Renegades take down AVANGAR
The opening Group A Lower Bracket matchup saw AVANGAR and Renegades face off in the best-of-three match. With tournament life on the line, the two teams set up to play on Mirage, Cache and Cobblestone.
Mirage began with AVANGAR taking the pistol round on their T-side, before Renegades secured the next round on an eco round. From there the Australians claimed the lead through the eco rounds although the Kazakh team secured the first buy round.
But from there it was more or less just Renegades showing how the game was played. With Aaron "AZR" Ward and Noah "Nifty" Francis topping the table for their side, they had a seven round advantage before AVANGAR managed to pick up a couple more rounds. But Renegades secured the final round of the half for a 10-5 lead.
The second half began with AVANGAR once again taking the pistol round, on their CT-side, before following up with the first anti-eco, as Alexey "qikert" Golubev had his team showing signs of life. But a forcebuy from the Australian team essentially close the game out, with Karlo "USTILO" Pivac securing three kills to end it.
Cache began with AVANGAR, once again, securing the pistol round on their CT-side. But the Renegades came straight into the game with a bare-bones eco before pushing on for a seven rounds without an answer, with AZR and Nifty once again leading the rounds for their team.
Eventually Dmitry "dimasick" Matvienko brought his team back into the game, collecting two rounds thanks to a masterful display to take four kills. But it was the two sides to trade rounds as Renegades eventually came back out on top for a 10-5 half time lead.
The second half began in what has been a very familiar fashion, with AVANGAR securing the pistol round on their T-side, before moving on and taking the next two anti-eco rounds. Renegades secured the first buy round as they looked to secure their lead before AVANGAR put a stop to it.
The Kazakh team started linking rounds together, as Timur "buster" Tulepov and co. put Renegades onto an eco to eventually even the match up between the two teams. But the Australians kept ahead as Justin "jks" Savage collected three kills to keep the Kazakh team down. From there Renegades claimed 14 rounds before AVANGAR narrowly returned fire once again.
But Renegades weren't going to allow themselves to be knocked out, as Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad put his side onto match point, before USTILO secured the final kills to take Cache 16-12.
AVANGARRenegades| AVANGAR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Timur 'buster' Tulepov |
37 - 37 | +0 | 75.1 | 57.7% | 1.00 |
| Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev |
35 - 41 | -6 | 78.5 | 63.5% | 0.99 |
| Dmitry 'dimasick' Matvienko |
31 - 40 | -9 | 63.1 | 59.6% | 0.85 |
| Aidyn 'KrizzeN' Turlybekov |
25 - 43 | -18 | 75.6 | 63.5% | 0.84 |
 Dzhami 'Jame' Ali |
21 - 40 | -19 | 43.4 | 55.8% | 0.59 |
| Renegades |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aaron 'AZR' Ward |
50 - 27 | +23 | 94.9 | 78.8% | 1.39 |
| Justin 'jks' Savage |
38 - 26 | +12 | 77.6 | 84.6% | 1.27 |
 Noah 'Nifty' Francis |
43 - 27 | +16 | 82.6 | 73.1% | 1.27 |
| Karlo 'USTILO' Pivac |
38 - 36 | +2 | 79.2 | 76.9% | 1.21 |
 Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad |
32 - 33 | -1 | 69.0 | 71.2% | 1.04 |
This result sees Renegades head through to the next round of Lower Bracket games, with AVANGAR going home. With SK currently still facing off against Astralis, the next game after that will be a North American derby between Cloud9 and Liquid.
