg “LastHero” Demidovich was on Axe,
Danil “Bignum” Shehovtsov was on Phoenix, and Sergey “HappyDyurara” Horonzhiy was on Lich to back up their hard carry.

Meanwhile, Nigma didn’t back down from a late game contest by running with a tri-core of Riki for Miracle, Outworld Devourer for w33, an offlane Void Spirit for Ivan “MinD_ControL” Ivanov, Earth Spirit for Maroun “GH” Merhej, and Keeper of the Light for Kuro Salehi “Kuroky” Takhasomi.

Cyber Legacy handily won the laning phase, but Nigma grouped up early to apply a lot of pressure on their opponents’ side of the map and impede the progression of Palantimos’ Spectre.

Nigma looked like they were in control heading into the midgame when a fortuitous Double Damage rune pickup for Miracle led to four kills for his team deep in their enemy’s side of the map. However, Cyber Legacy then grabbed the lead by winning a huge fight at the 22-minute mark, where the reveal of Palantimos’ Radiance allowed them to take down w33 despite him having Aghanim’s Scepter and a 10-second Black King Bar charge.

While Nigma were able to hold against Cyber Legacy’s escalating aggression, the CIS squad rolled them over in back-to-back teamfights at the 33 and 37-minute marks to further cement their lead.

Despite Nigma’s best attempts to contest their ensuing Roshan attempt, Cyber Legacy were able to secure the Aegis of the Immortal for Pikachu’s Dazzle as the CIS squad looked to close the series out.

While Nigma’s lineup looked like it had lost all steam just as their enemies were peaking in strength, they somehow turned things around in a huge clash by their tier two tower at the top lane at the 41-minute mark.

In that critical engagement, the CIS squad was able to take down Miracle and started diving into Nigma’s base to press their advantage. However, Nigma’s carry bought back and re-engaged just as Cyber Legacy overextended, securing a team wipe and allowing his team to take down their opponents’ barracks at the middle lane at the 43-minute mark.

While Nigma did gain momentum, Cyber Legacy still had arguably the strongest hero in the game in Palantimos’ Spectre and just needed to get the right initiation to take a fight that could still win them the game.

In what ended up as the last clash of the series, w33 duped Cyber Legacy into initiating on an illusion he got from a rune to give his team a huge opening. In the chaos of that fight, Miracle was able to keep Bignum silenced and unable to use his ultimate, which then allowed w33 to secure an Ultra Kill. With Cyber Legacy’s heroes left without buybacks, Nigma was left free to end the game after an action-packed 48 minutes.

Miracle notched a 17/6/19 KDA while w33 had 14/5/10 in a slugfest that ended with the kill score at 43-32 in favor of Nigma.

After the hard-fought series, both Nigma and Cyber Legacy now hold a 1-1 record in Group A of the ESL One Los Angeles EU-CIS online regional league group stage. They will continue their campaigns on April 8, with Nigma taking on Gambit Esports and Cyber Legacy facing Virtus.pro.

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