STARSERIES & I-LEAGUE: SEASON 6 RECAP EXPECTATIONS EXCEEDED
StarSeries & i-League Season 6 Recap Expectations Exceeded With two brand new players, a new leadership structure and just six online matches of form, the Renegades CS:GO’s top 8 result at Kiev’s StarSeries & i-League Season 6 well exceeded early expectations for the lineup just a month after their disappointing run at the FACEIT Major. Two weeks since their arrival from Australia & New Zealand and newest Renegades Jay “liazz” Tregillgas & Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai are beginning to look settled in what was a composed group stage record of 3-1, featuring wins over TyLoo, compLexity and The Imperial. The team now led by Aaron “AZR” Ward and returning coach Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunoviclooked far more threatening as a unit, even with minimal preparation time together. Liazz’s HLTV rating of 1.09 in the group stage (71-67, +4 K/Diff) is one of his highest in an event outside of Australia, while Gratisfaction’s 93 kills for the event included 51 with the AWP. Justin “jks” Savage was incredibly potent in the group stage, decimating Major Legends compLexity in a 24-13 (1.43 rating) performance on day two, his best for the event. He finished the week with a solid 1.12 rating (+19 K/Diff) which also included the losses to OpTic in the playoffs. Joakim “jkaem” Mybrostad continued his consistent form for the team since the roster change averaging 19 kills a map across the tournament and posting a 1.07 rating including an impressive 79 multi-kill round count (13 a map). The event started shakily with the loss to Chinese squad CyberZen on Inferno (16-13), but the boys rallied and took down an embattled compLexity Gaming on Mirage on day 2 (16-9) to book a rematch with lead rivals TyLoo. An interesting veto decision to allow TyLoo play their best and favourite map didn’t seem to matter early on as RNG jumped to an 8-1 lead on T side. TyLoo recovered but RNG held off the comeback well enough to win out the map (16-13) and move to day four with a shot at playoffs qualification against The Imperial. Led by ex-Renegade nexa and star player EspiranTo, Imperial proved difficult to shake as the boys managed just 7 T rounds on Cache. It wouldn’t matter - a jkaem-led 9-4 CT half locked RNG in at 16 rounds and the win (16-12) ensured a stage appearance in their first event as a new lineup. OpTic Gaming proved too good on stage in the playoffs, with the Danish side coming out on top in a 2-0 win (16-8, 16-10) ending the Renegades campaign in Ukraine in 5th-8th spot with $10,000 USD in prize money secured. It’s still early days with the lineup but top eight here is an astounding achievement, and with ESL Pro League & ECS online leagues over the next month, it gives plenty of match experience and time with coach kassad ahead of the Renegades next offline event at IEM Chicago in mid-November. #RNGWIN Written by Nicholas “Taffy” Taifalos @TaffyAU on Twitter
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