Nigma Galaxy pull off a huge upset to lead the European teams over their Chinese opponents to start the tournament.
The Dota 2 Clavision: Snow Ruyi LAN tournament in Zhangjiakou, China kicked off on Sunday (28 July) with five local teams taking on five challengers from all across the world for a cut of a $500,000 prize pool. The first day of the tournament already delivered some dramatic results as a shorthanded Nigma Galaxy pulled off a massive 2-1 upset over Xtreme Gaming.
Clavision: Snow Ruyi started with its three-day Group Stage, with the ten participating teams split into two groups of five teams each and pitted into a single round-robin with best-of-three matches.
While no teams will be eliminated after the Group Stage, they will be fighting for placement in the upper and lower brackets in the Playoffs. The top team in each group will receive a direct bye to the upper bracket semifinals, the second and third-placed teams will advance to the lower bracket finals, while the rest will have to start in the lower bracket.
Though Chinese fans likely expected their home teams to be able to defend their home turf, it was the European contingent that shone in day one of the Group Stage. Chief among them was Group B’s Nigma Galaxy, who scored a massive upset over Xtreme Gaming, the strongest Chinese team in the tournament.
Expectations were low for Nigma Galaxy heading into Clavision: Snow Ruyi given their lack of success in the past few years. Hopes for the team being competitive were further diminished when it was announced that Amer “Miracle” Al-Barkawi and Kuro “Kuroky” Takhasomi were skipping the tournament, with Daniel “Ghost” Chan and Ivan “OneJey” Zhivitsky being tapped as stand-ins.
Despite playing with stand-ins, Nigma Galaxy entered their match versus Xtreme with guns blazing as they dominated in the 51-minute series opener. Xtreme then struck back with their own one-sided win in a 31-minute game two, sending the series to a deciding game three.
A rollercoaster slugfest in game three then saw Nigma Galaxy emerge victorious in 51 minutes behind a stellar showing from Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, who notched 12 kills and 15 assists on four deaths as Shadow Fiend.
