NRG edge past Renegades in Legends stage at Berlin Major

NRG had a slow start to the Challengers stage of the 2019 StarLadder Berlin Major, and has narrowly avoided the same result in the first round of the Legends stage. 

The mixed squad survived a valiant effort from Renegades on Dust 2 to take a 16-14 victory in the stage’s first round of play. It took a heroic four-kill effort during a 3v5 that boiled down to a 1v1 situation from Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte to secure the map win. 

NRG’s slow start at the beginnings of stages hasn’t hampered their ability to move through tournament brackets. After a shocking 15-6 start to their first match of the tournament against DreamEaters, NRG battled back but couldn’t quite pull out the victory, losing 19-17 in overtime. NRG was able to recover and qualify for the Legends stage, but nearly faltered at the beginning here as well.

Justin “jks” Savage of Renegades led the way in the server with 26 kills, followed closely by NRG’s Ethan “Ethan” Arnold with 24. NRG’s young sniping star Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov managed to pull even with a 16-16 K/D. 

NRG to meet Team Liquid at Berlin Major

The next matchup for NRG will be perhaps their toughest of the entire tournament. They’ll take on juggernaut North American squad Team Liquid in the next round. 

The road ahead for NRG will be one of the most difficult in the tournament. Apart from facing off against the consensus best team in the world in the second round, should they lose they’ll still need two more wins against a strong remaining field to secure their advance into the Champions stage. 

So far, the Berlin Major has gone largely as expected with just a few hiccups along the way. Complexity was knocked out in the Challenger stage, but even that was only a minor upset. Strong teams like NRG and Vitality took early losses but rallied later in the stage to move on. 

Should NRG lose to Team Liquid, they’ll need to rally yet again to make the next stage. Team Liquid are the undisputed best team in the world, and one loss to the world champions shouldn’t hurt NRG’s psyche overly much as they move forward. Should NRG rally just as they did in the Challengers stage, they’ll have a good chance at making the top eight and the coveted Champions stage.