EPL: RENEGADES FLAWLESS WEEK ONE
ESL Pro League Season 8 Week 1 - Flawless Six and zero - it doesn’t get much better! The Renegades woke up feeling fresh after their sixth straight map win on Thursday to catapult to the top of the ladder after week one with wins over eUnited, compLexity and Rogue. Of the 18 points on offer to the Renegades they gave up just the one to Major Legends compLexity in an all-but flawless debut week for the new roster. Both Jay “Liazz” Tregillgasand Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai starting spectacularly for the maroon and gold, while Aaron “AZR” Ward capped off his birthday with a cracking opening map win over eUnited. RNG got down to business on Inferno with a 12-3 opening half on CT against eUnited in the EPL opener. AZR wasted no time in his new position as IGL showing he still has the fragging prowess dropping 24 frags and 135 ADR (1.95 rating) on his birthday, no less, to shut out the NA roster 16-3. Joakim “jkaem” Mybrostad was potent on Mirage with controlled mid aggression to post 25 frags of his own (119 ADR, 1.86 rating) to finish the opening series for Renegades with all 6 points in the 16-7 map two win. compLexity was to be the toughest opponent of the week, themselves fresh off their Major Champions stage appearance. A nailbiter opening map went to double OT with Gratisfaction netting 22 of his 66 week one AWP kills in the single map; RNG would hold on to take the two points with the 22-19 win on Dust 2. AZR once again styled on the opposition on Mirage as he and Justin “jks” Savage struck from across the map, combining for 45 kills and this time locking in the third point with a fairly comfortable win on Mirage 16-12. RNG continued their Dust 2 dominance with their 6th win in 7 starts against Rogue. Against ex-Renegade Rickeh, the boys barely looked troubled on their T half with a monstrous 11-round performance led by jkaem’s 23-15 (1.40 rating). RNG took their time with the second half, eventually closing it out 16-11. A narrow first half on Mirage had fans worried but they needn’t be as RNG piled on the CT rounds, taking the second half 9-2 in a runaway performance to again claim 6 points over Rogue with the 16-11 win, with jkaem once again the standout performer with brilliant aggression and a high multi-frag round percentage. RNG will break the EPL for StarSeries i-League in Kiev before their next matchday on October 17th against Luminosity Gaming and Ghost Gaming, with Team Liquid, INTZ eSports and Cloud 9 also coming later in week two. - - - Written by Nicholas “Taffy” Taifalos @TaffyAU on Twitter