Renegades stun ENCE, advance to StarLadder Major semifinals
Renegades have earned a spot in the semifinals of the StarLadder Major after securing a 2-0 victory over ENCE in their opening matchup of the playoffs.
A 5-1 scoreline on the T-side saw Renegades get off to a hot start on their own map pick of Mirage, with ENCE answering back with two rounds of their own to reduce the deficit to 5-3. From there however, the half belonged to Renegades, with the Australian side cruising to an 11-4 lead following strong showings from Justin "jks" Savage and Aaron "AZR" Ward.
ENCE gave themselves a shot at a comeback as the second pistol of Mirage went their way, but an answer back from Renegades saw the Aussies immediately regain control. Despite needing to pull off a handful of retakes, Renegades had little difficulty closing out the map from there, winning four final rounds to take their pick 16-5.
The Finnish side were able to break through as Nuke got underway, opening up the map with a 3-0 start on the offense. Renegades began to fight back once they had rifles in their hands, but numerous rounds being traded back-and-forth between the two sides saw the Australian squad only able to stack up six rounds on the CT-side by the end of the half.
The side swap saw a stark departure from Renegades' struggle in the first half, with Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad finding four frags in the pistol round to help swing momentum in Renegades' favor. With control of the economy and the pace of the match in their hands, Renegades won eight of the first nine rounds of the half to propel themselves to a 14-10 lead. A final effort from ENCE saw the Finnish side notch two more rounds on the board, but jks and company remained resilient to close out the series with a 16-12 victory.
ENCERenegades| ENCE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jani 'Aerial' Jussila |
28 - 36 | -8 | 70.8 | 73.5% | 0.95 |
| Jere 'sergej' Salo |
26 - 37 | -11 | 73.0 | 79.6% | 0.87 |
| Sami 'xseveN' Laasanen |
28 - 37 | -9 | 57.4 | 61.2% | 0.82 |
| Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
27 - 37 | -10 | 61.8 | 61.2% | 0.79 |
| Aleksi 'allu' Jalli |
28 - 39 | -11 | 59.5 | 57.1% | 0.74 |
| Renegades |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
45 - 29 | +16 | 98.1 | 79.6% | 1.50 |
| Aaron 'AZR' Ward |
40 - 30 | +10 | 84.9 | 85.7% | 1.33 |
| Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas |
34 - 26 | +8 | 83.0 | 87.8% | 1.25 |
 Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad |
34 - 27 | +7 | 74.0 | 77.6% | 1.24 |
 Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai |
32 - 25 | +7 | 64.6 | 81.6% | 1.17 |
Renegades now await the winner of the second quarterfinal matchup, which will see Vitality take on AVANGAR. The second portion of the quarterfinal bracket will take place tomorrow, where NRG will look to defeat Na`Vi and Liquid will look to prove their worth against Astralis.
