SCARZ Absolute are through to the playoffs at the FACEIT Major Asia Minor after defeating Renegades in the Group A winners' match (16-14 on Dust2).

The match kicked off with SCARZ Absolute winning their Terrorist pistol in a straight B rush that saw Takemori "⁠takej⁠" Shogo and Shibasaki "⁠poem⁠" Yumeki find two opponents each. Renegades responded well, however, countering the Japanese squad with nothing but pistols to take control of proceedings, 3-1.

SCARZ Absolute then strung two rounds together to level up the score, so Renegades called for a tactical pause in a bid to halt them. Still, Koji "⁠Laz⁠" Ushida and co. further added to their lead with three more successful rounds, 6-3. Renegades did not back down, losing just two more rounds until half-time to bring the deficit to a sole round, in part thanks to Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage stepping up to the plate with multi-kills.

takej led the way for SCARZ Absolute with 28 kills

Renegades came from half-time set to turn things around, and began the second half with jks and Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac finding a entry kill each. But with a triple-kill from takej, SCARZ Absolute won their second pistol to eventually go up 11-7.

Although the Japanese men followed that up with two more rounds fairly easily, 13-7, that was when Renegades came back to life, winning five rounds in a row to reduce the deficit to a single round.

SCARZ Absolute won the subsequent round, but Renegades immediately crushed their economy to equalize the score at 14-14. Nevertheless, SCARZ Absolute remained calm and collected to complete the upset in regulation, 16-14.