The true tale of ENCE’s 2019 — Part 1
Removing Aleksib “will be one of the biggest mistakes in CS:GO history”. This was just a single tweet, but the sentiment echoed throughout the scene when we heard of the kicking of Aleksib, rifler and in-game leader apparent of ENCE. The team itself had only just seemed to reach a plateau in their meteoric rise, from a ragtag bunch of young Finnish players led by the only Finn with any real pedigree in the latest iteration of Counter Strike, Allu, to a top 3 team in the world and regular tournament favourite. The consensus was that, whilst they seemed to be struggling to kick on to the next level and become genuine world beaters, they were undoubtedly a tier 1 team.
Their identity as a squad was well established at the time of Aleksib’s departure, and was neatly summarised by StuChiu in his recent take on the ENCE story; a team that relied on teamplay over skill, utilised a mixture of disciplined defaults and fast paced executes, and thrived with a balanced blend of well-defined roles. On the CS:GO style axis they leaned more towards Ex6TenZ’s LDLC than 2015 Fnatic. This made the departure of someone like Aleksib all the more confusing: why kick the in-game leader from a team that seemingly relied on structure and strategy? Why try and fix something that, on the surface, didn’t appear broken? Why threaten what was shaping up to be an incredible first full year for the team? There has been much speculation in the months since the move with more information leaking through the cracks, posing more questions than answers: had they hit their ceiling? Did they feel that firepower was an issue? Was it entirely unrelated to gameplay?
In order to properly assess this move and ENCE’s year as whole, we must fully understand the context. Firstly, we need to take a quick look at ENCE’s rise from their inception, to appreciate just how quickly they came from nowhere to become a top 15 team in Counter Strike. Secondly, we need to dive deep into March 2019, when they rose to a top 3 spot, and look at the intricacies of the significant tournament runs (and the context surrounding them) that contributed to this placing. Thirdly, we must look at the period June — July, to see how they went about solidifying that placing, and how this period may contribute to some of the arguments for making a change within the team. Finally, we will explore the announcement of the removal of Aleksib, the tournaments that followed this announcement and his eventual departure, and some of the information that has revealed itself since. Then, we will have the full set of information and tools required to truly assess ENCE’s year, and the merits or otherwise of kicking Aleksib.
From nowhere to top 15, fast
ENCE faced several false starts throughout CS:GO with stints in 2013–2014 and 2016 seeing, at best, minor success. The line-up that the majority of fans will be familiar with came together on April 4th 2018, with Aleksib, sergej, Aerial and xseveN joining Allu on the roster. The squad came together with admirable ambitions, to grow Finnish CS with an all native line-up, but little fanfare. Most of these players came from the relative unknown, bar some murmurings that sergej was a talent to watch out for. They spent 2018 grinding their way upwards through the rankings, winning lesser tournaments and posting very respectable placings at more prestigious ones, notably placing 7–8th at ESL One Cologne in July 2018, beating NiP and Mousesports in series play at this event.
They followed up Cologne by narrowly missing out on qualifying for the London 2018 Major, being beaten out by NiP 2–0 in the qualifying series, but this disappointment seemed to serve as a catalyst for their future success. They followed this up with a 2nd place finish at Dreamhack Open Montreal in September, victory at a StarSeries Season 6 that was stacked with tier 2 and borderline tier 1 teams in October, before finishing up their year by winning Dreamhack Open Winter 2018 and qualifying for the European Minor for 2019. This saw them finish the year just outside the top 10 in the HLTV team rankings, with a solid resume of tournament placings, victories, and series wins under their belt. Their rise had been so impressive; a group of unknown quantities headed by top awper Allu when they joined ENCE, they were now looking like a legitimate tier 2 team, one of the more consistent teams within that tier, and the most likely to rise further. They kicked off 2019 with aplomb, bossing a strong Europe Minor Championship to take home 1st place and qualify for Katowice, dropping a single map along the way, before walking Assembly Winter 2019, a regional Finnish lan. This leads us to the first period of this year that we will examine in detail: March 2019.
Storming the summit, by force
The first major of the year, IEM Katowice 2019, took place at the start of this month, and all the top teams were in attendance. Despite the stacked nature of the tournament expectations were relatively high for ENCE, emphasising their strong run up to the event, and they duly delivered in the New Challengers stage. They strolled through this swiss stage 3–1. Admittedly they received a kind draw that saw them beat Spirit and G2 in bo1s and Winstrike in a bo3, losing their only real test against Renegades, but in bo3 and only losing 2–1. About what we might expect from a young team, inexperienced at this level, but clearly with the overall quality to hang at a tournament like this.
The New Legends stage followed, and this was the point at which some pundits expected ENCE to falter. They started this swiss stage in this vein losing to Renegades again, but more disappointingly Hellraisers, which would turn out to be HR’s only map win of the event. Many could forgive some bo1 jitters, having reached what many consider to be the major proper considering its new format, and many felt they would show their true form when the bo3s rolled around. In their first bo3 vs BIG, it seemed like they might kick into gear too late. They got stomped 16–5 on Dust 2, and were 10–14 down on Train, before running that map back and closing out the series with a 16–10 on Overpass. This seemed to signal ENCE’s arrival, as they battled to a relatively tight 2–0 over G2, before comfortably sealing their playoff berth with a 2–0 over Avangar. Whilst it was a stellar achievement for ENCE to make playoffs in their first outing at a major, they had benefitted from kind draws across both stages; the highest ranked team they had to beat to get out of either stage was #14 in the HLTV rankings at the time of the tournament, and even that was a team on a decline in the form of BIG.
Make no mistake though, because the playoff run ENCE put together at this major was no joke. First up was Team Liquid, a team many had as the second favourites for the tournament behind Astralis, and a team that everyone had going to the final. ENCE’s script clearly got lost in the mail, as they dusted Liquid off 16–11 on Mirage, a map that Liquid has famously always been strong on, before mounting a stunning comeback from 8–15 down on Liquid’s pick of Inferno to win in overtime and advance to the semi-finals.
Some of the characteristics that had come to define ENCE’s rise from outsiders to regular tier 2 tournament favourites continued to shine brightly; often needing a strong second half to compensate for a first half blowout, getting through tournaments by sharing the load statistically, and rarely ever being put to bed in a series easily. ENCE had already been on the radar of those paying attention as a team who would make a run at the top 10 this year, but now they were the name on everybody’s lips.
Coming into their semi-final against Na’Vi, somehow, ENCE found themselves as a sort-of favourite; whilst history would suggest pre-tournament dark horses Na’Vi should have been looking at a relatively comfortable victory, the momentum ENCE were building up at the tournament was beginning to look ominous. And so it came to be, with ENCE grinding out back and forth 16–14 victories on Train and Mirage either side of an absolutely crushing 3–16 Dust 2. Again, the manner of the victory looks familiar, featuring tough ground out map wins and a mental toughness often associated with the Finns.
The hype really had built to an almost deafening roar by the time they came to face Astralis, so deafening that it was difficult for many fans to hear the voices of reason lost amongst the excitement; Astralis were at the peak of their powers, coming out of a 2018 that will probably go down as the most dominant year of CS:GO, there was nowhere for ENCE to go in the map pool, and you could easily write ENCE off as an Astralis-lite, relying on teamplay and tactics to add up to more than the sum of their parts (but with significantly less raw skill). Reality hit hard, and ENCE failed to muster much of a fight in this series, losing Train 11–16 and getting spanked 4–16 on Inferno. Unsurprisingly it was their opening halves that were exposed, with ENCE unable to shut Astralis out enough to put together a winning formula with 4 Train T side rounds, and mustering a measly single CT round on Inferno.
Despite the anti-climax that was the final, ENCE could take pride in their first ever Major; a second placed finish, in an unbelievably stacked tournament, with a playoff run that would make the best teams in the world green with envy. The manner of their run was promising too, showing the ability to grind out games, come back from big deficits and spread the fragging load around (everyone had at least one marquee series).
Part 2 of this article can be found here, where we examine the tournaments that followed the major, Blast São Paulo and StarSeries & iLeague S7, and take stock of the first half of ENCE’s year. If you enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends, and follow the writer on Twitter.
Credits go to HLTV and Liquipedia as references, as well as ENCE’s Twitter for photo credit.
