SL i-League Invitational begins, Renegades scrape by HAVU
The StarLadder i-League Invitational has officially begun in Shanghai, China. Taking place at the Jing'an Sports Center, it hosts eight teams from all over the globe where they will compete for a prize pool of $150,000.
Unlike many other events, the invitational will be best-of-three throughout the group stage in a GSL style formatted bracket. The groups are as follows:
| Group A | Group B |
 TyLoo |
 Renegades |
 Spirit |
 HAVU |
 Hellraisers |
Flash |
 Heroic |
 Virtus.pro |
Renegades vs HAVU
The North American and Australian mash-up faced the Finnish quintet in the first day of the invitational. Following the map veto, the stage was set as the two would square-off on Overpass and Mirage with Train as the decider map.
Overpass began as a tit-for-tat as Renegades picked up the first pistol round on T-side, leading to a subsequent 3-0 lead. HAVU responded in kind with three rounds of their own. Neither team could secure momentum, as it was a series of two round trades back and forth the entire half, leading to a respectable 8-7 lead for Renegades going into CT-side.
Despite losing the second pistol round, Renegades answered with a force buy to stifle the early economic lead HAVU had taken. After collecting another 2 rounds the Finns couldn't find a way through the CT defense once they had a full economy going, and ultimately fell in a 16-12 scoreline.
Map two started of scrappy as the two teams met on Mirage. The first two rounds were close for either team as they ended in bomb defusals after tight gun fights. After trading two round sets back and forth, Renegades went on a five round streak with AK-47's at their sides. Dominant showings from Keith "NAF" Markovic and Karlo "USTILO" Pivac were critical to Renegades securing the half with an 8-7 lead.
The aggression from HAVU was not to be taken lightly, however. Save a single round, the Finnish team decidedly took six of the first seven rounds once they had the economic advantage from winning the second pistol round. After they collected themselves and patched the holes in their defense, Renegades brought the game to 15-15 and into overtime and ended up closing out the series 19-17.
RenegadesHAVU| Renegades |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
62 - 37 | +25 | 99.8 | 79.7% | 1.51 |
| Aaron 'AZR' Ward |
53 - 43 | +10 | 92.2 | 71.9% | 1.21 |
| Karlo 'USTILO' Pivac |
46 - 41 | +5 | 81.9 | 75.0% | 1.19 |
| Justin 'jks' Savage |
37 - 41 | -4 | 56.9 | 76.6% | 0.94 |
 Noah 'Nifty' Francis |
29 - 45 | -16 | 51.3 | 62.5% | 0.77 |
| HAVU |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jere 'sergej' Salo |
54 - 39 | +15 | 82.6 | 68.8% | 1.21 |
| Otto 'ottoNd' Sihvo |
51 - 44 | +7 | 83.6 | 57.8% | 1.16 |
| Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
35 - 45 | -10 | 70.5 | 64.1% | 0.95 |
| Mikko 'xartE' Välimaa |
39 - 46 | -7 | 62.3 | 70.3% | 0.86 |
| Jesse 'KHRN' Grandell |
28 - 53 | -25 | 60.2 | 62.5% | 0.70 |
Renegades await the winner of Virtus.pro and Flash. The series currently sits at 1-1, after the Chinese team were able to surprise the Poles and take a map win on Cache.
