Monstars, Kansas City Pioneers, Ascent headline second ECS Pinnacle Cup qualifier quarterfinalists
The first day of the second ECS Season 8 Pinnacle Cup qualifier has concluded, leaving eight teams standing as the qualifier moves into the best-of-three quarterfinals stage.
A total of 53 teams participated in the second open qualifier, with a handful of notable names being sent packing early on in the bracket. The most noteworthy of those was LiViD, who fell 8-16 on Mirage to Kanpeki's Kawaii Killers in the round of 32. Rap Gang and ex-heX were also both sent packing by Kansas City Pioneers, while Big Frames were out-muscled by Ascent 14-16 on Dust2.
Monstars narrowly scraped a 16-13 win over Moscow Five Yankees in their own round of 32 matchup, a victory which they followed up by dismantling a Final Feature roster that bore a resemblance to the lineup in the previous qualifier, with the only change seeing 15-year-old Ethan "ReckMONSTER" Serrano replacing George "Powerzz" Yaede. Main Awp also returned from the first qualifier in a bid to secure a spot in the top eight, but found their run cut short by a RUNnGUN lineup that featured Jonathan "djay" Dallal in place of Brandon "YuZ" Cyr.
Following the first day of play, the quarterfinal matchups look as follows:
 Kansas City Pioneers |
vs. | Monstars |
 RUNnGUN |
vs. | Kanpeki's Kawaii Killers |
| Ascent |
vs. | bigpizza |
| RBG |
vs. | Orgless |
All four quarterfinal matchups will play out tomorrow at 2 PM EDT, with the winners advancing to the semifinals to play for two spots in the ECS Season 8 Pinnacle Cup. Two open qualifiers remain, offering teams four final spots in the Pinnacle Cup — dates and signup links for those events can be found on the Dust2.us Calendar.
