Rogue defeat Rise Nation and secure ESL Pro League spot

Rogue took a 2-0 win over Rise Nation (19-17 Inferno, 16-13 Mirage) to place second in the North American ESL Pro League Relegation and secure a spot in the next season of Pro League.

The final match of the ESL Pro League Relegation saw Rise Nation take on Rogue, with the BO3 deciding the final spot in the 7th season of Pro League. The action kicked off on Inferno, with the Canadian side showing why they picked the map early on, as they put up a dominant Terrorist side. After a 7-0 start, Rise Nation extended their lead to 10-1, with Kaleb "⁠moose⁠" Jayne being their main man throughout the first half.

To make things even worse for Rogue, Andy "⁠vSa⁠" Xu stepped up with clutches in rounds 13 and 15, earning his side an incredible 13-2 Terrorist half. The map seemed all done at this point, but the North American veteran Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin would go on a tear in the second half, with Rogue picking up nine straight rounds to make things interesting.

Rise Nation's lead came down to just two rounds (13-11) when they picked up two out of three rounds, putting up a team effort to get to match point. Hiko wouldn't let it go, though, and clutched a 1v3 on the opponents match point, eventually forcing overtime.

Rise Nation finally got a good start to a CT side round then, with Brandon "⁠Ace⁠" Winn's AWP double on short giving them the first additional round. Michael "⁠Uber⁠" Stapells and Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller clutched a 2v3 in the following one, though, Rogue finished the half with a 17-16 lead and eventually closed out the game 19-17 to complete a miraculous comeback.

cadiaN and the rest of Rogue were loud throughout the series

Mirage stared with a crazy pistol round that included Hiko picking up a knife kill, while Daniel "⁠vice⁠" Kim had to go big and win a anti-eco 1v3 two rounds later to secure a 3-0 Terrorist side start for Rogue.

Rise Nation replied with a clean full-buy win, but two closely contested rounds that went Rogue's way set the tone of the first half. The Canadian side was constantly on the back foot economy wise, which Uber and co. exploited by going fast and hitting sites together.

As the score was 8-1 in favor of Rogue, they ran over Jonathan "⁠Jonji⁠" Carey on B and secured the site to extend their lead, with the young player making up for it with two key kills that earned his side the round in the follow up.

Josh "⁠shinobi⁠" Abastado added a 4K and helped his team finish the Terrorist half 12-3, Uber secured a hat-trick of frags in the pistol and Rogue were soon on the verge of closing out the game.

It was 13-3 when Rise Nation stole away a force-buy round an started slowly bringing the game back. They got to 15-7 when they had Will "⁠dazzLe⁠" Loafman, moose and then Ace pull off crazy clutches to keep the Pro League dream alive, eventually getting the score to 15-12. There is where the comeback attempt ended, though, and with Ace unable to pull of a 1v3 on A, Rogue took the 16-13 win to secure ESL Pro League Season 7. 

ESL Pro League Season 6 North America RelegationBest of 3 Rise NationMatchpage 0 2 8th January 2018 Rogue 17Inferno 19 12Mirage 16

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The team list for ESL Pro League Season 7 is now finalized:

Cloud9	SK
Liquid	OpTic
Renegades	Misfits
Luminosity	Splyce
Complexity	NRG
Unemployed for Christmas	SoaR
Ghost	Rogue

Josh 'shinobi' Abastado Age: 23 Team: Rogue Rating 1.0: 0.83 Maps played: 202 KPR: 0.60 DPR: 0.75 Misfits #13 Sean 'seang@res' GaresShahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanHunter 'SicK' MimsFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayDavid 'devoduvek' Dobrosavljevic Splyce #56 Kory 'SEMPHIS' FriesenDaniel 'roca' GustaferriDavid 'DAVEY' StaffordTaylor 'Drone' JohnsonMitch 'mitch' Semago Rise Nation #34 Andy 'vSa' XuWill 'dazzLe' LoafmanJonathan 'Jonji' CareyKaleb 'moose' JayneBrandon 'Ace' Winn Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey Age: 18 Team: Rise Nation Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 246 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.72 SoaR #43 Matthew 'mCe' ElmoreJack 'xCeeD' HolimanLogan 'Voltage' LongRyan 'Snakes' AmannMichael 'Grim' Wince SK #1 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Spencer 'Hiko' Martin Age: 27 Team: Rogue Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 658 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.62 Complexity #64 Rory 'dephh' JacksonJaccob 'yay' WhiteakerPeter 'ptr' GurneyAlec 'Slemmy' WhiteBradley 'ANDROID' Fodor Brandon 'Ace' Winn Age: 22 Team: Rise Nation Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 208 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.61 Casper 'cadiaN' Møller Age: 22 Team: Rogue Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 595 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.66 Michael 'Uber' Stapells Age: 21 Team: RogueS Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 385 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.70 Luminosity #26 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoGustavo 'yel' KnittelMarcelo 'chelo' Cespedes Renegades #20 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardKeith 'NAF' MarkovicKarlo 'USTILO' PivacNoah 'Nifty' Francis NRG #21 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteAllan 'AnJ' JensenTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Unemployed for Christmas Kenneth 'koosta' SuenEthan 'Ethan' Arnold Ghost #82 Sebastian 'seb' BuckiConnor 'CONNOR93' GloverMatthew 'WARDELL' Yu Daniel 'vice' Kim Age: 22 Team: Rogue Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 192 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.68 Liquid #17 Lucas 'steel' LopesNick 'nitr0' CannellaJosh 'jdm64' MarzanoJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Kaleb 'moose' Jayne Age: 19 Team: Rise Nation Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 222 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.65 OpTic #12 Aleksi 'allu' JalliAdam 'friberg' FribergOscar 'mixwell' CañellasKevin 'HS' TarnEmil 'Magisk' Reif Rogue #75 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinCasper 'cadiaN' MøllerJosh 'shinobi' AbastadoDaniel 'vice' Kim Andy 'vSa' Xu Age: 23 Team: Rise Nation Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 233 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.64 Will 'dazzLe' Loafman Age: 22 Team: Rise Nation Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 207 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.71 Cloud9 #5 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' Yip