Team Nigma opened their group stage campaign at the OMEGA League European Immortal Division with a convincing 2-1 win over Alliance.
Nigma’s superstar carry player, Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi, was once again instrumental in Nigma’s victory as they enter their second-straight tournament with team captain Kuro Salehi “Kuroky” Takhasomi sidelined due to injury.
Nigma opened the series with a four-protect-one strategy headlined by Arc Warden for Miracle, which Alliance countered with a strong midgame tri-core of Clinkz for Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov, Void Spirit for Linus “Limmp” Blomdin, and Doom for Gustav “s4” Magnusson.
Alliance led for much of the early-to-midgame thanks to the earlier timing of their draft, but Miracle had an excellent time farming and was able to maintain a net worth advantage of over 10,000 gold on his counterparts.
Once Alliance was past their peak, Miracle used the item advantage he earned from his massive gold lead to take over the teamfights for Nigma.
Despite Alliance’s best efforts to defend, their lineup simply couldn’t stand up to the absurd damage output from Miracle’s Arc Warden, who notched a triple Rampage as Nigma took game one after 45 minutes.
Both Miracle and Nikobaby recorded game-high 17 kills, but Nigma’s superstar carry player ended the game with just two deaths, a massive 42,500 net worth, and the win.
Alliance quickly bounced back in game two behind Nikobaby’s Morphling, as they utterly shut down Nigma midlaner, Aliwi “w33” Omar to tie up the series in just 25 minutes.
Both teams looked to take the series decider in the late game, with Alliance running it back with Nikobaby on Morphling while Nigma had Miracle on Spectre.
The two sides took turns winning fights from the early-to-midgame, though Nigma came out ahead of those exchanges as Nikobaby was repeatedly getting picked off.
While Nigma already had full control of the map by the 40-minute mark, Alliance was somehow able to defend what could have been a 45-minute game-ending push and take four huge kills to delay the game.
Despite their best efforts to defend, Alliance couldn’t stop wave after wave of Mega Creeps from whittling down their defenses until their Ancient was left exposed. Sensing blood in the water, Nigma threw their bodies at Alliance to finally take the series after a 53-minute slugfest.
Miracle was once again the key to his team’s victory, as he notched a series-high 20 kills with 27 assists against just four deaths in the decider.
With their win, Nigma start off their group stage campaign with a 1-0 record while Alliance are now at 1-1 after winning their first matchup against Virtus.pro.
Nigma will return to action in the OMEGA League on August 20, when they will be taking on Evil Geniuses. Meanwhile, Alliance will be having a longer break as they will go up against 5men on August 22.
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