Party Astronauts win ESEA Premier S38 over Extra Salt to qualify for ESL Pro League

The organization-less team pulled off a big upset to win the league.

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.

ESEA Premier Season 38 North AmericaBest of 5

Extra Salt

Matchpage

2

3

18th October 2021

Party Astronauts

1

Default

0

6

Inferno

16

16

Overpass

7

11

Ancient

16

20

Nuke

22

Extra Salt	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Josh 'oSee' OhmoSee	104 - 69	+35	88.9	75.4%	1.36
Justin 'FaNg' CoakleyFaNg	87 - 77	+10	81.9	71.9%	1.13
Edgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoMarKE	73 - 76	-3	76.0	71.1%	1.02
Aran 'Sonic' GroesbeekSonic	68 - 78	-10	65.7	64.0%	0.90
Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouJT	53 - 86	-33	57.6	68.4%	0.79

Party Astronauts	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
David 'cynic' Polstercynic	79 - 68	+11	82.6	68.4%	1.14
Jonathan 'djay' Dallaldjay	88 - 81	+7	87.0	70.2%	1.11
Josh 'PwnAlone' PiguePwnAlone	80 - 75	+5	69.1	65.8%	1.05
Gage 'Infinite' GreenInfinite	65 - 73	-8	61.3	66.7%	0.95
Ben 'ben1337' Smithben1337	72 - 88	-16	69.6	63.2%	0.91

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 Looking For Org.

Here is the full team list for EPL S15:

Astralis
ENCE
FaZe
G2
Natus Vincere
Liquid
AGO
Looking For Org
ESL World Ranking
ESL World Ranking
ESL World Ranking
EPL Conference

Complexity
Evil Geniuses
fnatic
MOUZ
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Vitality
Party Astronauts
Partner Team
ESL World Ranking
ESL World Ranking
EPL Conference
EPL Conference

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.