RBG and Kansas City Pioneers qualify for ECS Season 8 Pinnacle Cup
RBG and Kansas City Pioneers have secured spots in the ECS Season 8 Pinnacle Cup following wins over Ascent and RUNnGUN, respectively, in the semifinals of the second qualifier.
The second day of the qualifier got underway at 7 PM EDT with the quarterfinals. A forfeit by Orgless saw RBG immediately through to the semfinals, while an Ascent lineup that featured Abdo "c4Lypso" Agha made short work of bigpizza by denying double-digit rounds on either map to secure their own spot in the top four.
The upper portion of the bracket saw a little more contention as RUNnGUN narrowly scraped by Kanpeki's Kawaii Killers in overtime on Nuke before taking the second map, Mirage, 16-11. Meanwhile, Kansas City Pioneers defeated Monstars in a three map series, initially crushing their opposition 16-4 on Nuke before conceding Inferno 11-16, leading to a decider map of Overpass where a 16-11 victory of their own secured them a spot in the semifinals.
Ascent and RBG were the first to clash in their matchup for a spot in the Pinnacle Cup, with the series kicking off on Mirage. An early 5-1 lead for c4Lypso and company dwindled as RBG answered by winning seven of the ensuing eight rounds, with Ascent able to keep themselves close at 7-8 at the half.
Ascent found four rounds in a row following the side swap to pull ahead 11-8, but were responded to by Colby "Walco" Walsh as he helped his side recover and keep the scoreline close. Although Ascent were the first to attain match point at 15-12, RGB fought to push the map to overtime. There, Ascent regained their footing, securing four straight rounds to close out Mirage 19-15.
Nuke saw a reversal of fates as RBG took an early lead, flawlessly securing five rounds on the offense before Ascent were able to respond with a trio of their own. RBG answered back by extending their lead to 8-3, although Ascent won four rounds as the half drew to a close to keep the scoreline close. Following their switch to the defensive side, RBG took firm control of the proceedings as they gave up just two rounds on the road to a 16-9 victory.
In a stark departure to the opening halves of the first two maps, Inferno was a blowout, with RBG stacking up thirteen CT-side rounds off the back of a stellar individual performance by Austin "gmanchew" Vieira. Ascent managed just five rounds in total on the map, leading to a 16-5 map win for RBG to secure a spot in the Pinnacle Cup.
AscentRBG| Ascent |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Lucas 'Fiziq' Blow |
48 - 50 | -2 | 69.3 | 71.2% | 1.04 |
 Abdo 'c4Lypso' Agha |
53 - 61 | -8 | 74.4 | 63.7% | 0.98 |
| Joshua 'KiiroKami' Kim |
48 - 58 | -10 | 70.7 | 65.0% | 0.91 |
| Noah 'ULTRA' Giesbrecht |
53 - 63 | -10 | 73.2 | 57.5% | 0.88 |
| Marc-Andre 'NiSMO' Tayar |
48 - 58 | -10 | 65.6 | 66.2% | 0.86 |
| RBG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colby 'Walco' Walsh |
70 - 46 | +24 | 85.8 | 78.8% | 1.33 |
| Josh 'pwny' VanGorder |
62 - 48 | +14 | 87.9 | 73.8% | 1.27 |
| Austin 'gmanchew' Vieira |
62 - 52 | +10 | 89.2 | 75.0% | 1.18 |
| Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
49 - 50 | -1 | 60.6 | 72.5% | 1.03 |
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
47 - 54 | -7 | 67.5 | 65.0% | 0.89 |
Also in contrast to the first series, Kansas City Pioneers always managed to stay ahead of RUNnGUN at the half in their own semifinal matchup, opening with a 9-6 lead on the T-side of Vertigo. Despite Tyler "tweiss" Weiss' best efforts, Kansas City Pioneers found themselves unable to convert off of their lead following the side swap, winning just two rounds as RUNnGUN close out the map 16-11.
Another T-side start on Mirage saw tweiss continue leading the way for his side, helping to secure another 9-6 halftime lead. This time, the flip on over to the defense saw Kansas City Pioneers take firm control, locking out RUNnGUN to take the map 16-6.
The deciding map of Nuke saw the rest of Kansas City Pioneers step up to bat, putting up a stalwort defense to dominate the opening half 12-3. A comeback effort by RUNnGUN in the second half kept things close as the team rallied back to a 15-12 scoreline, but tweiss and company were able to seal the deal and secure a 2-1 series victory.
Kansas City PioneersRUNnGUN| Kansas City Pioneers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyler 'tweiss' Weiss |
66 - 49 | +17 | 86.3 | 70.1% | 1.30 |
| Joshua 'Hunter' Madore |
58 - 50 | +8 | 77.7 | 68.8% | 1.14 |
| David 'cynic' Polster |
62 - 50 | +12 | 87.1 | 74.0% | 1.14 |
| Erik 'penny' Penny |
56 - 57 | -1 | 84.6 | 70.1% | 1.11 |
| Alexander 'zanz' Diaz |
42 - 54 | -12 | 62.8 | 70.1% | 0.90 |
| RUNnGUN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'miLLe' St-Pierre |
60 - 48 | +12 | 83.4 | 67.5% | 1.18 |
| Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
52 - 61 | -9 | 82.8 | 68.8% | 1.02 |
| Cedric 'Melio' Perrault |
54 - 62 | -8 | 78.4 | 75.3% | 0.97 |
| David 'J0LZ' Jolin |
50 - 56 | -6 | 70.5 | 67.5% | 0.93 |
| Yannick 'KOLER' Blanchette |
43 - 57 | -14 | 61.2 | 67.5% | 0.85 |
RBG and Kansas City Pioneers have joined The Quest and Lazarus on the team list for the ECS Season 8 Pinnacle Cup, with eight teams set to be invited and an additional four teams still set to be determined through the two remaining qualifiers. The dates and signup links for the two final qualifiers, as well as dates for a variety of upcoming events, can be found on the Dust2.us Calendar.
