A look at the teams for ESL One Cologne: Part 13 – Renegades.
Part 1 – Cloud9
Part 2 – Immunity
Part 3 – mousesports
Part 4 – Virtus.pro
Part 5 – FlipSid3 Tactics
Part 6 – Kinguin
Part 7 – Luminosity Gaming
Part 8 – EnVyUs
Part 9 – Titan
Part 10 – Natus Vincere
Part 11 – eBettle
Part 12 – FNATIC
The players from Renegades, who previously played as Vox Eminor, are most likely the best know team from outside the European and North American scene. At the last major they came 9-12th, but since then they have lost topguN and gained Yam. They are one of the best teams from the Oceanic region, but they have yet to show that they can be one of the best teams in the world.
Their first tournament with Yam was at GFINITY Masters Spring 2 where they first played close with FNATIC ending in 16:13 (Cache), 13:16 (Dust2), and against Liquid they won convincingly 16:9 (Inferno), 16:8 (Dust2). Against Ninjas in Pyjamas they also took a map each 16:13 (Train), 5:16 (Dust2), but when they faced Natus Vincere they got stomped 16:3 (Cobblestone), 16:1 (Inferno). Their last match was a beating, but taking a map of both of the Swedish teams and beating Liquid was not a poor display from the Aussies.
Australian Cyber League 2015: Sydney was just a possibility for Renegades to show that they are the best Australian team, and they did by not dropping a map or letting any team gain more than maximum 11 rounds pr. map against them.
At ESWC 2015 they first play Counter Logic Gaming who they win against 16:13 (Cache), but against EnVyUs they fell 6:16 (Cache). They did beat the South Africans from Bravado 16:5 (Inferno), but in the quarterfinal they again face Natus Vincere who again proves a too big of a challenge winning 16:8 (Overpass), 16:5 (Train).
While they come third at IEM Season X – gamescom it is not a hard earned result due to the format, and they avoided playing any team on day 3. On the first day that played mousesports who annihilated them 16:2 (Dust2), and later against Team SoloMid they didn’t have a much better performance as Team SoloMid won 16:6 (Mirage). On the second day they played SK Gaming, who had just brought in cadiaN and was playing with NiKo as standin, in their first match Renegades won 16:10 (Cache), and did they the same in the second match although it was a lot closer ending 16:14 (Mirage). The third match went to SK in a very close game ending 19:16 (Cobblestone) which also has one of the best highlights of the year with cadiaN’s two double AWP kills.
Thoughts
The team is a team who can upset, but at IEM gamescom they didn’t look impressive by all means only winning against SK gaming, who is by no means a top team, and was spanked by mousesports and Team SoloMid. While jks can win rounds on his own, and both Havoc and Yam being capable players they are not at the same level as of the favored teams at this tournament. I see them as stronger than both their countrymen from Immunity, the Poles from eBettle, and with being above or the same level as Counter Logic Gaming and Luminosity Gaming. Where all three can upset I don’t think they realistically can aim higher than another 9-12th placing.
In terms of maps I would say that they are strong on: Cache, Dust2 while being decent on: Mirage, Train and Inferno, but their Cobblestone and Overpass have not impressed me.
As their first match is again Team SoloMid I don’t think the Aussies have a chance, and against of the other teams I would bet against Renegades.
Links taken from HLTV.org and Liquipedia.
