TyLoo move past Renegades; to upper bracket final

TYLOO have sealed passage to the upper bracket final of the Asia Minor playoffs after defeating Renegades in a three-map series.

The battle for a spot in the upper bracket final began on Train, Renegades' map pick, with the Australians jumping out to an 8-1 lead on the CT side. A 1v3 clutch from Hui "⁠DD⁠" Wu then marked the beginning of TYLOO's first run of rounds, but they would be limited to just four rounds in the half.

Now playing on the CT side, Renegades further added to their lead following a trio of fast kills from Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac on pop dog. The Australians were now firmly in the lead, but against all expectations they could not put the game to bed.

With no room for mistakes, TYLOO dug deep and went on a massive run, winning 11 rounds in a row to hit map point. Renegades battled back and brought the game to the 30th round, but the Chinese side did not let off the gas and wrapped things up.

Inferno, the map that followed, began with a successful pistol round from Renegades following a quad kill from Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage. The Australian side followed it up with both anti-ecos, the first of which a scrappy affair that almost went awry, but the rest of the half was all about TYLOO's impenetrable defence as the Asian side went on another 11-round streak before Renegades collected their fourth of the half with a fast B push before the break.

Renegades got back in the game with a pistol round win, their fourth of the series, and this time around they were able to keep the pressure in the gun rounds, bringing the scoreline to 9-11. TYLOO responded with their first two rounds of the half, but their streak was cut short by a jks ace.

That round sparked another great run from the Australians, who tightened up their defence and even came back from two match points down to take the game to overtime.

Carrying their momentum into overtime, Renegades won the initial two rounds fairly easily, but TYLOO responded with two of their own to level up the score. It looked like the tide was now in the Chinese team's favour, but Noah "⁠Nifty⁠" Francis and Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward came to Renegades' rescue with two great individual actions to seal the victory.

It all came down to Cache, which, like Train, began with a flying start from Renegades, who cruised to an 8-2 lead on the Terrorist side. The game was starting to look like it would go the Australians' way, but TYLOO kept a very tight defence for the rest of the half and brought the deficit to just three rounds before switching sides.

The second half turned out to be a massacre. TYLOO finally won a pistol round in the series and used that momentum to destroy the Australians' defence thanks to some precise executions. One round was all that Renegades could muster, and they now find themselves fighting for their lives in the lower bracket of the tournament.