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Renegades, Ghost lead North American ESL Pro League

Renegades pulled off a sweep Friday to tie Ghost Gaming atop the ESL Pro League Season 8 standings during Week 2 of the North American division of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament.

Renegades defeated INTZ e-Sports in their two-match series while Ghost forged a split with compLexity Gaming. Renegades and Ghost each have 34 points, though Ghost has played two fewer matches.

Twelve teams are participating in round-robin online group play in the CS:GO league that runs through Nov. 14. The top six placed teams advance to the $750,000 offline finals, which will take place Dec. 4-9 at Odense, Denmark.

The top nine placed teams are guaranteed spots in the league next season. The 10th and 11th teams are sent to a relegation tournament, while the last-place team is directly relegated to ESEA Premier.

All teams play each other in consecutive one-game matches. Regulation wins provide three points, overtime wins two and overtime losses one. Regulation losses result in no points.

Renegades defeated INTZ 16-10 on Inferno and 16-14 on Dust2. Prior to their series, compLexity routed Ghost 16-6 on Nuke, with Ghost returning the favor 16-8 on Inferno.

MiBR claimed sole possession of third place with a dominant sweep of Team Envy, which included 16-4 wins on both Train and Mirage. MiBR has 32 points through 14 matches.

The day's other sweep featured a 16-1 stomp on Nuke by eUnited against Rogue. The second match was a 16-10 eUnited win on Mirage.

Team Liquid and Cloud9 split their all-American series, with Liquid winning 16-10 on Mirage before falling 16-13 on Cache. NRG Esports and Luminosity Gaming also split their series; NRG won 16-8 on Inferno before Luminosity took Cache 16-11.