Nigma Galaxy wins ESL Impact League Season 1

European team Nigma Galaxy defeated FURIA fe in a three-map series to claim the first ESL Impact League title. Nigma Galaxy have won the first season of ESL’s female CS:GO league in Dallas, Texas after defeating Brazilian FURIA fe 2-1.

Following three days of LAN play, the European team took home $50,000 in prize money, while the second-placed FURIA fe took home $25,000.

Semifinals 

Before today’s Grand Final, Nigma Galaxy started their playoff run with a 2-1 win over BIG EQUIPA. The team, made up mostly of Russian players, went into the game 1-0 down, losing Ancient before claiming victory in two one-sided maps, Inferno and Overpass.

FURIA fe, on the other hand, got off to a bad start, giving up their map pick Vertigo at 3:16 and falling 10:14 behind CLG Red’s pick, Mirage. However, the Brazilians fought back and won the map in overtime to force a third map, Dust2. There, Karina “kaah” Takahashi and the rest defeated the North Americans 15:0 and advanced to the grand final with a 16:2 score.

Grand Final 

The final game of the tournament began on Mirage, FURIA fe’s choice, where they proved to be the superior team in attack, winning the first half 9-6. However, Nigma Galaxy persisted and reclaimed victory on their own terrorist side. They went into the final stages of the map with a 12-10 lead before the Brazilians turned the tide with Mariana “mari” Preste and Olga “Olga” Rodrigues to win their selection in the 30th round.

The second map saw Ksenia “vilga” Kluenkova storm through on Vertigo’s T-side with 20 kills before the break to put her team 11-4 ahead. On the CT side, Nigma Galaxy took charge and easily finished the map 16-5 to push the series into the decisive map.

The series was decided on Overpass, which the two teams had already clashed on in the group stage, ending with Galaxy’s thrilling win in overtime. In the Grand Final match on the CT side of the same map, Nigma Galaxy quickly asserted dominance, leading 14:1 at half-time. FURIA fe fought back after winning the pistol round but was stopped early. in the end, a quadruple kill by Alexandra “twenty3” Timonina helped Nigma Galaxy to finish with a 16-7 and secure the ESL Impact trophy.

The next stop for many of the teams that competed in Dallas, including the four playoff teams, is ESL Impact Valencia — the eight-team women’s CS:GO tournament that will be a part of the upcoming DreamHack festival in Spain. The tournament features a $100,000 shared prize pool. 

Header: DreamHack