Cover-Credits:
The first match of today’s Western European (WEU) Regional Qualifiers turned out to be a heartbreaker for Nigma Galaxy fans as the team has now been eliminated from the International 2022 (TI11) Western European (WEU) Qualifiers and will not be able to make it to Singapore. Team Secret, on the other hand, just needs to win one more series to secure a spot in the Last Chance qualifiers and two more to directly book a place in the TI11 Group Stages.
Despite Nigma Galaxy’s efforts to win the series after an impressive performance in Game Two, Team Secret ended up dominating Game Three to secure the series 2-1 and advance in the Lower Bracket.
Team Secret vs Nigma Galaxy: Match recap
Kuro "KuroKy" Takhasomi has eliminated Clement "Puppey" Ivanov’s team at least thrice in previous TIs. But with both teams needing a win to stay alive to just get to TI11, the stakes were very high.
Game One
Team Secret started its draft by picking up Monkey King for Remco "Crystallis" Arets and Slark for Michał "Nisha" Jankowski. Nigma Galaxy opted for stability in the draft, picking up Pudge in the safelane and Batrider in the mid lane before giving Ivan "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov his signature hero, Nature’s Prophet in the offlane.
While Nigma Galaxy dominated the early game, Team Secret were one step ahead of them in the mid-game portions as constant rotations from Baqyt "Zayac" Emiljanov’s Tusk allowed Secret to pick off Nigma Galaxy’s heroes one by one. In the late game, Secret managed to win critical teamfights thanks to Crystallis’s Monkey King and Roman "Resolut1on" Fomynok’s Enigma, claiming Game One after 52 minutes.
Game Two
With elimination on the line, Nigma Galaxy drafted a more aggressive lineup, picking up Bloodseeker for the safe lane, Leshrac in the mid lane and a position five Primal Beast for Kuro "KuroKy" Takhasomi. Team Secret on the other hand went for Dragon Knight in the offlane and Kunkka in the mid lane while also retaining Crystallis’s Monkey King.
Things started to go well on the side of Nigma Galaxy with Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi’s Bloodseeker and Syed "SumaiL" Hassan’s Leshrac having a good laning phase. But, a few mistakes from Nigma Galaxy almost cost them the game as Secret managed to close the gap in terms of net worth deficit in the late game. However, clutch play from SumaiL on the Leshrac allowed Nigma to win the deciding teamfight as it closed Game Two at the 50th minute mark, leveling the series 1-1.
Game Three
With no more room for mistakes, both teams drafted very aggressive lineups. Nigma Galaxy drafted Spectre, Batrider and Leshrac as the core lineup, while Team Secret picked up Slark, Pangolier and Death Prophet.
Team Secret went on to dominate the early game, as Nigma Galaxy’s laning phase went badly to the point where Team Secret just decided to dive deep into Nigma’s territory to pick off its heroes one by one. The game ended up with Team Secret’s victory, with Nigma Galaxy slowly bleeding out one kill after the other to end the game at a 6-45 kill scoreline.
Following the win, Team Secret will move on in the Lower Bracket as it awaits the winner of the match between goonsquad and Into The Breach. However for KuroKy and Nigma Galaxy, their TI11 journey will end here.
