Nigma Galaxy take home first ESL Impact league trophy in Dallas
Nigma Galaxy Female overcame FURIA Female to become the winners of ESL Impact League Season 1 at DreamHack Dallas. With the win, Nigma made a case for themselves as the best female team in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Nigma’s Ana “ANa” Dumbravă received the title of MVP. The Romanian AWPer was a revelation at the event, boasting a 1.36 rating across eight maps.
“We showed today that we are the best,” ANa said after the win.
The event was also special for Ksenia “vilga” Klyuenkova, one of the longest-standing players in the entirety of the female CS:GO scene. The 30-year-old Russian rifler has been competing in Counter-Strike titles since 2008. She joined Nigma Galaxy in April 2020.
“I’m just so happy we got it,” vilga said. “All this hard work the last two years just finally paid off.”
The grand final against FURIA ran late into the evening as the best of three unfolded. The first map, Mirage, was a closely contested FURIA win — but from there it was all Nigma Galaxy. They stomped FURIA on Vertigo, a map the Brazilian side are still integrating into their pool
“To be honest, we really wanted to play Inferno,” vilga said. “But we saw [FURIA’s] Vertigo against CLG Red and just thought, ‘We have a good Vertigo, let’s just pick it.'”
The grand final ended on Overpass with a 16-7 win for Nigma.
ESL Impact League
The inaugural season of ESL Impact League culminated in Dallas, where the top international women’s teams in CS:GO met for the first time in years. Counter Logic Gaming Red, whose core has played together since 2018, came in as slight favorites over other top competitors like FURIA and Nigma.
Ultimately, CLG fell short in the semifinals against FURIA. That semifinals matchup drew more than 105,000 viewers, according to Esports Charts, as the two most popular teams in the ESL Impact League went head-to-head. A large part of the incredible viewership was thanks to Alexandre “Gaules” Borba’s co-stream, although the main ESL stream’s viewership ballooned as well.
The next ESL Impact League event will be Valencia 2022, a standalone tournament that precedes Season 2. It runs from July 1-3 in Valencia, Spain.
About the Author
Coby Zucker is Upcomer's resident CS:GO writer. He's also played League of Legends at the collegiate level and is a frequent visitor in TFT Challenger Elo. He's a firm believer that Toronto should be the next big esports hub city.
