Nigma roll on in Beyond Epic's Europe/CIS event

B8 (1-0, three points) produced a 2-0 victory over Team Unique (0-3, zero points) to take second place in Group A. In the lone Group B match of the day, Alliance (1-2, three points) earned a 2-0 win over Ninjas in Pyjamas (1-3, four points).

Team Nigma edged Vikin.gg 2-1 on Thursday to claim first place in Group A of the Beyond Epic online event's Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States region. Nigma (2-1, six points) jumped in front of Vikin.gg (1-1, four points). B8 (1-0, three points) produced a 2-0 victory over Team Unique (0-3, zero points) to take second place in Group A.

In the lone Group B match of the day, Alliance (1-2, three points) earned a 2-0 win over Ninjas in Pyjamas (1-3, four points). The group's top club, Team Liquid (3-0, seven points) had the day off. The 12-team, $200,000 Dota 2 event features two groups of six teams playing single round-robins, with all matches best-of-three. Victories by a 2-0 margin are worth three standings points, with a 2-1 victory worth two points. Teams that lose 1-2 earn one point, while 0-2 losers earn none.

The top two teams from each group will advance to the upper bracket of the double-elimination playoffs, which begin June 25. The third- and fourth-place teams from each group will advance to the lower bracket, with the bottom two teams from both groups eliminated. All playoff matches will be best-of-three until the best-of-five final on June 28. On Thursday, Nigma took the opening game in 28 minutes before Vikin.gg responded with a 34-minute victory. The decisive game went to Nigma in 65 minutes.

Jordan's Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi had a 9.3/5.7/10.7 kill-death-assist ratio for Nigma, and teammate Ivan Borislavov "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov of Bulgaria finished at 8.7/4.3/11.0. Vikin.gg's Miroslav "BooM" Bican of the Czech Republic had an 8.7/3.0/7.7 KDA ratio. Alliance got past NiP in 40 minutes and 43 minutes, led by Bulgaria's Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov with an 11.5/2.5/12.5 KDA ratio. The Czech Republic's Ondrej "Supream^" Starha posted an 8/5/10 KDA ratio for Ninjas in Pyjamas.

B8 needed 53 and 35 minutes to dispatch Unique. The Netherlands' Arets "Crystallis" Remco posted a team-best 11/2/14 KDA ratio for B8 while Russia'a Stanislav "633" Glushan wound up at 6.0/5.5/10.5 for Unique. Action continues Friday with three matches:

--Alliance vs. FlyToMoon --Team Unique vs. OG

--B8 vs. Team Nigma Beyond Epic - Europe/CIS standings (record, map record, points):

Group A 1. Team Nigma, 2-1, 5-3, 6

2. Vikin.gg, 1-1, 3-2, 4 3. B8, 1-0, 2-0, 3

4. OG, 1-0, 2-1, 2 T5. Team Secret, 0-0, 0-0, 0

T5. Team Unique, 0-3, 0-6, 0 Group B

1. Team Liquid, 3-0, 6-2, 7 T2. Team Empire, 1-2, 3-4, 4

T2. Ninjas in Pyjamas, 1-3, 3-6, 4 T4. FlyToMoon, 1-0, 2-0, 3

T4. Alliance, 1-2, 2-4, 3 6. Virtus.pro, 0-0, 0-0, 0

--Field Level Media