Nigma continues to falter as they are dropped from ESL One Malaysia 2022 after a 2:0 loss in the lower brackets.
The playoffs of ESL One Malaysia 2022 continued along with the second of three elimination series. Earlier it was TSM that was sent packing.
The second series was between two "unlikely" teams. Unlikely in the terms of older fans would never have thought that the TI7 championship team would be fighting for their tournament life in the first round of the elimination series and that a South American team would be high-class contenders. But here we are, the changing landscape of Dota 2.
On the first day of the group, Thunder Awaken went 0:4 and then the new patch dropped. They adapted immediately and have a good hero pool and went on to thrive on the chaos.
Nigma has had an underwhelming year in the DPC, but this is a LAN team that feeds off the LANs, the crowd, and the energy.
Nigma GalaxyvsThunder Awaken
The first series saw a first pick of Winter Wyvern from Thunder Awaken and an early (eventually uncontested) TimberSaw pick indicating that they planned to just run at Nigma as their strategy with lots of aggression and lots of team fights.
It was Nigma that came out of the gate swinging but it wasn't a momentum they were able to maintain and TA's coordination, rotation, and aggression from midgame onwards was just overwhelming. Nigma didn't have a chance to gain any substantial ground and took the first loss.
In the second match, TA went back for the tried and true Wyvern first pick and Timbersaw early phase but then closed things out with a Sven carry.
While Nigma looked like their draft was better poised for this match, they really just couldn't seem to handle the Sven carry and were just too slow.
TA walked on the high ground, Crhistian "Pakazs" Casanova did a double rampage in the Nigma base and the GG was called out right away giving TA the 2:0 sweep.
Nigma will go home in 7-8th place with $10,000. They need to focus on their strategies, adjusting to the patch and their morale for the upcoming The International 2022 WEU qualifiers starting on September 3rd.
Thunder Awaken will continue through the lower brackets to face OG tomorrow at 06:00 CEST.
ESL One Malaysia 2022 schedule August 26th
There is one more lower bracket elimination series on the menu for today.
Up next:
ESL One Malaysia 2022
ESL One Malaysia 2022 welcomes 12 of the world's best teams to fight for the title and a share of the $400,000 prize pool.
The event will take place August 23-28 at the Arena of Stars in Resorts World Genting and is the first LAN held in Southeast Asia since late 2019 and the first premiere LAN tournament held for Dota 2 in the country since the 2018 edition of ESL One Genting.
The last three days of the event are being held in front of a live audience and GosuGamers will be on site to bring you unique content, so make sure you tune in over the weekend.