- NiP Impact defeated Nigma Galaxy 2-0 at the ESL Impact Season 3 Europe tournament
- This is Nigma’s first loss since they formed a year ago
- Both maps were close, with the second one dragging into overtime
Nigma Galaxy has been dominating the womens’ CS:GO circuit, but their 38-series win streak has been finally ended by Ninjas in Pyjamas Impact.
Nigma’s Dominance Ends
We are well into the ESL Impact Season 3 Europe tournament which finally saw the end of Nigma Galaxy’s domination of the female CS:GO circuit in the past months. Ksenia “vilga” Kluenkova's girls suffered a narrow loss to NIP Impact’s majority European roster.
Nigma Galaxy’s dominance of the competitive CS:GO scene began last year when the organization brought in Katarína “Kat” Vašková as a replacement for Kelly “KllyVe” Verhaegen. After signing her, the team won everything there was to win under the sun. This included several ESEA Cash Cups, the previous two Impact League seasons, ESL Impact Valencia, and the GIRLGAMER Esports Festival. Most recently Nigma won the ESL Impact Katowice in February, cementing their place at the top.
However, the past year of successes must have tired out vilga’s girls as despite winning their fourth ESL Impact trophy last month, Nigma had a close call in Poland a few weeks ago. The team was playing against their perennial 2022 rivals FURIA fe in the semi-finals and narrowly beat them after overtime on the deciding map. Soon after, NAVI Javelins also took Nigma to overtime in the grand final, showing that cracks have appeared in the team’s dominating grip on the CS:GO scene.
NiP Impact Defeat Nigma
ESL Impact Katowice ended less than a month ago but Nigma and the other teams did not have much time to rest as Season 3 recently began with its regional portion taking place online. The first round saw Nigma defeat MVP, but the Russian team’s luck had run out by the time they had to face NiP Impact in the second round.
The majority European roster fought hard against the Russian champions, no doubt having n mind their opponent’s reputation. Perhaps this is what gave NiP extra strength as the squad slowly and painfully ground down Nigma on Mirage. It was a very close call, but NiP managed to barely win the first map 16-14.
The second map, Vertigo, saw an even closer struggle between the two teams. The majority of the map saw both teams trade rounds only to stretch the game into overtime. But NiP proved to be the better or luckier team, as they inched forward enough to end the map 19-17 and take the game against Nigma 2-0.
Now that NiP have proven Nigma Galaxy is not undefeatable, others will flock to try and take revenge on the Russian squad. Nigma still have to face BIG EQUIPA, Astralis fe, and Aces in Group A of the ESL Impact Season 3.
