Extra Salt qualify for ESL Challenger Anaheim

DreamHack will return to LAN in North America in 2022.

Extra Salt have topped the North American closed qualifier for ESL Challenger Anaheim 2022 after defeating paiN 2-1 in the grand final. Facing only Brazilian opposition, Extra Salt swept the four-team qualifier without dropping a series, only losing a single map to paiN in the final match.

Extra Salt are the third team to confirm a spot at the first ESL Challenger event, which is a rebranding of DreamHack Open, a series that is finally returning to LAN in 2022. 9z and ORDER already booked their spots via the South America and Oceania qualifiers, respectively, while a fourth team will be determined on Monday following the conclusion of the Europe qualifier.

Extra Salt will have a chance to prove themselves on LAN

Despite an early lead on the CT side of Nuke, Extra Salt faltered against the T side of paiN and only secured an 8-7 lead at halftime. The North American side were unable to replicate the success of the Brazilians' offense after the side swap, and ultimately conceded the first map 13-16.

Extra Salt's pick of Overpass was a completely different story however, as Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou called an impressive offensive half, leading 10-5. Despite a huge under-performance from star Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm, the North American side pulled through in the second half with the help of a strong defense from Ricky "⁠floppy⁠" Kemery and Edgar "⁠MarKE⁠" Maldonado.

Vertigo was quite back and forth, seeing paiN scrappily secure six rounds on their T side. Extra Salt were able to easily secure a 15-8 lead and looked to finish out the series, but the Brazilian side weren't out and grinded their way back to 15-15 and secured overtime. Despite the choke in regulation, Extra Salt snuck by in OT, rallying back to secure the third map 19-17 despite a monstrous performance Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa.

ESL Challenger Anaheim 2022 North America Closed QualifierBest of 3 Extra SaltMatchpage 2 1 13th December 2021 paiN 13Nuke 16 16Overpass 10 19Vertigo 17

Extra Salt	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Justin 'FaNg' CoakleyFaNg	76 - 63	+13	82.5	1.21
Edgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoMarKE	66 - 55	+11	75.2	1.15
Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouJT	61 - 64	-3	77.1	1.11
Ricky 'floppy' Kemeryfloppy	57 - 55	+2	72.3	0.98
Josh 'oSee' OhmoSee	51 - 60	-9	68.1	0.93

paiN	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Rafael 'saffee' Costasaffee	80 - 59	+21	81.9	1.19
Gabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoNEKIZ	67 - 68	-1	86.0	1.07
Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourtbiguzera	59 - 63	-4	71.0	1.01
Wesley 'hardzao' Lopeshardzao	51 - 59	-8	59.9	0.88
Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoPKL	39 - 62	-23	59.4	0.80

Here is the current team list for ESL Challenger Anaheim:

Extra Salt
ORDER
Invite
Invite9z
Europe Qualifier
Invite
InviteJosh 'oSee' Ohm Age: 22 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 1014 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.63 Extra Salt #23 Edgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJohnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryJosh 'oSee' OhmJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Rafael 'saffee' Costa Age: 26 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 1.24 Maps played: 304 KPR: 0.83 DPR: 0.60 9z #47 Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda LimaMaximiliano 'max' GonzalezFranco 'dgt' GarciaMartin 'rox' MolinaSantino 'try' Rigal Ricky 'floppy' Kemery Age: 21 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 731 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.66 ORDER #69 Ricardo 'Rickeh' MulhollandKarlo 'USTILO' PivacJireh 'J1rah' YouakimMatthew 'Valiance' HartrickDeclan 'Vexite' Portelli paiN #32 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtRafael 'saffee' Costa Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado Age: 23 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 918 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.65 Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou Age: 22 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 979 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.67