BIG reverse sweep Extra Salt to win FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final

The North American side was left regretting missed opportunities to close out the BO5 series early.

BIG won FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final after a marathon series again Extra Salt, taking home the lion's share of the $250,000 prize pool. The Germans showed their grit and determination in the event, recovering from an opening loss to Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou and co. to earn a spot in the grand final by running the gauntlet of the lower bracket.

It took wins over Evil Geniuses, Complexity, HAVU, and FORZE to set up the rematch, which Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz's team started one map down. Extra Salt went on to hit hard on Dust2, earning an 15-4 lead before BIG showed signs of life. The map was eventually closed out by Extra Salt, but the rest of the series didn't follow that script.

BIG completed the dream run through the lower bracket

Train was Extra Salt's pick and a map on which they earned a strong T-side score, 8-7, but BIG came back after the switch with an even stronger offence to claim the map. Following a 16-13 on Train, the game moved to Vertigo where the North Americans were 10-5 up after the defensive half, but BIG again pulled off the comeback, 16-14, to force Overpass.

The final map also went all the way, with Extra Salt looking like the team in control after winning a USP-eco to go up 14-12. However, Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne came alive in the dying embers of the match to ensure another bounce back, and the 3-2 victory in the title match.

"It's a huge flashback to all the games that we played very good back in the days, making huge comebacks,", tabseN said in a post-match interview, referring to BIG successful 2020 and their reverse sweep of G2 in the grand final of DreamHack Masters Spring Europe. "It feels amazing to win this tournament".

"It didn't matter how many silly rounds we lost in this tournament, we managed to stay cool", the champion added, whose team earned $150,000 for their efforts. When asked about positional changes in the team, tabseN explained that BIG are in an experimental phase, but are happy with how the changes have been working so far. "Overall, I think we played a good tournament," the in-game leader concluded.

Extra Salt will have to satisfy themselves with a second-place finish after a strong showing at FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe. With Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley and Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm as their top performers, they managed to reach the grand final in their second tournament in Europe, and are still set to compete in Spring Sweet Spring 1 and DreamHack Masters Spring before returning to North America for cs_summit 8.

Funspark ULTI 2020 Europe FinalBest of 5 Extra SaltMatchpage 2 3 26th April 2021 BIG 1Default 0 16Dust2 14 13Train 16 14Vertigo 16 14Overpass 16

Extra Salt	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Justin 'FaNg' CoakleyFaNg	90 - 81	+9	81.0	1.19
Aran 'Sonic' GroesbeekSonic	84 - 88	-4	77.7	1.07
Josh 'oSee' OhmoSee	83 - 80	+3	76.4	1.05
Edgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoMarKE	67 - 83	-16	67.2	0.95
Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouJT	73 - 87	-14	69.8	0.91

BIG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşXANTARES	94 - 73	+21	81.5	1.24
Nils 'k1to' Gruhnek1to	91 - 85	+6	75.8	1.16
Johannes 'tabseN' WodarztabseN	79 - 77	+2	80.3	1.09
Tizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschtiziaN	75 - 85	-10	76.5	1.08
Florian 'syrsoN' RischesyrsoN	80 - 79	+1	68.5	1.01

FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final standings:

1. BIG - $150,000
2. Extra Salt - $50,000
3. FORZE - $15,000
4. HAVU - $15,000
5-6. Dignitas - $5,000
5-6. Complexity - $5,000
7-8. Evil Geniuses - $5,000
7-8. Virtus.pro - $5,000

BIG #6 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşNils 'k1to' Gruhne Josh 'oSee' Ohm Age: 21 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 801 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.63 Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz Age: 26 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1666 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.70 HAVU #14 Jani 'Aerial' JussilaSami 'xseveN' LaasanenLasse 'ZOREE' UronenOlli 'sLowi' PitkänenJemi 'jemi' Mäkinen Complexity #10 Justin 'jks' SavageWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeValentin 'poizon' VasilevBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Dignitas #25 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergAdam 'friberg' FribergJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliLudvig 'HEAP' Alonso Virtus.pro #4 Sanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Evil Geniuses #22 Michał 'MICHU' MüllerPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzVincent 'Brehze' CayonteTsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovOwen 'oBo' Schlatter Extra Salt #15 Aran 'Sonic' GroesbeekEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJohnny 'JT' TheodosiouJosh 'oSee' OhmJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Justin 'FaNg' Coakley Age: 18 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 352 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.70 Nils 'k1to' Gruhne Age: 22 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 980 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.69 Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou Age: 22 Team: Extra Salt Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 766 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.67 FORZE #24 Almaz 'almazer' AsadullinEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevAndrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'KENSI' Gurkin