Nigma steal one from Secret with last-minute Hail Mary backdoor

Team Nigma overcame a 38,000 gold deficit with some sneaky backdoor maneuvers to defeat Team Secret in game one of their marquee matchup at the WeSave! Charity Play online charity tournament.

Nigma opened the series with a mobile and hard-hitting lineup headlined by two glass cannon carries in Riki for Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi and a mid Silencer for Aliwi “w33” Omar, with Ivan “MinD_ControL” Ivanov on Clockwerk, Maroun “GH” Merhej on Io, and Kuro Salehi “Kuroky” Takhasomi on Grimstroke.

Secret countered their opponents’ carry Riki pick with an offlane Bounty Hunter for Ludwig “zai” Wahlberg, who also comprised a strong tri-core with Wraith King for Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen and Ember Spirit for Michal “Nisha” Jankowski. Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat was on a support Mirana and Clement “Puppey” Ivanov on Keeper of the Light to back them up.

While Secret came out of the laning phase with a significant gold lead, Nigma utterly dominated the teamfights well into the midgame. Miracle notably led the way for his team by notching a whopping 15 kills by the 28-minute mark.

Even if they were down in kills, Secret was able to further grow their gold lead and win a huge clash for control of the Roshan pit at the 36-minute mark. While Nigma lost that Rosh fight, they were able to sneakily secure the Aegis a couple of minutes later and use it to take down a lane of barracks up top by the 42-minute mark.

With Secret down one lane of barracks but now having the edge over Nigma in the fights, Matumbaman picked up a Divine Rapier at the 43-minute mark that won his team another huge clash. Secret couldn’t capitalize on that won fight, however, as their Ancient was repeatedly being threatened by super creeps pushing in from the top lane.

Secret continued to dominate the ensuing fights and even took a lane of barracks at mid by the 49-minute mark. However, Nigma deftly used their support Io’s Relocate ultimate to teleport w33 and GH and threaten their opponents’ Ancient.

Secret continued to look unstoppable in a head-on fight and were bearing down on Nigma’s barracks at the bottom lane. However, Miracle was able to sneak into Secret’s base and, together with w33 and GH who Relocated in, destroy their Ancient to steal the win after 52 minutes.

Miracle notched a stellar 18/3/15 KDA to lead his team to that improbable game one victory. Nigma went on to dominate in game two to secure the series sweep over Secret.

With their victory, Nigma extend their winning streak over Secret to five games when counting their reverse sweep to win the Grand Finals of WePlay! Tug of War: Mad Moon last month.

Nigma will face Team Liquid next at WeSave! Charity Play’s European Semifinals to see who will represent their region at the EU-versus-CIS Finals.