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Renewal brush aside Checkmate to win MESA Pro Series 2021

by Juandi

The lineup led by Yesuntumur “nin9” Gantulga took the title and secured a spot in the upcoming Eilat 2021 Regional Qualifier – 13th IESF World Championship 2021.

Renewal won the MESA Pro Series 2021 after recording a convincing 3-0 victory over their Mongolian compatriot Checkmate (Dust2 16-13, Inferno 16-10, Nuke 16-3), clinching by far the second biggest title for the former TIGER squad after DreamHack Open June Asia 2021 – in which they also beat Checkmate in the event’s grand final. With the best-of-five win, Renewal brought home the MN₮14,000,000 (~US$4,910) and a spot in the Eilat 2021 Regional Qualifier – 13th IESF World Championship 2021.

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MESA Pro Series, organized by the Mongolian Esports Association, originally began in late December last year as a three-part series to determine eight of Mongolia’s best teams that would play in the MESA Pro Series 2021 Finals, that took place over a four-week period in July.

The first series, which commenced on December 24-27 of last year, was won by TIGER (now Renewal), while the second series in April featured numerous upsets, with Renewal and Checkmate falling to D13 Esports and ARAVT, respectively.

D13 Esports dominated the second series in May, eliminating ARAVT in the grand final. Meanwhile, Renewal won the third series with a grand final victory against D13 esports.

The following six teams qualified for the MESA Pro Series 2021 Finals:

?? Renewal ?? D13 Esports
?? Checkmate ?? BCO
?? The Black Company ?? ARAVT

The round-robin format was used during the group stage, with each side playing each other once in a best-of-three (BO3) format. During the first matchup, Enkhtaivan “Machinegun” Lkhagva’s BCO gave a big surprise to the series by taking down Renewal 2-0, while Checkmate was also got beaten by The Black Company in a close encounter. The following are the complete group stage results:

1. ?? Renewal 4-1 179-125 +54 10p
2. ?? Checkmate 3-2 175-158 +17 9p
3. ?? BCO 3-2 176-182 -6 8p
4. ?? The Black Company 2-3 146-172 -26 8p
5. ?? D13 Esports 2-3 180-184 -4 5p
6. ?? ARAVT 1-4 137-172 -35 5p

With the standings, Renewal had the grand final spot instantly in their hands. The KOTH format also gave Checkmate, the second seed, the semi-final spot, while BCO and The Black Company battled their way through the quarter-final. The last two, D13 Esports and ARAVT were out of contention, placing 5th and 6th, respectively.

The Grand Final – Renewal vs Checkmate – MESA Pro Series 2021

The battle for first place took only the minimum number of maps needed to determine a winner. It was Renewal that ran off with the win on the first map of Dust2, 16-13, despite it was heading towards a close result when Checkmate tried to balance things around in the second half.

Inferno, Checkmate’s map pick, started off well for Sergelen “H4wK” Jigjidsuren and company. However, Renewal soon took over and forced Checkmate against the wall, 16-10.

Nuke was a straightforward one. Despite starting on the T side, Renewal were able to make their rival upset as they could not secure both sites properly, giving them a little breathing room. Renewal refused to take their foot off the gas and wrapped things up without losing a single round in the next half, claiming the map as well as the MESA Pro Series 2021 champions title.

(Data patched from HLTV)

CSGO2ASIA MVP Award – MESA Pro Series 2021

nin9 was the main catalyst behind Renewal’s success overall, especially in the grand final. Consistent output as a rifler and an in-game leader, averaging a 1.39 HLTV rating, was enough to take down their biggest domestic rival in just three maps.

MESA Pro Series 2021 final standings:

Place Team Prize Seed
? 1st ?? Renewal MN₮14,000,000 (~US$4,910) Eilat 2021 Regional Qualifier
? 2nd ?? Checkmate MN₮3,000,000 (~US$1,052)
? 3rd ?? The Black Company MN₮1,500,000 (~US$526)
? 4th ?? BCO MN₮1,000,000 (~US$350)
? 5th ?? D13 Esports MN₮500,000 (~US$175)
? 6th ?? ARAVT


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Cover photo by MESA


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