Nigma, T1, and AS Monaco Gambit eliminated from ONE Esports Singapore Major

The Wild Card stage has officially concluded at the ONE Esports Singapore Dota 2 Major, with PSG.LGD, Vici Gaming, and Team Liquid all securing spots in the next round. 

That also means that Nigma, T1, and AS Monaco Gambit are all packing their bags after being the first trio eliminated from the Major. 

For both Nigma and T1, this result wasn’t surprising because both teams weren’t playing at 100 percent strength. Each roster used a stand-in because one of their players contracted COVID-19 and were unable to travel to the event, meaning they were forced to play full-strength teams with what boils down to a new player. 

Nigma suffered the most from this issue. While their coach Roman “rmN-” Paley has been around the team constantly and is a former professional player, the entire team had to work around his skillset. That led to some messy drafts and several instances of Nigma’s other players having to play slightly out of position to cover for what they were missing without Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov. 

In total, Nigma went 1-9, taking a split with Vici before bottoming out. The one upside to come from this performance was Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi re-completing the all-hero challenge by picking Mars, meaning he has used every hero available to play in competitive during at least one event. 

T1 also had to compete without its position three player, losing Carlo “Kuku” Palad for the event and really showing how important his captaining is for the team. 

Lee “Forev” Sang-don subbed in for Kuku and has experience playing with several players on his former organization’s roster, but the team still looked disjointed. It also doesn’t help that T1 was already trying to quickly integrate Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon into the team after signing him to replace Souliya “JaCkky” Khoomphetsavong in a controversial move at the start of March. 

Gambit played well and had a strong chance at making it into the group stage. Although they beat Liquid 2-0 earlier in the day, Liquid managed to take down the CIS squad in the best-of-one tiebreaker to send them home. 

Originally, only two teams were supposed to advance out of the Wild Card stage, but because both beastcoast and Natus Vincere had to withdraw from the event, PGL restructured the tournament format. Only one team will be eliminated form the group stage, which begins later today.