Once again we saw the classic Nigma lower bracket maneuver as they made their way to the top.
WePlay!’s Tug of War: Mad Moon came to a conclusion this weekend. The event gave Dota 2 fans some top tier gameplay with some of the best teams from Europe and the CIS. The two teams to meet at the grand finals were Nigma and Team Secret. This wasn’t their first rodeo in the tournament as Secret knocked Nigma down to the lower bracket earlier with a 2:1 victory. Secret then proceeded to defeat Virtus.pro and earn a spot in the final series.
In the meantime, Nigma were busy making it out of the lower bracket. Eliminating Gambit Esports first, their next opponent was VP. The Russian bears managed to take down Nigma during the group stage, but things were different in the playoffs. Nigma swept through the Russian team with a swift 2:0 and prepared to take a second shot at Team Secret.
The grand finals started really rough for Nigma, as Secret took a confident lead by winning the first two games in the series. What followed was a classic Nigma move, namely the reverse sweep to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Game four was the most contested one of the bunch while the final match of the series was essentially a stomp. Nigma finished the series with a 3:2 defeating what was considered the best team in the world right now. To make things even better the final was over with a stylish Chronosphere which completely destroyed the enemy morale.
Team Secret looked solid until this moment as they took the grand title in the DreamLeague Season 13 Leipzig Major and followed it up with an unbreakable win streak during the recent qualifiers. Mad Moon is where the titans fell and Nigma who looked shaky in the past few weeks may have finally figured themselves out.
Ladies and gentlemen your Mad Moon champions!Thanks to @WePlayEsport for such an amazing tournament.To all our fans it's been an emotional roller coaster and we couldn't have won without your love and support. Thank you to each and every one of you#StarsAligned #MadMoon pic.twitter.com/QsNbBrXtO3
— Team Nigma (@TeamNigma) February 23, 2020
The team takes home $130,000 in prize money along with the title of champions. It came as no surprise that the awards for best core and best supports also went in the way of Nigma. Maroun "GH" Merhej took the one for best support, while Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi was the undisputed carry of the event. Both netted an extra $10,000 for each of the two players.
Despite all that the true winners of it all may still be Team Secret. Nigma’s biggest victory here was getting back their confidence as a team and showing all their fans that they still got it. On a sad note, we won’t be seeing the team anytime soon in one of the official Dota Pro Circuit events as they failed to qualify for both the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor and the ESL One Los Angeles Dota 2 Major, both of which are set to take place in March. The next big event after that will be an unknown Minor at the end of April and the EPICENTER Major in early May. In any case, Nigma have earned a well-deserved break and some time to prepare for their future endeavours.
