FaZe managed to close out the series against Renegades 2-1 (Nuke 16-7, Mirage 19-22, Train 16-10) to grab the second spot in group B and qualify for IEM Oakland.

The series to decide the last spot at IEM Oakland started on Nuke, Renegades pick. The Australians lost the pistol round, but Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward quickly replied with four Deagle kills in the following one to win the force buy for his team.

Unfortunately for Renegades, Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli showed some of his own Deagle skills in the next round and got three quick kills on the B site to put FaZe back in the driver's seat.

Yaman "⁠yam⁠" Ergenekon was denied a 1v2 clutch by allu in round 7, but his team managed an eco round win in the following one—only to lose to another force buy in the next round, making it 6-4 for FaZe.

The European team got to a 9-4 lead before a silent walk behind the outside smoke wall allowed Renegades to take the B site courtesy of three kills from Ricardo "⁠Rickeh⁠" Mulholland, and they followed it up with another round to make it 9-6 for the first half.

kioShiMa was looking good after his stint on the bench

Even though they were only three rounds down moving onto the favored side, Renegades couldn't get the ball rolling on CT as they lost the first three rounds, won the first gun round but a loss in the following round left their economy shattered.

Their second and very limited CT buy round came at a 14-7 lead for FaZe, but Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's troops dealt with it successfully and closed out their opponents map pick 16-7.

Renegades got the much needed good start on Mirage, but a reckless anti-eco proved costly as they lost round 5—allowing FaZe to slowly take over the momentum.

karrigan's team focused on mid control and utilized their map control by going for site splits that Renegades struggled to deal with. In the end of the half, Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac made the most of the saved AK-47—getting three entry kills and setting his team up for an 8-7 halftime finish.

A five-man A rush got Renegades the pistol round as they ran away with the lead in a similar fashion to what FaZe did on Nuke. After the first three, the Australian team lost one round—only to reset Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup and co. in the following one.

To get their 14th round on the board, Renegades did a fast A hit with USTILO and AZR leading the charge out of palace. The play caught FaZe off guard and Renegades followed it up with another round win to get to match point at 15-8.



USTILO had a number of high-impact plays on Mirage

FaZe didn't let go however, as they squeezed out tight rounds to fight against 7 map points and force overtime. In the added rounds, Renegades once again reached map point but Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey continued with strong plays to tie it up and extend the map even more.

yam's team was in the lead once again in the second overtime, with AZR's double-kill on the lurk finally sealing the deal for Renegades, making it 22-19 in the end.

On Train, Renegades had a great start on the CT side, controlling the economy early on, but FaZe recovered by focusing on the outer site and utilizing their utility to negate the effect of the double AWP setup the Australians were concentrating on.

At 6-5, the CT's decided to push up more aggresively towards pop-dog and T main, stopping the A pushes early and grabbing an 8-7 half because of it.

Another pistol round went Renegades way, but FaZe bounced straight back with a B site force-buy lockdown and powered on towards victory with a strong CT side on Train. In the end it was 16-10, and 2-1 for FaZe for them to take the second spot in group B and qualify for IEM Oakland.

After this match, IEM Oakland's groups will look like this:

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.