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.

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.

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