Renegades did not lift up a brow in the IEM Katowice 2020 Oceania Closed Qualifier as they comfortably strolled through the upper bracket to secure their spot in the LAN Finals at Spodek Arena, Katowice.
Nonetheless, they were handed a decent challenge by the surprise package of the qualifier – ex-Genuine. The currently brand-less players of ex-Genuine did themselves good by showing any potential buyers that they have something to offer an organization.
The underdogs were in a disadvantageous position since the very start of this game. By entering the final from the lower bracket, they were forced to play with a 0-1 default map deficit, which proved too much to overcome against the more experienced Renegades lineup.
Ex-Genuine leveled the overall score with a close 16-14 victory on their own map pick Train but couldn’t repeat the formula on Dust2 and Inferno, both of which ended in 16-12 Renegades victories.
For Renegades this was the first proper test since they completed their latest roster change. Jordan “Hatz” Bajić, who came along from ORDER and replaced fan-favorite Ollie “DickStacey” Tierney, didn’t particularly shine in this match. He finished next to last in kills and ADR on his own team but that’s hardly an alarming signal at such an early stage of his tenure within the org.
Renegades’ triumph put an end to the qualification process for IEM Katowice 2020. With them on board, the full list of teams for the CS:GO LAN tournament is as follows:
- Astralis
- mousesports
- Team Liquid
- Fnatic
- Evil Geniuses
- Team Vitality
- 100 Thieves
- Natus Vincere
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Virtus.pro
- FaZe Clan
- G2 Esports
- Cloud9
- MAD Lions
- Renegades
- ViCi Gaming
The main event, which will give away $500,000 in prize money, will be divided into two stages. Group play will take place in the International Congress Centre on February 25-27. Spodek Arena will then handle the playoffs from February 28 until the tournament’s conclusion on March 1.
