The Quest and Lazarus qualify for ECS Season 8 Pinnacle Cup

The Quest and Lazarus have emerged victorious from the first ECS Season 8 North America Pinnacle Cup open qualifier, earning themselves spots in the Pinnacle Cup that will play out in September.

Both teams had relatively unencumbered paths through the qualifier, with Lazarus defeating Final Feature with little difficulty in their quarter-final matchup and The Quest soundly dispatching of imperial in two maps to secure their spot in the semi-finals.

The Quest were the first up to bat as they took down ATK 2-1 in their matchup. The bout between the two sides began on Inferno, with The Quest putting up a dominant 11-4 half on the offense thanks to three 1vs3 clutches that were won by Logan "⁠Voltage⁠" Long and Gabe "⁠Spongey⁠" Greiner. The second half also saw little contention as The Quest gave up just three rounds before securing a 16-7 victory.

Dust2 saw a more competitive scoreline between the two sides as Ian "⁠motm⁠" Hardy and Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince went head-to-head, with both players ending regulation play with over 30 kills to their names. Despite trailing 6-9 at the half and having to claw back from a 11-15 deficit, ATK managed to steal away a 19-16 victory on their own map pick, pushing the series to an Overpass decider.

ATK maintained momentum as they got off to a 4-0 start on the offensive side of Overpass, with The Quest replying in kind to tie up the scoreline. motm continued his fragging form from the previous map, but this time he was joined by his teammates as ATK gave up only one additional round on the road to a 10-5 scoreline at the half.

The South African side swiftly extended their lead to 12-5 following a pistol victory, with The Quest replying with four rounds once they had rifles in their hands to narrow the deficit to 12-9. Three rounds went the way of ATK to put the team on match point, but The Quest remained resilient as they fought back with six rounds straight to once again force overtime.

The two teams remained locked in a brawl as they fought their way into a second overtime, where The Quest emerged victorious as they edged out a 22-18 map win to take home the series.

The situation was far more clear-cut in Lazarus' matchup against LiViD. Despite being forced to field their coach, Danny "⁠fRoD⁠" Montaner, in place of Braxton "⁠swag⁠" Pierce due to the player still being unable to compete in ECS, Lazarus had little trouble dispatching of their French Canadian opposition.

Strong performances from Gage "⁠Infinite⁠" Green and Jaccob "⁠yay⁠" Whiteaker early on aided Lazarus in their opening gambit, seeing the team win seven uncontested rounds on their own pick of Mirage to kick off the series. LiViD broke the streak by taking a trio of rounds for their own, but were unable to halt yay's momentum as Lazarus cruised to a 12-3 scoreline at the half, with the team quickly closing out the first map with a 16-4 scoreline following the side swap.

LiViD fared no better on their own pick of Inferno as Lazarus took another spree of rounds to open up the map, this time managing eight before LiViD got on the board themselves, mustering four of their own in the half. A pistol victory following the side swap allowed for the French Canadians to close the gap to 11-6 in Lazarus' favour, but they were only able to add one final round to their tally before yay took the map over the line for his team with a 16-7 victory.