Renegades beat ENCE to book New Legends Stage spot

Renegades are the first Challenger through to the New Legends Stage after beating ENCE 2-0 in a promotion match.

A Nuke pick by ENCE was meant to be a curve ball thrown at Renegades, who had not played the map in the last three maps, but the gamble backfired horribly for the Finnish side, who were simply outplayed by the Australian side.

The game began at a frantic pace, with ENCE hitting back immediately after losing the pistol round. Their lead would not last, though, as Renegades took control of proceedings after getting their economy back on track, cruising to an 11-4 advantage thanks to strong individual performances by Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage and Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas.

Overcoming a seven-round deficit on CT side was perfectly doable, but ENCE were dealt a heavy blow as they lost the pistol round following a lightning-fast lower site execute by Renegades, who followed it up with the subsequent anti-ecos.

ENCE still attempted a response and strung three rounds together, but their resistance was then broken. Renegades hit map point with an upper execute before putting the game to bed with a quad kill by Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad.

Renegades through to the last-16 stage

ENCE came out on Mirage ready to turn the series around and claimed the pistol round in convincing fashion, without dropping a single player. Renegades gave up the next eco round and came fighting back, guns in hand, as Sean "⁠Gratisfaction⁠" Kaiwai and Liazz helped the team to overcome difficult situations in consecutive rounds.

The Finnish team was unfazed, though, and put together a string of rounds with a very tight defence. However, the latter stages of the final were all about Renegades, who dissected the ENCE defence with a variety of styles to bring the deficit to 7-8.

ENCE once again came out the brighter of the two sides, winning the pistol round and the following anti-ecos to build a four-round lead. But once they were able to buy up, Renegades took command of the contest, eventually retaking the lead at 14-13 off the back of a 1v2 clutch by Gratisfaction.

The Australian side went on to hit match point in an anti-eco round as ENCE prepared for one final push. The Finnish side still managed to take the game the full distance but faltered in the 30th round, which will force them to play at least one more match to get a spot in the next stage of the Major.

IEM Katowice 2019 Challengers StageBest of 3 ENCEMatchpage 0 2 14th February 2019 Renegades 7Nuke 16 14Mirage 16

ENCE	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Aleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenAleksib	35 - 40	-5	79.5	1.05
Jere 'sergej' Salosergej	33 - 37	-4	76.4	1.04
Sami 'xseveN' LaasanenxseveN	31 - 37	-6	62.3	0.88
Aleksi 'allu' Jalliallu	31 - 38	-7	64.8	0.85
Jani 'Aerial' JussilaAerial	31 - 42	-11	61.0	0.77

Renegades	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	51 - 34	+17	97.8	1.38
Sean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiGratisfaction	40 - 31	+9	82.3	1.29
Jay 'Liazz' TregillgasLiazz	38 - 28	+10	74.1	1.23
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostadjkaem	35 - 34	+1	64.7	1.02
Aaron 'AZR' WardAZR	30 - 34	-4	67.1	0.98

The New Challengers stage 3W - 0L Renegades 2W - 0L TYLOO NRG 2W - 1L Vitality Winstrike ViCi ENCE AVANGAR 1W - 2L fnatic Ninjas in Pyjamas G2 Vega Squadron Cloud9 0W - 2L Spirit FURIA 0W - 3L Grayhound

Following Renegades' qualification, the team list for the New Legends Stage currently features:

Astralis
BIG
FaZe
HellRaisers
Renegades Liquid
MIBR
Natus Vincere
Complexity MIBR #9 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloJoão 'felps' Vasconcellos Justin 'jks' Savage Age: 23 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 727 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.63 Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif BIG #12 Fatih 'gob b' DayikJohannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschJohannes 'nex' MagetIsmailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş Renegades #13 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Natus Vincere #3 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov Complexity #39 Jordan 'n0thing' GilbertShahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanRory 'dephh' JacksonPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzRicardo 'Rickeh' Mulholland Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai Age: 22 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 558 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.60 Liquid #2 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad Age: 24 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 766 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.69 HellRaisers #21 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowAbay 'HObbit' KhassenovÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBence 'DeadFox' BöröczIssa 'ISSAA' Murad FaZe #4 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Age: 21 Team: Renegades Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 570 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.60 ENCE #11 Aleksi 'allu' JalliJani 'Aerial' JussilaSami 'xseveN' LaasanenAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenJere 'sergej' Salo