Extra Salt win VENN Invitational; complete BLAST Premier Spring Showdown team list

Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou and company extended their winning streak to 5-0 over paiN with a victory in the grand final.

Extra Salt have booked a ticket to the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown following a 2-1 victory over paiN in the grand final of the VENN Invitational. The North American side narrowly edged out a two-map victory over Triumph in their semi-final match-up, while paiN had little issue dispatching of ChocoCheck to earn their spot in the grand final.

Extra Salt continue to be a source of trouble for Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa's side, having now won five series in a row while dropping just two maps. One of those map wins came in the VENN Invitational grand final, where paiN kicked off the series in the lead with a 16-7 win on their pick of Inferno, and put themselves in a strong position to score their first win against Extra Salt as they led 11-4 on the CT side of Train.

Sonic was the pivotal factor in Extra Salt's win on Nuke

Once the sides swapped over however, Extra Salt were on the comeback trail, conceding just two rounds en route to a 16-13 finish to force a Nuke decider. There, an incredible performance from Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek, which saw the South African player boasting a flawless 23-0 K-D thirteen rounds into the match, was the key factor in his team securing a narrow victory, with Edgar "⁠MarKE⁠" Maldonado securing a 1vs3 clutch in round 29 to close out the series.

The win sets Extra Salt up as the final team in attendance at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, where $160,000 and two spots at the Spring Finals will be on offer. The team list for the event consists of:

Astralis
Liquid
Vitality
HEROIC
Gambit
Spirit
SAW
Dignitas G2
OG
MIBR
FURIA
NASR
9z
Endpoint
Extra Salt

The former Cloud9 squad now look ahead to a long European campaign as they are also set to attend the FunSpark ULTI Europe Final, DreamHack Masters Spring, and IEM Summer in the coming months, offering them their first true taste of international competition in over a year.

MIBR #31 Ricardo 'boltz' PrassGustavo 'yel' KnittelMarcelo 'chelo' CespedesBruno 'shz' MartinelliDaniel 'danoco' Morgado OG #20 Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenNikolaj 'niko' KristensenMateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski 9z #88 Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda LimaMaximiliano 'max' GonzalezFranco 'dgt' GarciaMartin 'rox' MolinaSantino 'try' Rigal G2 #13 Audric 'JACKZ' JugNikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayNemanja 'nexa' Isaković Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek Age: 22 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 767 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.64 Astralis #2 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Extra Salt #21 Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouAran 'Sonic' GroesbeekEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJosh 'oSee' OhmJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado Age: 22 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 694 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.65 ChocoCheck #52 Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' JonesZack 'XotiC' ElshaniSebastian 'retchy' TropianoDanny 'Cxzi' StrzelczykCarson 'nosraC' O'Reilly Triumph #44 Alan 'Shakezullah' HardemanAustin 'Cooper' AbadirDavid 'cynic' PolsterBrendan 'Bwills' WilliamsWesley 'viz' Harris Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou Age: 21 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 749 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.67 Liquid #5 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince Endpoint #36 Robin 'robiin' SjögrenJoey 'CRUC1AL' SteuselMax 'MiGHTYMAX' HeathKia 'Surreal' ManShahar 'flameZ' Shushan Spirit #6 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovNikolay 'mir' BityukovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevAbdul 'degster' GasanovBoris 'magixx' Vorobiev NASR #120 Abd-Alrahman 'REAL1ZE' ArabiatAtif 'gejmzilla' MustafaBebu 'Bibu' AadilArbnor 'Dementor' PacolliMohammad 'BOROS' Malhas Vitality #7 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Rafael 'saffee' Costa Age: 26 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 1.24 Maps played: 114 KPR: 0.83 DPR: 0.61 Gambit #3 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov HEROIC #11 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerIsmail 'refrezh' AliMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' Beck Dignitas #46 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergAdam 'friberg' FribergJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliLudvig 'HEAP' Alonso FURIA #10 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoPaytyn 'junior' JohnsonKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato paiN #29 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtRafael 'saffee' Costa SAW #30 Omar 'arki' ChakkorChristopher 'MUTiRiS' FernandesRicardo 'roman' OliveiraTiago 'JUST' MouraRenato 'stadodo' Gonçalves