Vega Squadron narrowly defends Renegades comeback, take Major opener
The first game of the ELEAGUE Major Boston, albeit in the New Challengers phase, saw previous Major attendees Vega Squadron face off against the Asia Minor Champions Renegades. In the best-of-one format, the two sides took the battle to Mirage.
The game kicked off with Vega Squadron starting their CT-side with the pistol round, before following it up with the first anti-eco, before being forced out by Renegades. Although the Australians managed to take a lead, it was short-lived as Nikolay "mir" Bityukov and Dmitriy "jR" Chervak combined in the following rounds to go back ahead.
Renegades managed to secure another round, but from there Vega pushed on to build a strong lead with another three rounds. Renegades managed to pull out one further round, thanks to three AWP kills from Noah "Nifty" Francis to save the round in a 1v2. But it was Vega who rounded the half out, going in with a 10-5 lead.
The second half began much like the first, with Vega Squadron taking the pistol round on their T-side. But the Australians instantly answered back with a pistol-force on the second round. With Aaron "AZR" Ward taking key kills for his side, they pushed on to secure the next three rounds on a comeback attempt, before trading rounds with Vega Squadron.
From there the Russians pushed on to get to 14 rounds, thanks to a Pavel "hutji" Lashkov 3k, before taking match point in the following round. Renegades weren't to be shut down just yet, as the Australians halted the Russian's run for a while. With Karlo "USTILO" Pivac taking multiple kills in multiple rounds, the Australian side brought the game to it's 30th round.
But it was Vega Squadron to nail down that final round, with jR taking three kills before mir claimed the final kill on a defusing AZR to take their first game 16-14.
Vega SquadronRenegades| Vega Squadron |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikolay 'mir' Bityukov |
29 - 17 | +12 | 103.4 | 73.3% | 1.53 |
 Dmitriy 'jR' Chervak |
24 - 16 | +8 | 74.5 | 80.0% | 1.26 |
| Pavel 'hutji' Lashkov |
16 - 16 | +0 | 54.2 | 73.3% | 0.89 |
| Sergey 'keshandr' Nikishin |
20 - 23 | -3 | 75.4 | 70.0% | 0.88 |
| Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov |
10 - 21 | -11 | 62.3 | 66.7% | 0.84 |
| Renegades |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aaron 'AZR' Ward |
25 - 20 | +5 | 93.8 | 70.0% | 1.32 |
 Noah 'Nifty' Francis |
17 - 17 | +0 | 54.0 | 70.0% | 0.95 |
| Karlo 'USTILO' Pivac |
17 - 22 | -5 | 61.0 | 63.3% | 0.92 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
18 - 21 | -3 | 81.0 | 60.0% | 0.90 |
| Justin 'jks' Savage |
15 - 21 | -6 | 59.0 | 56.7% | 0.75 |
Next up at the ELEAGUE Major will be mousesports taking on AVANGAR. The next North American game will see FaZe take on Team Liquid.
