DreamHack Open March 2021 has come to a close. Adding salt to paiN’s injury was the final scoreline of the final. Catch a review of the final at Esports.gg
DreamHack Open March 2021: North America has come to an end with CS:GO team, Extra Salt sweeping the Grand Finals with a 3-0 victory.
Extra Salt claimed the Champions title at DreamHack Open March 2021: North America. The team had a dominant run through the tournament where it lost just one map and cruised through the finals with a 3-0 victory. The North American team also moved past Cloud9 in the HLTV rankings after this spectacular victory.
Extra Salt Defeat paiN in the Grand Final
The three Grand Final maps were Inferno, Train and Mirage. paiN Gaming chose Inferno while Train was Extra Salt’s map of choice. paiN picked Mirage, which became the final map of the series.
Inferno - The first map of the series and an Extra Salt win
PaiN Gaming got off to a blazing start with a 7-1 score on the T-side. A big reason for the CSGO team’s; strong start was the team’s strong economy after the early rounds. But Sonic and co. won the ninth round and then the eleventh round to bring themselves back into the game. Extra Salt won every remaining CT round and ended the first half with a 7-8 score.
Extra Salt continued its momentum into the second half of the map. The team won eight of the next nine rounds to end on map point, ultimately, finishing the map with a 16-12 score. The team won paiN’s map choice to start the grand finals on a promising note.
Train - oSee unleashed
Train saw both teams exchange rounds at the start of the map. What looked to be a competitive first-half, however, ended with a 10-5 score.
Twenty-one-year-old Josh "oSee" Ohm was phenomenal with the AWP and ended the map with twenty-eight kills. He had a 100.7 ADR, significantly higher than anyone else on the server.
The second half started with a Sonic ace, putting a dent into paiN’s hopes of an early comeback. However, paiN managed to stay alive in the game with an eight-round win-streak in the middle of the second half. But the North American team's sizeable lead allowed it to win the map towards the end. Extra Salt defeated paiN Gaming 16-13 to move the third map. A win in the third map would secure Extra Salt the Championship trophy.
Mirage - A close game
The final map of Mirage was paiN’s map choice. It was a chance for paiN to claw back into the series, already staring at Extra Salt with a 2-0 lead. Despite the 2-0 score, oSee and co. were not really in one-sided matches. In fact, paiN had a decent chance to win both Inferno and Train, but they just couldn’t pull through.
Mirage started with 4 USP kills by oSee. The young player carried his Train form into Mirage and things were very promising for Sonic and co.. After Extra Salt took an early lead with a 8-3 score, paiN managed to bring back the first half to close with a 8-7 score.
The second half saw both teams win a string of rounds, but Extra Salt just managed to stay ahead. The map ended with a 16-14 score for Sonic and co.
Extra Salt wins DreamHack Open March: North America
With this victory, Extra Salt won $35,000 while paiN Gaming won $15,000 for the runners-up. The team also secured a place at IEM Summer 2021 and 100 ESL Pro Tour points.
Extra Salt will travel to Europe shortly to play in the Funspark ULTI 2020 Europe Final. The tournament takes place from April 19-26, 2021. AS the best team from North America, expectations are high for the North American team in the upcoming months.
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