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