On June 15 2020 02:54 midou wrote:
I have not been following dota and nigma so much in the last year, just the big tournaments.
Why did they replace Matu with W33 when they pick viper/pugna mid all the time...

Because they can now also pick TA / Windrunner / Meepo

juuto

809 Posts

June 16 2020 01:52 GMT

#262

I appreciated their showmatches today. They, for the most part, managed to be a decent mix between pure silliness and seriousness. The matches were all enjoyable and I'm glad they made it a bunch of fun without it being completely lopsided one way over the other. Completely trolling or completely stomping your tournament winners isn't in a good taste so I'm happy with what I saw.

Rufus Dupres

Germany1071 Posts

June 27 2020 11:26 GMT

#263

First grand final in a long time. Epicenter is truly their tournament since the first iteration, Kuro and MC have been attending each grand final, five times in a row now. Kuro also getting better with every game and has a strong impact as a Pos. 5. Hope they are not having their day off at the grand final.

juuto

809 Posts

June 27 2020 14:03 GMT

#264

I haven't been so hyped in a very long time, Nigma are shaking the meta with their picks, and they actually made it to the grand finals through the Upper Bracket for once. It's so rare for them to win more than one Upper Bracket series, you almost always expect them drop to the Lower Bracket at some point.

Kuro definitely is looking like a star player himself lately. I hope they keep it up and don't lose this momentum.

Toc1982

5 Posts

June 28 2020 19:40 GMT

#265

Haven't seen a pos 1 run in 1 v 5 and die that many times ever...again...then again...and again.... and why not one more time. At least the rest only then trained in 1 at a time afterwards like 1/2 the time...

juuto

809 Posts

June 28 2020 19:59 GMT

#266

Laziness strikes again for Nigma.

Puppey has been working for years to be on top of his game mechanically while Kuro has just now started trying to catch up after years of neglect. Kuro is just far too behind Puppey for him to catch up in skill level this soon. Puppey is no longer just a captain, he is a star player on the same level as Nisha, Zai, and Matumbaman. The reason for Secret's dominance is obvious when you see a captain as incredibly skilled and impactful as Puppey while other captains cannot compare.

Keep practicing Kuro. They did well to get here but it's not enough.

derElbe

Germany571 Posts

June 30 2020 14:31 GMT

#267

Why so negative?
This was a good tournament and everything seems good to go further.

Go Nigma!

Looking for merch!

Rufus Dupres

Germany1071 Posts

June 30 2020 14:57 GMT

#268

Yeah, Game 1 and 2 were very winnable. Game 1 Secret dragged it out so much and not giving Nigma the game winning fight till their two cores were strong enough to ignore the six-slotted Gyro and just kill everybody else. Game 2 lies actually on the shoulder of Miracle, if he went for the Abyssal instead of the Satanic like Matu did in Game 3, I am pretty sure they would have closed out the game + the pickoff on him at Radiant Mid T2 into a teamwipe brought Secret back into that game.

I am pretty sure except of Secret, they would have won against any other Team(in their current forms) these two games. Secret was just able to punish Nigma for the slightest mistake so goddamn heavy. At least Nigma was competetive in two out of three games. Latest at TI Nigma got Secret´s number again and drop them out of the tournament.

juuto

809 Posts

July 01 2020 19:16 GMT

#269

On June 30 2020 23:31 derElbe wrote:
Why so negative?
This was a good tournament and everything seems good to go further.

Go Nigma!

Looking for merch!

Can you really ever be too negative towards a team that before a pandemic couldn't qualify for tournaments?

Rufus Dupres

Germany1071 Posts

July 02 2020 07:54 GMT

#270

They did not qualify for one Major/Minor-circle in the most stacked area. Yes, same was disappointing as well as the results afterwards, but they have won two LANs in 2020 before the lockdown which also included a full reverse sweep against Secret, so you are exaggerating a little bit. As of last, they are slowly grinding their way back to the top, their showings are getting better with less hiccups against on paper lower skilled/experienced teams.

juuto

809 Posts

July 03 2020 06:22 GMT

#271

I'm going to need more than a singular month of results for me to be happy with just 2nd place. It is the most stacked region but Secret doesn't seem to have a problem with it, Nigma has beaten Secret plenty of times which is probably the only thing they're consistent about.

Personally, I just don't think they're currently a team worth being "positive" about. I like to stay on the realistic side because putting myself into a positivity bubble that constantly bursts due to Nigma's completely hot to cold track record just isn't possible. There was a time when these players were a consistent team up until their TI win. I can't say I don't want those days back.

I don't even need Secret levels of complete dominance but consistency would be a start.

lasl

Romania21 Posts

July 29 2020 19:23 GMT

#272

Almost always on the same page today. The first map vs Alliance aside, high fluency (and fun) games today from the boys! Keep it up, boys!

Rufus Dupres

Germany1071 Posts

July 31 2020 18:41 GMT

#273

Well, they did great despite missing Kuro as their ingame-leader. Did not believe they would make it.

Strong and solid drafts except that little experimental Jakiro mid which nearly worked out as well. Teamfight coordination on point, nearly perfect usage of all spells in their games.

I think they strongly benefit of the new ban/drafting phase. They will always get someone on a comfort hero. You cannot allow them to get Io, you cannot give them the Phoenix/Void-combo. W33´s bat is first phase ban material as well as he is just ruining the laning of the opponent mid player and create chaos afterwards so that Miracle can farm his items.

GH played out of his mind...Rubick, Clockwerk, Phoenix, Io...truly the MVP of this tournament. I would have loved to see them play against Secret.

rmn played amazing...if Kuro is ever consider to retire, rmn looks like a perfect fit for this squad. Should give them quite the confidence boost for the Omega-League in two weeks.

Archeon

3275 Posts

August 02 2020 01:20 GMT

#274

It's kinda interesting to see GH move into a 3.5 position similar to Yapzor. My impression is that rmn plays quite a bit less selfish than Kuro, which gives GH more space. Nigma is a team that normally has 4 core players and w33 and my takeaway is that they do better with less greedy drafts.

Also interesting to see how much impact fatal bonds had during the lane, I always knew the spell was strong, but Nigma really won some safelanes vs alliance I didn't see them win.

Tbf exhaustion was obviously a factor for alliance, Limp dying to 10 napalm stacks and the offlane feding first blood to warlock + spectre were just some of the crasser outliers. Still a great performance.

Sapaio

Denmark2037 Posts

August 02 2020 10:20 GMT

#275

For me they look the best in a very long time. GH was in top form better than in a long time. And W33 just seem to fit in with his playstyle and heroes. Not sure if it's something with Rmn instead of Kuro. But this edition felt like a unit.

Rufus Dupres

Germany1071 Posts

August 03 2020 08:50 GMT

#276

On August 02 2020 10:20 Archeon wrote:
It's kinda interesting to see GH move into a 3.5 position similar to Yapzor. My impression is that rmn plays quite a bit less selfish than Kuro, which gives GH more space. Nigma is a team that normally has 4 core players and w33 and my takeaway is that they do better with less greedy drafts.

True, guess same is the benefit when W33 is playing bat rider, he basically need only one/two items to stay relevant for a whole game giving your other players the option to soak up some farm. I was astonished that rmn got also a decent farm on his heroes. It felt like he was never below the enemy pos. 5 and just like the Secret-supp duo he was having at least one item around the 20 min mark, either a force staff or a Vlads to help his team.

Rufus Dupres

Germany1071 Posts

August 11 2020 13:34 GMT

#277

Kuro still not fully recovered, so presume we will see rmn one more time. Hope they have been able to keep their good form and give us another strong showing and maybe even end the reign of Team Secret.

juuto

809 Posts

September 03 2020 17:03 GMT

#278

Man, I hope this isn't seriously the last tournament we have in a long time. Without Kuro, this squad is just a glorified pubstack. It's not a big deal obviously due to the lack of captain but damn, there's just games where their decision just don't make any sense at all. All they have going for them is high skill.

Archeon

3275 Posts

September 04 2020 13:38 GMT

#279

Considering their recent results that doesn't ring true at all to me. They got first in a pretty stacked group and got first and second in the last two tournaments they played in.

Now they loose one match against likely one of the strongest teams in the scene and it's all "Nigma sucks" again.

Rufus Dupres

Germany1071 Posts

September 05 2020 11:04 GMT

#280

True, if they make it to Top3, same is still a success considering that they still did not have any bootcamp + playing without their shotcaller and drafter. OG just came out from a bootcamp, would be worrying for OG if they could not beat a team playing with a stand-in and without any decent practice(as admitted by the players during one of the interviews).