Favorites advance to first ECS S8 Pinnacle Cup qualifier semis
Day two of the first ECS Season 8 Pinnacle Cup open qualifier has come to a close, with ATK, The Quest, Lazarus, and LiViD making their way into the semi-finals.
The day started off with the now ex-Variance squad falling to ATK in two quick series on Train and Dust2. Starting off on the T-side, ATK dominated ex-Variance to end the half up 11-4. In the second half, ex-Variance managed to put up a slightly better showing, finding six rounds on their CT-side although ATK held onto their lead for the entirety of the map winning it 16-10.
On Dust2, ex-Variance looked a bit better, finding six rounds on their T-side to trail 6-9 at the half, however once ATK moved onto their T-side they ran away with the game taking seven rounds in a row to close out Dust2 16-6. During the map, Ian "motm" Hardy went on a killing spree, finding 37 frags and 171.5 ADR, helping to propel him to a 2.29 rating over the series.
Rap GangATK| Rap Gang |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Justin 'FaNg' Coakley |
35 - 35 | +0 | 75.3 | 75.0% | 1.04 |
 Erick 'Xeppaa' Bach |
39 - 42 | -3 | 91.0 | 64.6% | 1.01 |
| Kevin '4pack' Przypasniak |
26 - 37 | -11 | 63.9 | 62.5% | 0.88 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
25 - 40 | -15 | 63.9 | 56.2% | 0.70 |
| Bilal 'SPAMMER' Ali |
20 - 43 | -23 | 54.6 | 54.2% | 0.68 |
| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
70 - 26 | +44 | 141.8 | 87.5% | 2.29 |
 Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
37 - 26 | +11 | 80.6 | 70.8% | 1.23 |
| Dominic 'Domsterr' Sampaio |
31 - 28 | +3 | 74.1 | 77.1% | 1.18 |
| Roberto 'blackpoisoN' Dall'Occo |
29 - 31 | -2 | 72.0 | 72.9% | 1.01 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
30 - 34 | -4 | 63.3 | 75.0% | 0.97 |
The next series concluded in an equally quick fashion as The Quest dominated Main AWP (Imperial/Mode Media House depending on the day and weather). Starting on Inferno, The Quest claimed an 11-4 half on their CT-side before closing out the map 16-6.
Things continued to go poorly for Main AWP as The Quest found a repeat 11-4 CT-side on Nuke, going on to claim the map 16-9.
The Questimperial| The Quest |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logan 'Voltage' Long |
41 - 23 | +18 | 87.2 | 85.1% | 1.45 |
| Gabe 'Spongey' Greiner |
41 - 26 | +15 | 94.9 | 85.1% | 1.37 |
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
35 - 30 | +5 | 87.9 | 83.0% | 1.30 |
| Jack 'xCeeD' Holiman |
39 - 35 | +4 | 78.6 | 70.2% | 1.16 |
| Ryan 'Snakes' Amann |
35 - 25 | +10 | 75.5 | 80.9% | 1.14 |
| imperial |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rafael 'clone' Singer |
34 - 36 | -2 | 71.6 | 70.2% | 0.96 |
| Paul 'saiyo' Saiyo |
28 - 38 | -10 | 73.8 | 70.2% | 0.93 |
| Alex 'vek' Voynov |
27 - 39 | -12 | 60.9 | 61.7% | 0.82 |
| Alex 'Obs1dian' Conrad |
24 - 41 | -17 | 69.3 | 53.2% | 0.69 |
| Stephen 'Huston' Huston |
25 - 38 | -13 | 49.3 | 61.7% | 0.68 |
The third series of the night resulted in Lazarus claiming a 2-0 win over a Final Feature mix-team notably featuring Brendan "stellar" McGrath and Robert "robby" Brown. It is also worth noting that Lazarus are enlisting coach Danny "fRoD" Montaner as a stand-in due to Braxton "swag" Pierce still being banned from ECS events.
Starting off the series on Inferno after Final Feature won their opening CT-side pistol, Lazarus answered back in a big way, winning twelve out of the next fourteen rounds to claim a dominant 12-3 half. Upon switching sides, it looked like Lazarus were set to take the map in quick order however, Final Feature rebounded massively, claiming nine out of the next eleven rounds to close the gap to only two. Unfortunately for them, Lazarus managed to stave off Final Feature's advance, finding two out the next three rounds to take Inferno 16-13.
On Mirage, Lazarus claimed a more modest 9-6 lead at the end of the first half. They carried their lead onto their CT-side as they climbed up to thirteen rounds before Final Feature managed to claim three rounds of their own. Following this, Lazarus managed to overpower Final Feature to close out the map 16-10. Over the course of the series, Gage "Infinite" Green and Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker put in strong performances helping to make up for the lack of swag.
LazarusFinal Feature| Lazarus |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
49 - 34 | +15 | 87.1 | 78.2% | 1.39 |
| Jaccob 'yay' Whiteaker |
46 - 30 | +16 | 81.9 | 69.1% | 1.35 |
| Jordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro |
48 - 35 | +13 | 95.4 | 74.5% | 1.34 |
| Yassine 'Subroza' Taoufik |
30 - 38 | -8 | 69.2 | 69.1% | 0.92 |
| Danny 'fRoD' Montaner |
24 - 39 | -15 | 55.2 | 72.7% | 0.81 |
| Final Feature |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brenden 'stellar' McGrath |
42 - 34 | +8 | 86.7 | 72.7% | 1.29 |
| Austin 'RenZ' Dickman |
44 - 42 | +2 | 79.8 | 67.3% | 1.13 |
| Robert 'robby' Brown |
32 - 36 | -4 | 64.9 | 74.5% | 0.95 |
| Shawn 'Magowi' O'Malley |
39 - 43 | -4 | 73.7 | 74.5% | 0.94 |
| George 'Powerzz' Yaede |
19 - 42 | -23 | 39.9 | 61.8% | 0.58 |
The final series of the night went to three maps as Sadboyz, a mix-team featuring former Good Game PR players Riley "Reality" Fusch and Amine "dopamine" Hamzic managed to take a map off the new-look LiViD squad.
The first map in the series, Inferno, was the closest of them all as after LiviD started off their CT-side up 8-1, Sadboyz managed to rebound and secure a less dire 6-9 deficit. Following this, Sadboyz tied things up after winning their opening CT-side pistol and the following two rounds. Following this, the two teams continued to trade round although in the end LiViD managed to narrowly take Inferno 16-13 in part capitalizing on their round lead from their CT-side.
Continuing onto Mirage, Sadboyz launched into a strong T-side, finding the first seven rounds in a row before taking the half 9-6. After this, they quickly closed out the map 16-8 after claiming seven out of the next nine rounds on their CT-side.
With the series all tied up, LiViD got their chance to get revenge for Mirage as they claimed a 16-8 win of their own on Overpass after winning their CT-side 10-5.
LiViDSadboyz| LiViD |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony 'gMd' Guimond |
67 - 53 | +14 | 93.2 | 72.7% | 1.26 |
| Mathieu 'INCRED' Bergeron |
54 - 43 | +11 | 66.5 | 74.0% | 1.17 |
| Danny 'huynh' Huynh |
61 - 51 | +10 | 78.4 | 70.1% | 1.14 |
| Loic 'effys' Sauvageau |
55 - 46 | +9 | 78.4 | 71.4% | 1.13 |
| Michael 'MkaeL' De Luca |
40 - 56 | -16 | 67.8 | 71.4% | 0.85 |
| Sadboyz |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amine 'dopamine' Hamzic |
63 - 60 | +3 | 90.7 | 70.1% | 1.18 |
| Riley 'Reality' Fusch |
58 - 50 | +8 | 81.2 | 75.3% | 1.13 |
| Nicholas 'nicholasP' Plonski |
50 - 53 | -3 | 71.3 | 74.0% | 1.00 |
| Justin 'V3tis' Goszczynski |
49 - 57 | -8 | 69.3 | 64.9% | 0.94 |
| Michael 'Tundra' Koveshnikov |
28 - 59 | -31 | 48.9 | 62.3% | 0.68 |
With the quarterfinals complete, the semifinal matchups for tonight look as follows:
| The Quest |
vs. | ATK |
| Lazarus |
vs. | LiViD |
Two of these team will be claiming spots in the ECS Season 8 Pinnacle Cup, which will be used to determine the order of availability in the regular season for challenger teams.
