Renegades, MVP PK through to playoffs in Katowice

Renegades and MVP PK have advanced to the playoffs at the Asia Minor as the former defeated Grayhound 2-0 while the latter beat GOSU with the same scoreline.

The Group A winners' match featured Renegades and Grayhound whose best-of-three series kicked off on Cache. Euan "⁠sterling⁠" Moore picked up a triple kill in the pistol round to give the T-sided Grayhound the lead.

sterling won a 1vs3 post plant to make it 4-0 but Renegades stopped the streak in the following round with pistols (4-1). Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage & company took four more to put themselves ahead but neither team could extend their lead to more than one round as Renegades finished the half 8-7 in front.

Renegades were in control in the second half and earned three map points after Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward's incredible 1vs4 clutch (15-12). Grayhound denied two map points and almost took it to overtime but jks picked up a quad kill in a 3vs5 and clutched a 1vs1 in the 30th round to finish off the map (16-14).

Grayhound started Mirage on the T-side, winning the pistol round with Erdenetsogt "⁠erkaSt⁠" Gantulga's triple kill. Renegades came back from 5-1 to take the lead but, just like on Cache, it was close until halftime. sterling and erkaSt won a 2vs3 post plant in the 15th round, giving Grayhound the 8-7 lead.

Grayhound extended their lead to 10-7 at the start of the second half but Renegades secured eight rounds in a row to get five match points (15-10). Grayhound denied all map points to take the game the overtime but Renegades sealed the deal there, winning the map 19-17 and the series 2-0 to advance to the playoffs.

MVP PK and GOSU squared off in the Group B winners' match, with the series starting on Mirage. GOSU started on the T-side and secured the pistol round after Gi-Seok "⁠SeokE⁠" Kim and Hong-Gyo "⁠Jinx⁠" Jung's double kills. Min-Seok "⁠zeff⁠" Park clutched a 1vs3 in the fifth round as MVP PK got their second round (3-2).

GOSU finished the first half with a 9-6 lead after teams kept exchanging three rounds throughout the half. SeokE & company extended their lead to 10-6 after winning the second pistol but MVP PK hit back in the following round which started a three round streak (10-9). GOSU had a 14-9 lead and looked primed win the map. However, MVP PK managed to come back and win the map 16-14 after winning a 3vs5, and three 4vs5s.

Despite starting on the CT-side and winning the pistol round on Nuke, GOSU were unable to build a strong economy after they lost the second and third rounds. The tenth round was the final nail in the coffin as Keun-Chul "⁠solo⁠" Kang and Seon-Ho "⁠xeta⁠" Son won a 2vs4 to extend MVP PK's lead to 8-2.

Hyun-Pyo "⁠XigN⁠" Lee clutched a 1vs3 in the 13th round to make it 10-3 and MVP PK went on to lead 12-3 at halftime. XigN's team picked up the first three rounds in the second half to earn twelve match points and won the map 16-5. With the 2-0 series victory, MVP PK have advanced to the playoffs at the Asia Minor.