Group A: Renegades outlast FaZe to clinch playoffs spot, ORDER eliminate Legacy

Renegades have guaranteed themselves a spot in the playoffs after outlasting FaZe 2-1 (Train 16-12, Overpass 13-16, Inferno 25-22) in Group A's upper bracket semi-final, while in the lower bracket, ORDER eliminated Legacy 2-0 (Train 16-9, Mirage 16-11).

FaZe and Renegades fought for a playoffs spot in the upper bracket semi-final of Group A, starting on the Australian team's pick, Train. Despite losing the pistol round to Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac's quad-kill, most of the first half saw the European mixture dominate their opponents, as they racked up a 10-2 lead on the CT side.

However, Renegades started closing the gap with the last three rounds of the half. The second half was all about Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage, who kicked things off with a triple in the second pistol round and a key double in the second gunround, saving a 2v5 attempt from Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard. With an AWP in his hands, the Australian star added a triple and three doubles on the inner bombsite to his name and proceeded to clutch a 1v2 on A to help his team secure map one at 16-12.

The Australian squad carried their momentum to Overpass, grabbing a clean pistol and a very close first gunround thanks to Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward's 1v1 clutch for a 5-0 lead on the CT side. FaZe then woke up and quickly equalized the scoreline at 6-6, with Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač clutching a fantastic 1v3 along the way. At that point, Renegades regained control on the back of a triple and a quad-kill from USTILO, as well as jks's massive 1v4 clutch, which closed out the half at 9-6 in their favor.

Topping it off with a pistol round win, Renegades were four rounds away from clinching the series. However, FaZe controlled the first gunrounds with ease, storming their way to their first lead in the match at 13-12. The local side managed to break the streak with a 2v4 win in the B bombsite, but their economy was in shreds when FaZe replied, which helped Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's team force the third map at 16-13, with GuardiaN's triple-kill putting the final nail in the coffin.

Renegades secured their fifth pistol round in a row on the third map, Inferno, setting off a seven-round streak to start the decider with a comfortable 7-0 lead on the offense. FaZe were able to recover, however, and won six out of the remaining eight rounds of the half.

Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström & co. followed it up with their first pistol round win in the series, which equalized the score at 9-9. Renegades responded in the gunrounds thanks to a key double from USTILO in the first and a dominant A defense in the second, but karrigan's squad caught a break by winning an eco round on B, with the following rounds going back and forth until it was 14-12. At that point FaZe strung three in a row but weren't able to close it out, as the map went to overtime.

There, Renegades took a 2-1 lead on the CT side thanks to key triples from Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad and USTILO, but they couldn't finish things off in the first set despite turning around a 2v5 situation in the second half, as NiKo and GuardiaN each got a quad-kill to their name. The winner wasn't settled even after another set of overtime, as each team grabbed two rounds on the defense once more.

The third set saw Renegades grab two rounds on the CT side yet again, although that time around they added two in a row on the offense, as jks put the final nail in the coffin with a 1v2 clutch on the B bombsite.

Broken tag

Broken tag

The first elimination match of IEM Sydney saw two local sides, Legacy and ORDER, fight for survival in the tournament. The series kicked off on Train, where the latter team got off to a good start with a 4-1 lead on the Terrorist side, but the tide quickly turned on the back of a 3v5 retake spearheaded by Egor "⁠LONSDALE⁠" Baranov and Peter "⁠BL1TZ⁠" Athanasatos.

The score was 6-4 in favor of Legacy when ORDER broke the streak and secured three of the last four rounds, and topped it off with a pistol round victory, courtesy of Jordan "⁠Hatz⁠" Bajic and Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas.

Even though they lost an anti-eco round in the process, Chris "⁠emagine⁠" Rowlands's team had little trouble closing things out on map one, as they powered to a 16-9 victory before it was time for Mirage, their opponents' pick.

On the second map, ORDER once again began well despite losing the pistol round, as they replied in the second-round forcebuy to go up 3-1 as CT. The following round saw them save four weapons as they lost the B bombsite, which led to a streak of rounds going Legacy's way.

Hatz & co. recovered towards the end of the half with four rounds in a row, which helped them secure another 8-7 lead in the first half. This time, ORDER lost the pistol round and found themselves at a two-round deficit, but the rest of the Terrorist half went smoothly for them as they clinched a 16-11, 2-0 win.