The true tale of ENCE’s 2019 — Part 2
Wondering where part 1 of this article is? Find it here!
It was somewhat disappointing that the follow up tournament to the major for ENCE was a Blast Sao Paulo that was attended by many teams in trouble, and they would only get to play bo1s. They opened the tournament with a win over MiBR, who would go on to lose every single map they played. Then came a very strong showing against Astralis, narrowly losing Dust 2 14–16 (with once again a poor opening half proving to be a major issue). NiP and FaZe, both playing with a stand-in, were comfortably put away 16–7 and 16–9 respectively, before a thrilling 15–15 draw on Overpass vs Liquid saw them finish the tournament in 3rd. Not the most exciting tournament or placing, but ENCE seemingly confirmed that they were a top team, running Astralis and Liquid close, and soundly swatting aside any lesser challengers.
They finished this month at #3 in the HLTV team rankings, a stunning achievement for a squad consisting of 4 players who weren’t even troubling the top 30 at the same time in 2018. However, as the dust settled on their blistering start to the year, one could start to see some asterisks forming that would plague the entire 2019 calendar year in CS:GO. Firstly, two teams that had ended 2018 as top 5 ranked teams in the world, were in states of upheaval; FaZe had kicked Karrigan and lost RobbaN as their coach, and MIBR were a mess at the end of 2018 going into 2019, swapping out their coach YNK for zews and two players, Stewie and later Tarik, for Taco and Felps. Both teams looked like they had suffered as a result of the changes, compounded by their shocking performances at Blast Sao Paulo. Whilst ENCE’s major run didn’t directly benefit from playing these teams, the field was indirectly weakened because of it, and they most definitely benefitted directly in the HLTV rankings, with teams losing out on historical points due to roster moves and poor placings. There was no taking away from the Katowice playoff run, but to erase the asterisks surrounding the strength of the field at the top of CS:GO, ENCE were going to require consistent top 4 placings at a minimum for the next few months.
Can they remove all doubt?
To finish the dive into this month of 2019, we have StarSeries i-League S7. At this tournament, ENCE needed to be making the finals at a bare minimum; they were the highest ranked team attending, and had recently beaten the other teams attending the tournament that might have been considered significant potential threats (Na’Vi, MIBR, FaZe). ENCE began their campaign with a routine 2–0 over Team Spirit, a team outside the top 30, before coming up against another team making their way up through the rankings, Vitality.
Vitality was always going to be a tough matchup for ENCE, and it would go on to be so for the rest of the year. Their lack of major firepower made this a poor matchup stylistically, as they would struggle to find an answer for ZywOo; Aerial has since gone on record saying they didn’t know how to counter ZywOo during this period. The map veto was going to be rough, as ENCE didn’t play Cache and were always going remove Overpass (being one of the weaker maps they played at the time), and the maps they were willing to play — Mirage, Inferno, Dust 2, Train and Nuke — Vitality were excellent on, or in the case of the latter two, were likely to remove given the chance. This left little wiggle room in the veto, although in hindsight, ENCE likely needed to try and pick Train or Nuke, Vitality’s weaker maps, and hope Mirage came through as the decider (they would go on to adopt this type of veto strategy against Vitality in later series). Instead they ended up picking Mirage and winning it 16–10, before getting blown out on Dust 2 and losing a very close Inferno. I have highlighted the veto and this series in general so vividly because Vitality were exactly the kind of team ENCE needed to beat to confidently call themselves top 3 in the world. Whilst this series loss is no shame in isolation, as Vitality would go on to grab a number #2 spot later in the year and were already a very dangerous squad, it served to foreshadow a poor matchup for ENCE, losing 4 LAN series to Vitality over the year and winning just the one (thus far).
ENCE quickly recovered from this loss, once again benefitting from a friendly draw, spanking sub top 30 team Vici 16–4 across both maps. This set up another meeting with FaZe, and despite throwing a 15–12 lead against a poor force buy to lose Dust 2 in overtime, ENCE’s strong mentality shone through once again to carry them to solid 16–10 victories on Nuke and Overpass.
This earned ENCE a quarter final berth to play Na’Vi, a team ENCE had bested 2–0 at the Major earlier in March. This time the firepower of electronic and s1mple proved too much for the Finns, who posted a 1.43 and 1.41 rating respectively, as they lost a relatively close series 2–1, winning Train 16–11 before losing Inferno and Overpass 12–16 and 11–16. Once again, examining this loss in a vacuum does not lead to serious cause for concern; Na’Vi were a very strong team at this time, and would go on to win the tournament. But examining StarSeries as a whole, ENCE should be disappointed that the only two real tests they faced, Vitality and Na’Vi, they failed to overcome. Had they been able to beat one of these teams, they surely would have fancied their chances of taking home the trophy.
It makes sense at this point to take stock of ENCE’s 2019 thus far. Coming off the back of a strong end to 2018, they continue 2019 in the same vein, proving themselves to be a cut above the tier 2 pack. The Major proves to be a roaring success, but with the caveat of some easy initial stages to set up their impressive playoff run, and the upheaval of some of the other tier 1 teams. Blast seems to solidify their status as a top team, running Astralis and Liquid close, but the only challengers they managed to beat were all teams who had a poor tournament, and were in varying states of disarray with stand-ins and recent significant squad mix-ups plaguing them. StarSeries rolls around right at the end of March, and seems to be a perfect tournament at the perfect time for ENCE; the chance to cast off any doubts that they sit a cut above the other teams in the top 10, but with no serious contenders outside of Na’Vi, surely the potential for an unfortunate early exit did not exist. Instead they falter, losing the only two tough series they are drawn, and only winning against teams outside the top 30 and a FaZe in flux.
The suspicion that ENCE may be more of a placeholder top 3 team than anything else was starting to creep in. They had proven that, on their day, they could beat anyone. They had proven that they were most definitely a cut above tier 2. They had proven could mix it up with the other contenders outside of the top 2 (the top 2 being Liquid and Astralis), and even at times run the top 2 themselves close. But they had also proven that there were some question marks around their start to 2019; a tendency to get run over by pure firepower (think electronic and s1mple, ZywOo), the ability to get blown out on certain halves, and were plagued by unfavourable map vetoes against the teams who would be vying for that top 3 spot alongside them. The map issue was particularly troubling, as ENCE didn’t play much Cache (soon to be interchanged with Vertigo) or Overpass, were weak in general on both maps, and couldn’t find themselves a “home” map against top teams.
Do not be fooled, ENCE had certainly shown the makings of a top 5 team, but they had also shown limitations, and the rest of their year needed to be emphatic to ensure their high thus far, #3 in the rankings, was not coupled with a large asterisk.
Credits go to HLTV and Liquipedia as references, as well as ENCE’s Twitter for photo credit.
