Extra Salt qualifies for ESL Challenger at DreamHack Anaheim 2022

Extra Salt, with South African IGL Johnny “⁠JT⁠” Theodosiou and coach Tiaan “⁠T.c⁠” Coertzen, haven’t had the greatest performances of late. However, we’ve still been following the squad closely due, in part, to their local players competing on the international stage.

Now, we are happy to report that Extra Salt has qualified for the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Anaheim 2022 CS:GO esports tournament after a gruelling closed qualifier. Here’s what went down.

ESL Challenger closed qualifier results

While there was no prize pool for this closed qualifier, the first-place finish would get a spot at the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Anaheim 2022 tournament taking place next year. Four teams competed in this closed qualifier, namely Extra Salt, paiN Gaming, Team One and Bad News Bears. This was a double-elimination bracket affair.

Extra Salt managed to beat Brazillian squad Team One in a convincing 2-0 fashion. Then, Extra Salt went on to beat paiN Gaming down to the lower bracket with a crushing 16-3 on Ancient, followed by a relatively close 16-13 win on Overpass.

paiN Gaming clawed their way out of the lower bracket by beating Bad News Bears with a reverse sweep. In the final, paiN Gaming took the first map (Nuke) off Extra Salt. However, the salters fought back to equal things up on Overpass. The final map, Vertigo, went the distance, as Extra Salt was pushed into overtime by paiN Gaming. In the end, over, Extra Salt proved too strong, winning Vertigo 19-17 to claim a spot at the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Anaheim 2022 tournament.

The ESL Challenger at DreamHack Anaheim 2022 tournament will run from 11 to 13 February 2022. This is a LAN event with a prize pool of $100,000 and a spot at ESL Pro League Conference Season 16 on the line. We hope to see Extra Salt showcase what they’ve got during this LAN event.

Header image via Valve.