The world of gaming is not new to Lando Norris. The 22-year-old Formula 1 racing prodigy regularly plays video games with other drivers Charles Leclerc and George Russell while streaming to thousands of followers on his Twitch account.
Norris established Quadrant, an esports company in late 2020 that blends his “passion for Gaming, Lifestyle, Content, and Apparel.” Prior to this week, the organization only fielded professional teams in the games Halo and Call of Duty. Now, however, Quadrant has joined the Rocket League Championship Series.
Nobody was exactly sure what to anticipate from Quadrant’s inaugural competition. Due to the squad’s formation so soon into the season, the players had little opportunity to develop essential in-game synergy despite each player’s strong but uneven performance in prior tournaments.
The European Fall Open, the first significant European regional competition of the season, provided the Quadrant team with their first opportunity to establish themselves on the professional Rocket League circuit.
Quadrant upset the 2021–2022 RLCS world champions, Team BDS, in the quarterfinals despite barely avoiding elimination from the Swiss Stage of the competition to advance to the playoffs. Five of the seven games of the series were decided by a single goal, making it as close as they come.
Ultimately, Quadrant defeated Team BDS and earned a spot on Championship Sunday with a last-second yet critical goal that came almost four minutes into overtime. Last season, Team BDS won both the European and World Championships, making Quadrant’s upset one of the biggest in recent memory. Only time will tell if this triumph was the result of the world champions having a bad day or if the new group is indeed a title contender.
