After a full-length best-of-five grand final, Party Astronauts have defeated Extra Salt 3-2 (16-6 Inferno, 7-16 Overpass, 16-11 Ancient, 22-20 Nuke) to win ESEA Premier Season 38 North America, booking themselves a spot in ESL Pro League Season 15.
The result breaks the 0-4 head-to-head record for Party Astronauts against Extra Salt, and adds to a disappointing string of results for the South African-North American combine, who missed out on a spot at the PGL Major Stockholm after they were eliminated from IEM Fall NA. It also marks Party Astronauts‘ first confirmed international appearance after the core of the team have spent the last 18 months exclusively playing against domestic competition.
Placing second in Premier would grant Extra Salt a place at the EPL Conference, but the team had already earned a spot in the Conference division due to winning DreamHack Open June North America. It is not currently known what team will fill the extra spot at the event, as it could go to the next highest placing teams in either DreamHack Open June or ESEA Premier —00Nation and RBG, respectively — or be determined using another method.
ben1337 finally makes it over the hump
In what ended up a close series despite initially one-sided scorelines, each team won their own map picks, putting the series score at 2-2, counting the default map win Extra Salt received for coming from the upper bracket. As is to be expected at this point, Josh “oSee” Ohm put up an inhuman performance over the series, putting up at least a 1.22 rating on every single map, with his best map statistically being the 11-16 loss on Ancient.
The final map, Nuke, was an all-out brawl, with each team taking short strings of rounds before the other team answered back. Eventually, the game went to overtime, where David “cynic” Polster stepped up for the Partynauts. After two full-length overtimes, Party Astronauts finally managed to snatch the victory, breaking their head to head curse and winning the Premier division, ensuring their spot at ESL Pro League Season 15 next March.
As a result of the final, Party Astronauts join the lineup of teams set for ESL Pro League Season 15, and are the second team without an organization to qualify after LookingForOrg.
Here is the full team list for EPL S15:
Premier Season 38 North America Relegation also concluded on Sunday, seeing Detonate, Eros, Northern Forces, and Synthetic secure spots in Season 39 of ESEA Premier, while the likes of Mythic and Third Impact were relegated to Advanced.
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