North America eliminated in Sydney; Cloud9 and NRG crash and burn in Lower Brackets
The third day of IEM Sydney came to a close today with both Cloud9 and NRG being eliminated in their Lower Bracket matches, ending North America's run in Australia sooner than they had hoped. The sun still shines on Renegades, however, as they continue forth to the playoffs despite their 0-2 loss to TyLoo in the Upper Bracket of Group A.
The Lower Bracket match in Group A, between Cloud9 and FaZe, ended after a brief two maps, this time with Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and co. coming out on top, another chapter in the two teams ever-raging rivalry.
While Cloud9 managed a solid offense on their T-side of Mirage, their almost non-existant defense after switching sides led to a quick one map lead for FaZe.
As the two moved onto Cache, Cloud9 continued to struggle, even in the sparse amont of rounds they did claim on their CT-side. FaZe had no problem regaining their momentum and riding it out until the bitter end 16-6, with little resistance from the North Americans, who would now bow out of the event.
The clash between NRG and G2 in the Lower Bracket of Group B spanned three maps and began on Mirage, where the Frenchmen took an early one map lead without letting the North Americans reach double-digits in the scoreline. They moved on to Nuke where NRG clung to life with a narrow 16-14 victory that brought the series to a map three.
Nearly going the full 30 round distance, the two were taken to their limits on Overpass, with G2 barely edging out NRG 16-13, eliminating the last standing North American team from IEM Syndey.
TyLoo continued to turn heads today, as they dispatched of Renegades in just two maps. The first map of Inferno was the closer of the two, as Renegades started the game with a sizeable 9-6 lead on their CT-side. Only able to pick up three additional rounds come the latter half of the map, the Aussies fell just a bit short, allowing TyLoo to secure an early one map lead 16-13.
TyLoo mirrored the first half success that Renegades managed on Inferno, ending their CT-side 9-6 in their favor. Despite picking up the first two rounds in the second half, Renegades lost control of the the game after an early gun-buy in round three from the Chinese/Indonesian mix, a momentum shift that they rode out until the maps end 16-8.
The star of the show for TyLoo was Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand. Over the two map series he managed to average a 1.52 rating, soaring as high as 1.78 and 106.7 ADR on Train.
Our coverage of IEM Sydney will continue Friday, as Renegades faces off against mousesports in the semifinals at 5:00 AM EDT.