GODSENT have claimed victory in DreamHack Open September North America, edging past Extra Salt in the best-of-five grand final to earn $35,000 and book a spot at the ESL Pro League Season 15 Conference in November.
The group stage of the tournament was rather clear-cut, with the only notable team to miss out on the playoffs being Bad News Bears, who fell to a comeback from TeamOne in their decider match-up. In Group A, paiN topped the board, while Group B was led by GODSENT, who managed to net the top seed after beating Extra Salt thanks to a stellar showing from João “felps” Vasconcellos.
The playoffs also unfolded as expected, with Johnny “JT” Theodosiou‘s crew claiming revenge against paiN in the semi-finals after the Brazilian team had prevailed over Extra Salt in the Fragadelphia Fall BLAST Premier Fall Showdown qualifier earlier in the week. GODSENT, meanwhile, narrowly moved past their countrymen from TeamOne in a three-map series to book their own spot in the grand final.
dumau stepped up for GODSENT on the deciding map of the series
The final series of the event kicked off in rather one-sided fashion, with the teams picking up lopsided wins on their opponents map picks to keep the series tied at 1-1. It was on Vertigo where things really began to heat up, with Josh “oSee” Ohm putting up an incredible individual performance (44-20 K-D, 120 ADR) only for his team to narrowly lose the map in overtime.
Inferno saw Extra Salt answer back, but the win was anything but easy as GODSENT made a valiant effort to rally back from a 5-10 deficit, only for Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek and oSee to take the map over the line, 16-14.
The decider, Dust2, seemed set for GODSENT to finally run away with things and close out the series after they converted a 10-5 lead into a 15-7 scoreline in the second half; however, resilience from Extra Salt saw them win eight rounds in a row to force overtime.
There, the back-and-forth battle continued, but it was Eduardo “dumau” Wolkmer‘s incredible performance that ended up securing GODSENT a victory, with the 17-year-old topping the board (46-25 K-D, 119 ADR, 1.80 rating) and scoring a triple kill in the final round to take home the series win.
Despite losing the series, all is not lost for Extra Salt, who still hold a spot at the ESL Pro League Season 15 Conference as a result of winning DreamHack Open June North America earlier in the year. GODSENT now join the list of teams attending the event, from which three teams will be able to earn a spot in ESL Pro League Season 15.
The team list for the EPL S15 Conference now looks as follows:
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