It may have taken a bit more than five hours, but the Detroit Renegades are bound for pool play after securing a 2-1 victory over Red Reserve.
Troy “Sender” Michaels and company also took down Xtrovert’s European team and Supremacy en route to their placement in Group D, and the side has come a long way since their open bracket round of 16 loss in Las Vegas. From that point on, Sender said he and his team were on a mission to improve.
“Between then and now, we replaced a player and had nonstop grinding,” Sender said. “We played over 300 GameBattles matches, and it was such a long time of nonstop playing, arguing and trying to get better.”
Owned by Jonas Jerebko, a power forward for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association, Renegades is known in several other esports, such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch, the latter of which known as “5 Hour Renegades” after their sponsor bought naming rights to the team. With a strong professional presence in other esports and with a basketball professional at the helm, Sender sees a bit of pressure to succeed, but making it to the top of Call of Duty in the LAN league is a goal that everyone in the organization wants to achieve.
“That’s our goal as players, it’s not even for the org we represent,” Sender said. “”But for being a part of this org, we really want to succeed for them as well.”
Even though Renegades have competed since Friday in the open bracket, a test that challenges every Call of Duty player, Sender says he and his team “feel good” for pool play. With Pool D having two of the top NA and EU sides in Call of Duty today, Sender sees the Boys in Blue as their toughest test in the group.
“Even though EnVyUs lost to eUnited, I still think they are the strongest team in Pool D,” Sender said. “Our match against eUnited will be a good series, and Orbit and Fnatic will be good as well.”
As for after pool play? Sender is more than excited to see some familiar foes in the championship bracket.
“To be honest, I want the teams in our pool,” Sender said. “Of any team in pool play right now, I think nV and eUnited are the two teams we really wanted to play against.”
Renegades will have to win three out of their four games in order to qualify for the Championship Winner’s bracket, or force a tie breaker on map count against EnVyUs. Otherwise, the team’s grind will continue in the loser’s bracket, potentially against some other open bracket grinders.
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James Mattone is a journalist for GAMURS and can be contacted on Twitter –@TheJamesMattone.
