Mind Control Tests Positive For COVID-19, Will Miss Singapore Major

Mind Control, Nigma's offlaner, has tested positive for COVID-19 and will hence miss the Singapore Major according to the team's official social media handles. Ivan Borislavov "Mind Control" Ivanov is the fifth player missing the Singapore Major due to an illness after Natsumi-, MSS, Iceberg, and ALWAYSWANNAFLY were previously announced to not be competing in the tournament due to this circumstance. Mind Control will be replaced by Nigma's coach Roman "rmN-" Paley for this tournament.

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Mind Control will be replaced by rmN- for the ONE Esports Singapore Major

According to Nigma, Mind Control was feeling sick before the team started their preparations and hence did not join the team's Bootcamp in Jordan. Following this, the player tested positive for COVID-19 which has restricted him from traveling to the Singapore Major. Hence Nigma will be playing with a Stand-in at the first major of the 2021 DPC season. Coach rmN- will be stepping in as a stand-in for the team at the Major. 

This is not the first time rmN- is playing as a stand-in for Nigma. Previously, he stood in for KuroKy at several tournaments like ESL One Germany 2020 and OGA Dota PIT S3: Europe/CIS since the latter was nursing and recovering from an arm injury.

With him in the lineup, Nigma had fairly successful results. They won the OGA Dota PIT S2: Europe/CIS and secured a Top 3 finish at the OMEGA League: Europe Immortal Division. However, the player was playing in the Position 5 role back then. Nigma will likely have to do some role-swaps at the Singapore Major, to accommodate rmN-. 

Nigma's full roster competing at the Singapore Major will be:

1. Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi
2. Aliwi "w33" Omar
3. Roman "rmN-" Paley
4. Maroun "GH" Merhej
5. Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi

In addition to Mind Control and the other four players missing the first major of the new DPC season due to illness, commentator Ioannis "Fogged" Loucas will also not be traveling to the tournament after his partner tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.

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Consisting a total of 18 teams, the ONE Esports Singapore Major will feature a total of $500,000 USD in prize money and 2,700 DPC points that will be split among the top eight teams only. The champion of the Major will be taking home a sum of $200,000 and 500 points.