Renegades scrape win over NiP; NRG breeze past ViCi

Renegades and NRG have entered the 2-0 pool of teams in the New Challengers Stage in Katowice after recording wins over Ninjas in Pyjamas and ViCi, respectively.

Ninjas in Pyjamas drew first blood in the game off the back of a triple-kill from Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund in the pistol round, but there was no follow-up by the Swedes as Renegades hit back on a shoddy buy with a clutch from Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas. The Australians used that momentum to carve out a strong early lead, keeping the Swedes off any economic development.

Down 2-5, Ninjas in Pyjamas rallied back with nothing but Glocks, which turned out to be a game-changing round. The Swedes took control of proceedings after that and ran all over the Renegades defence to take a narrow one-round lead into the break.

The second half began with a dominant pistol round by Renegades, who did not lose a single player. But just like in the first half, the team winning the pistol was unable to put together a string of rounds as Ninjas in Pyjamas responded immediately.

Once their economy was in order again, Renegades took control of the game, hitting match point at 15-11. Ninjas in Pyjamas refused to throw in the towel and attempted a late response, but an A split from the Australians put the game to bed.

Meanwhile, NRG made light work of ViCi in a one-sided Overpass game that began with a trio of kills from Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina in the opening pistol round. What followed was a chaotic period of play as rounds were traded by the two teams, with NRG eventually coming out on top.

The North American side was always one step above their opponents in the first half and cruised to an 11-4 lead after shutting down any chances of ViCi stringing rounds together.

Now playing on the Terrorist side, the Chinese team found a lifeline as they secured the pistol round. However, their efforts were in vain as NRG replied instant and set up a tight defence, locking down the map at 16-6.