Extra Salt Acquires Former Cloud9 CS:GO Lineup
Published: Dec 14, 2020 - Last Updated: Sep 3, 2021
The North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a brand new contender in it. Extra Salt is a newly created organization that will try to make a name for itself in the highly competitive CS:GO scene. The organization announced that it has acquired the ex-Cloud9 roster.
Despite their shortcomings, the roster definitely has the quality and experience to succeed at the highest level. A possible expansion to a six-man roster will include exclusively players from the North American region, for enhanced cohesion.
A fresh start
The past year was a very difficult one for the Cloud9 players, with several of them having their contracts ended due to COVID-19 policy violations. This is a vastly experienced team that has played together for more than a year and competed at the highest of CS:GO stages. Not surprisingly, there were plenty of organizations that sought to acquire their skills and experience. In the end, they landed on a newly created team, which pundits agree has the perfect name for the North American region: Extra Salt.
Looking back at the performance of the former Cloud9 players, their results were above average for the core members. All of the players used to play together for ATK, a South African team that exceed expectations at ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, Flashpoint and the ESL One: Road to Rio.
High expectations heading into the future
Daniel van Flymen is the CEO of Extra Salt and in recent interviews, he expressed his optimism for the team’s potential. His hopes are moderate and he doesn’t expect the new team to start competing against the likes Cloud9, Liquid, OpTic and Complexity right off the bat. Instead, Daniel envisions a group that will grind its way to success and emerge victorious by doing everything by the book. The plan is to grow it organically until it is strong enough to compete with the most popular teams such as FaZe and 100 Thieves.
In order to make a name for itself in the competitive gaming environment, Extra Salt will need to secure a few trophies. Well before they begin selling merchandise to players and fans, they want to build a team on strong fundamentals. The current members definitely have the skills to prevail and the current focus is on building the best environment for them to thrive. The team has the advantage of starting from scratch, while having a bunch of experience players who have competed together and the highest level.
