Sonic takes leave of absence from Extra Salt
Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek has announced that he is taking a leave of absence from CS:GO and Extra Salt. His announcement comes hours after Dust2.us alumni and HLTV writer Danish "Nohte" Allana reported that former Cloud9 player Ricky "floppy" Kemery is in talks to join Extra Salt.
The South African has been an active member of the Extra Salt core for more than two years, only briefly playing for Envy in 2019 for three months. During this period he has helped raise Extra Salt to the top of the North American scene, notably winning DreamHack Open September and March earlier this year.
Despite their status as a top domestic squad, Extra Salt have struggled in recent months, failing to qualify to PGL Stockholm 2021 and more recently falling to Party Astronauts in the ESEA Premier Season 38 grand finals, denying the team a spot in ESL Pro League Season 15. Despite the recent setbacks, Sonic is still a highly rated player on Extra Salt, with the hybrid AWPer/rifler pushing a 1.12 rating over the past three months.
On a personal level, Sonic's decision to step away from the game marks the end of his and Johnny "JT" Theodosiou's incredibly long tenure as a duo. If you discount Sonic's time on Envy, the duo have worked together continuously since the start of 2017 when JT joined Bravado, being key players in that squad's rise to prominence in South Africa and North America. Additionally, should floppy join it will leave JT as the sole South African player on Extra Salt.
Extra Salt with Sonic taking a leave of absence are:
Johnny "JT" Theodosiou
Joshua "oSee" Ohm
Justin "FaNg" Coakley
Edgar "MarKE" Maldonado- Tiaan "T.c" Coertzen (Coach)
- Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek (Inactive)
Extra Salt are set to play ESEA Autumn 2021 Cash Cup 3 this weekend where they are signed up with floppy, giving credence to his upcoming signing on the squad.
