TyLoo have booked their spot in the semi-finals at IEM Sydney and assured themselves of a top-four finish after defeating Renegades in a two-map series.

The battle for Group A's top spot began on Inferno, where TYLOO got out to a quick 4-0 lead on the Terrorist side. Renegades then finally got a round on the board thanks to a quad-kill from Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward, which sparked a massive run from the Australian team, who kept their opponents on the back foot for the majority of the half, not allowing any economic development on their part, and took a three-round lead going into the break.

Now on the CT side of the map, TYLOO set up a very tight defence and reclaimed the lead in the 21st round on the back of a spectacular ace from Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand near the B entrance. Just two rounds later, Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac single-handedly rescued Renegades with a quad-kill on the A site, propelling the team to finally string rounds together in the half.

But the Australians would not be able to retake the lead. With the score tied 12-12, HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu outplayed Noah "⁠Nifty⁠" Francis in a 1v1 situation, which sparked a great run from TYLOO that would only end when they had the game in the bag.

BnTeT led the charge for TyLoo

Next up was Train, where TYLOO drew first blood after denying Renegades' inner site rush in the pistol round. The Australians managed to win the third round with a full buy, and they followed up on that with another round thanks to a trio of kills from Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad in a 2v4 situation.

Renegades went on to take the lead at 3-2, but TYLOO hit back immediately with a 1v2 clutch from Hui "⁠DD⁠" Wu. The Chinese side did not take their foot off the pedal, with the scoreline blooming to a 9-4 advantage before the home team bagged the final two rounds of the half to keep their hopes alive.

The second half began with Renegades taking the pistol round with a sneaky defuse to cut the deficit to two. But once TYLOO got money in the bank, the impetus of the game changed dramatically. The Australians struggled for ideas and simply could not hold off their opponents, who hit match point with a 1v3 clutch from BnTeT before somebody shut down the CTs with a trio of kills in a flank.