Nigma Galaxy vs Fnatic Prediction: Battle for the upper bracket playoffs

One of Malaysia's biggest international Dota 2 tournaments, ESL One Malaysia 2022, will continue on Thursday, August 25. Nigma Galaxy and Fnatic will play in the final matches of Group B on the third game day.

ESL One Malaysia 2022 is a major international tournament in the cybersports discipline Dota 2. The tournament in Malaysia will be good training for the participating teams before the qualifications for TI11 and the event itself. From August 23 to 28, 12 teams worldwide will fight for $400,000, a prize pool almost equal to the amount played in the majors.

Nigma Galaxy: Europeans are hungry for a win

Nigma Galaxy (formerly known as Team Nigma) is a European eSports organization founded by former Team Liquid players and four of the five champions of The International 2017. After finishing 2nd at The International 2019, captain KuroKy announced his departure from Team Liquid with the idea of starting his organization. In the online era, this team was still more or less at the top of European Dota, but when it came to qualifying for TI10, many problems surfaced. The problems came even earlier. Let us remember the majors in 2021 - Singapore failed (16th place) with zero group victories, and Kyiv was no less ugly in the game, but at least it took the 5th-6th place. The qualification for TI10 ended in third place.

In 2022 things went downhill for the team. The Nigma Galaxy finished the winter tour in sixth place, in the spring in eighth, and as a result, the team was relegated to the second division. The culprit of the failure was found quickly - iLTW was kicked out of the team, and a week later, the organization pathos announced the arrival of the legendary SumaiL.

The team went through the second division in the summer tour, winning all 7 battles, giving up one map only in the last meaningless match. But is it possible to judge the team's strength by defeating teams from the second European division? I wouldn't say so. Much more important is motivation, and here the Europeans should have no problems.

Before ESL One Malaysia 2022, of course, there was no major for Nigma Galaxy. We saw the SumaiL team at the Riyadh Masters 2022 Lunar Tournament in the UAE, where Nigma Galaxy made a good showing, making the playoffs but losing in the quarterfinals to PSG.LGD, who eventually won the tournament. The motivation to win in Malaysia is plentiful, but we should not forget that the qualifications for TI11 are very soon, and it is not worth showing all their best. But the picture got worse because it became known that Miracle won't go to the tournament, and the team would play with Dreamocel, and what would come of this would be seen in the first games of the tournament.

Yes, based on the results of the first game day, we can see that the team without their leader is in trouble, but they give battle to all. On the first game day, Nigma Galaxy drew twice with TSM and Team Liquid. On the second day, they beat BOOM Esports 2-0 and had a bad loss against OG (0-2). It was a shameful defeat because they took the starting dominance on the second map. Still, after a couple of unnecessary dives, the Swedish major winners managed to get a comeback.

Fnatic: The team continues to surprise

Experts predicted Fnatic the last place in this group. Still, this team somehow managed to win the whole series against their opponents from BOOM Esports (2-0), which practically guaranteed a playoff appearance. In the second game of the first match day, Fnatic played exactly as expected - they lost to OG (0:2). Fnatic's picks are a quiet nightmare, especially compared to European teams. But on day two, the Asians clung to the playoff stage and had an excellent chance of reaching the upper bracket. Yesterday they played two draws against Team Liquid and TSM.

Team Fnatic was unspeakably lucky, and they were the ones who got the last direct ticket to TI11. Valve recalculated the DPC points after the Majors and left the Outsiders out of the tournament, which was a great gift for the Asian team. But to be honest, Fnatic shouldn't have gotten the slot because they played three (!!!) substitutions in the Majors, and TSM players dragged them to the main tournament of the year. But the Outsiders players are to blame, so let's not pay much attention to that.

After the Majors, Fnatic took part in the Gamer Galaxy. Invitational Series Thailand 2022, where they also had to play with a substitute. The Fnatic players failed at the tournament, losing all three group stage games. For ESL One Malaysia 2022, the team has a replacement again: Fnatic carry Mark Raven Fausto will miss ESL One Malaysia 2022. Marry Palos Lamatao will play in his place.

Armel, an experienced mid who played for TNC Predator for over three years, assumed the mid position, while Jaunuel, the former star of OB Esports x Neon, assumed the man-five position. In January, the team was completely re-synchronized and Fnatic became an Asian powerhouse once again.

At the end of the first DPC, they managed to make a comeback and reach the Majors, which was canceled at the last minute. In the second DPC league, there were no such problems. The Asian powerhouse quietly occupied the TOP-3 in its region and was preparing for the majors.

In Sweden, as part of the group stage, the team Fnatic pursued the magic of numbers. In the entire first stage, this team finished with the statistics 2-2-2, which did not allow them to start as the winners. In the first match of the playoffs, the guys received an extremely familiar opponent - T1, which they could overcome with a score of 2-1. And then there was the game with OG (1:2), which was also supposed to end with a victory, but on the third map, the Europeans made a huge comeback, and after that OG was unstoppable. Fnatic finished the majors in 7th-8th place, which is not bad overall.

Expert Betting Tips

Nigma Galaxy's Total kills for this match will be over 52.5 for 1.69.

The total kills for the two teams in this match will be over 100.5 for 1.98.

I believe that the teams can play in this match a draw, and the odds on it are 2.10.