posted by NanaKrustofski,
Group B of WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020 had possibly the most awaited match-up of the tournament: Nigma versus Fighting PandaS. It's the first time Nigma is competing at an offline tournament since their rebranding.

Envy's Drow strat works out



All three games delivered top-notch Dota but in the end, PandaS take the series 2-1.

In game one, Nigma had a slight networth advantage throughout the entire first half an hour and especially the laning stage went their way early game. With Arc Warden and Nature's Prophet, they started a classical rat-strategy that posed a rack-taking threat at first.

Despite all the throwbacks PandaS had to face, they managed to turn the game around after a complete teamwipe on Nigma. Even Jonathan Bryle 'Bryle' Santos De Guia who got destroyed lane on Shadow Fiend, dying four times in the first eight minutes ended up two-shotting heroes.

Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao's marksmanship improved tremendously: He finished Game one with a 15/1/14 score line Drow Ranger, dealing the most damage in the entire match. However, most would award the MVP to David 'Moonmeander' Tan on Disruptor. His Glimpses were near perfection and set up key kills for his carries.



Miracle unleashed



Nigma learned quickly from their fall. PandaS tried to stick to their strategy and picked the same line-up, only switching Omni Knight to Jakiro. But this time, Nigma was outclassing PandaS, who surrendered after 23 minutes.

Especially Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkawi was incredibly deadly on Ember Spirit. At 15 minutes, he already scored a Triple Kill and an Ultra Kill to end the game with a flawless 19/0/8 score line.



A storm is coming over Nigma



As in game two, Omar 'w33haa' Aliwi got his hands on one of his signature heroes again, Templar Assassin. Miracle went for a surprising Clinkz pick, but the niche pick did not work out for them.

Bryle zapped across the entire battle field with his Storm Spirit going 14/0/11, resulting in several valuable pick-offs without getting punished for it at all.

Nigma's drafting was rather experimental and might change when the tournament hits a more serious stage. But apart from Nigma's flaws in draft, PandaS simply played outstandingly well in the third game. The final series of the day is AS Monaco Gambit versus FURIA Esports; tomorrow the winner has to go against PandaS while the loser faces Nigma.





Photo credit: Valve, ESL Helena Kristiansson

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