iBUYPOWER Masters 2017 ends with NA on top with Cloud9 win

The early game on Renegades’ map pick, Mirage, was a back-and-forth affair, but Cloud9 was the team that slowly but surely started stabilized as rounds passed. Players such as Timothy “autimatic” Ta and Will “RUSH” Wierzba seemed on point, picking up frags left and right, allowing their team to go 6-2 up.

Renegades struck back with a well-coordinated pistol-armor buy that saw them execute out on A, but they couldn’t find any back-to-back success until the end of the half when they won two consecutive rounds on B to finish the Terrorist side with 5 rounds.

After the pistol round was won by Jake “Stewie2K” Yip getting a double-knife kill, Cloud9 dropped the second round to Justin “jks” Savage’s CZ-75 play in the jungle area. However, the North Americans instantly bounced back and closed out the map convincingly from there, with the final score being 16-6.

Cloud9 took the first three rounds on Train, starting with the Terrorist pistol, but Renegades were the ones in control of the first half. The Australian duo Aaron “AZR” Ward – Karlo “USTILO” Pivac were successful in holding out the outer site, with the former locking down popdog completely, and their team got to 8-4 lead shortly. However, Renegades slipped against a couple of Cloud9 force-buys late on in the half, allowing the North Americans to get to six rounds before the switch.

Despite looking unconvincing in the first half, Cloud9 was able to kick into a higher gear after winning the CT pistol and take back the lead on the defensive side. Noah “Nifty” Francis rolled out the AWP in round 24 and got the entry with it, but Stewie2Kand Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham locked down the B site to increase their lead to 14-10.

Renegades kept it alive as USTILO picked up a double entry to win his team a round, and his team then went on a five-round streak, surviving some scary situations and clutches. As they reached map point, Cloud9 was able to stop their ivy push to go into overtime. In the added rounds, Stewie2K continued with his brilliant play, and with Tarik “tarik” Celik’s help, closed out the game 19-16 to earn Cloud9 the title at iBUYPOWER Masters 2017.

Final standing:

Cloud9 – $50,000
2.  Renegades – $25,000
3-4.  Liquid – $8,750
3-4.  OpTic – $8,750
5-6.  NRG – $2,500
5-6.  Misfits – $2,500
7-8.  CLG – $1,250
7-8.  Luminosity – $1,250