NAF's performance against HAVU was dominant, ending the series with a 1.53 rating.

SL i-League Invitational begins, Renegades scrape by HAVU

Nifty and NAF are the lone North Americans at the event being held in China.

The StarLadder i-League Invitational has officially begun in Shanghai, China. Taking place at the Jing'an Sports Center, it hosts eight teams from all over the globe where they will compete for a prize pool of $150,000.

Unlike many other events, the invitational will be best-of-three throughout the group stage in a GSL style formatted bracket. The groups are as follows:

Group A Group B
TyLoo Australia Renegades
Spirit HAVU
Hellraisers Flash
Denmark Heroic Virtus.pro

Renegades vs HAVU

The North American and Australian mash-up faced the Finnish quintet in the first day of the invitational. Following the map veto, the stage was set as the two would square-off on Overpass and Mirage with Train as the decider map.

Overpass began as a tit-for-tat as Renegades picked up the first pistol round on T-side, leading to a subsequent 3-0 lead. HAVU responded in kind with three rounds of their own. Neither team could secure momentum, as it was a series of two round trades back and forth the entire half, leading to a respectable 8-7 lead for Renegades going into CT-side.

Despite losing the second pistol round, Renegades answered with a force buy to stifle the early economic lead HAVU had taken. After collecting another 2 rounds the Finns couldn't find a way through the CT defense once they had a full economy going, and ultimately fell in a 16-12 scoreline.

Map two started of scrappy as the two teams met on Mirage. The first two rounds were close for either team as they ended in bomb defusals after tight gun fights. After trading two round sets back and forth, Renegades went on a five round streak with AK-47's at their sides. Dominant showings from Keith "NAF" Markovic and Karlo "USTILO" Pivac were critical to Renegades securing the half with an 8-7 lead.

The aggression from HAVU was not to be taken lightly, however. Save a single round, the Finnish team decidedly took six of the first seven rounds once they had the economic advantage from winning the second pistol round. After they collected themselves and patched the holes in their defense, Renegades brought the game to 15-15 and into overtime and ended up closing out the series 19-17.

Renegades
2 - 0
HAVU
All maps
Renegades K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Canada Keith 'NAF' Markovic 62 - 37 +25 99.8 79.7% 1.51
Australia Aaron 'AZR' Ward 53 - 43 +10 92.2 71.9% 1.21
Australia Karlo 'USTILO' Pivac 46 - 41 +5 81.9 75.0% 1.19
Australia Justin 'jks' Savage 37 - 41 -4 56.9 76.6% 0.94
United States Noah 'Nifty' Francis 29 - 45 -16 51.3 62.5% 0.77
HAVU K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Jere 'sergej' Salo 54 - 39 +15 82.6 68.8% 1.21
Otto 'ottoNd' Sihvo 51 - 44 +7 83.6 57.8% 1.16
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen 35 - 45 -10 70.5 64.1% 0.95
Mikko 'xartE' Välimaa 39 - 46 -7 62.3 70.3% 0.86
Jesse 'KHRN' Grandell 28 - 53 -25 60.2 62.5% 0.70

Renegades await the winner of Virtus.pro and Flash. The series currently sits at 1-1, after the Chinese team were able to surprise the Poles and take a map win on Cache.

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#1(With 0 replies)
November 2, 2017 11:09AM
CarbonDogma
ez for NAF
#2(With 2 replies)
November 2, 2017 11:19AM
Aanszo
It's unbelievable how many times NAF has saved Renegades.
#3(With 1 replies)
November 2, 2017 11:39AM
I_was_a_potato
yup he was a hell of a signing by renegades
and remember he was almost left in the dust after the destruction of optic(NA)
Btw sergej has a real bright future. Such a beast so young
the next Twistzz perhaps ;) ?
#4(With 0 replies)
November 3, 2017 12:20PM
Aanszo
Twistzz has proven himself against tier 1 teams because he was saved from misfits by Liquid. If liquid didn't pick him up he'd rot away and never truly be a top talent. The issue with sergej is that there is no clear way to his future. Which team will be willing to pick a Finnish 15yo rifler that has only played against t2 teams? I don't know. We'll have to wait and see, but I do agree that he is one to look out for.
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