Renegades edge out Cloud9 on Mirage (16-14) to top group A at iBUYPOWER Masters 2017 and move on to the playoffs.

Both Renegades and Cloud9 had fairly straight-forward opening matches at iBUYPOWER Masters 2017, taking down Luminosity and NRG respectively. Before the group A winner's match was played, we saw Luminosity and NRG play the elimination match, with the North American side ending on top after overtime, finishing Luminosity's tournament.

Renegades are the first team to secure a playoff spot at iBP Masters

Renegades and Cloud9 matched up on Mirage, where Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik's team started on the Terrorist side. A pistol round win set up Cloud9 for a good start, taking a 5-3 lead, but Renegades took control after that. The North American's pick-style game and mid takes proved unsuccessful as the likes of Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic and Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward picked up entries round after round.

The score was 9-6 for Renegades after the first half, with Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham clutching a 1v2 in the final round to make the comeback more manageable. Things took a turn for better for Cloud9 when, after losing the pistol, they won the third round on the CT side, combining pistol-armors with a saved AK47 perfectly.

Cloud9 got to a 13-11 lead, when Renegades changed the pace and hit A fast, with almost no utility that could serve as a warning side for their opposition. The Australians won that round, and Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage continued finding good timings on the A site that allowed Renegades to get to match point (15-13). Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip replied with some mid aggression to prolong the match, but AZR did enough in the final round to close the game out 16-14.

iBUYPOWER Masters 2017 Best of 1 Renegades Matchpage 16 14 Cloud9 16 Mirage 14

Renegades K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Justin 'jks' Savagejks 29 - 18 +11 126.7 1.66 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF 26 - 14 +12 103.6 1.47 Aaron 'AZR' WardAZR 20 - 21 -1 72.3 1.07 Noah 'Nifty' FrancisNifty 16 - 16 0 47.4 0.96 Karlo 'USTILO' PivacUSTILO 11 - 21 -10 41.2 0.67 Cloud9 K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik 21 - 19 +2 68.1 1.08 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle 17 - 17 0 69.1 0.98 William 'RUSH' WierzbaRUSH 18 - 23 -5 86.4 0.94 Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K 20 - 21 -1 58.1 0.92 Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic 14 - 22 -8 57.8 0.79

Now, to move on to the playoffs, Cloud9 will have to take down NRG once again in the group decider that will take place tomorrow, before the semi-finals.