ENCE and Apeks Face Early Eliminations At The Major

European squads ENCE and Apeks, two of the highest-ranked teams in the Opening Stage, faltered in the first round of the tournament and were eliminated on the second day. For teams of such caliber, their losses were a massive disappointment.

gla1ve Won’t Play In Front Of His Home Crowd

When the new ENCE roster was initially announced, the community did not take this roster too seriously, as the signings seemed underwhelming. 

Despite the backlash, the team performed beyond expectations at IEM Katowice and the European RMR, proving to fans they were to be taken seriously. However, their success in the past few months seemed to only be a honeymoon period, as gla1ve failed to lead the Polish boys to the Elimination Stage of the Copenhagen Major.

Overtimes On The First Day

ENCE fell victim to the randomness of Best of 1 matches on the first day of the Major. In their first match, ENCE lost to Brazilian squad Imperial in a 22-19 map on Anubis. With uncontrollable clutches left and right, the loss was still acceptable. Gla1ve and company cleaned up their game and won against KOI in another overtime map to put themselves 1-1.

Who’s Laughing Now?

The next day, ENCE faced yet another Brazilian team, paiN Gaming, one of the heaviest underdogs in the tournament. During the veto phase, gla1ve laughed at paiN’s in-game leader, biguzera, for not banning Nuke, one of ENCE’s best maps. Karma quickly struck, as paiN swept ENCE in a 13-3 fashion to win Nuke, putting the Polish squad into an elimination match.

0-3 Against Brazil

For the third time in four matches, ENCE drew another Brazilian team, the best one at the Major: FURIA. On the first map of Mirage, the ENCE squad could not manage many rounds on their CT half after making mistakes after mistakes; some were completely unacceptable. As a result, FalleN and his soldiers converted their lead into a quick 13-8 win on the first map.

On Ancient, ENCE’s map pick, FURIA, started off their defensive campaign with a quick 5-0 lead. However, Goofy helped his team salvage the half and at least post five rounds before the side swap. ENCE looked like they were returning to shape, tying the score at 9-9. 

Just as ENCE was looking to pick up their tenth round, KSCERATO pulled off a miraculous 1v3, putting ENCE’s economy and chances in the game into shambles. With the economy broken, FURIA ran away with the remaining rounds to win the map 13-9 to knock the Polish heroes out of the tournament. 

In the Opening Stage, ENCE’s star player, dycha, posted his lowest rating ever at any event at 0.72. Four of the five players on the roster had a negative rating. With the absence of Astralis, gla1ve was the only player from the legendary iteration to qualify for the Major, and even he won’t represent Denmark in the Copenhagen Major anymore. 

From Major Semi-Finalists To Last Place

Apeks, a team who had been in the Tier 2 scene for the longest time, finally broke through to the upper echelons of Counter-Strike after their miracle run at the Paris Major, where they finished at 3-4th place. 

Two of the star players on Apeks, kyxsan and jL, were poached by Heroic and Na’Vi. Still, the squad found capable replacements and went 3-1 in the European RMR to show some promise. Coming into the Opening Stage, Apeks was ranked #14th globally.

1-1 To End Day 1

Apeks was first to fall victim to the underdogs, paiN Gaming, after dropping their opening series 8-13. In this match, biguzera seemed like he had a “life game,” so the loss didn’t raise too many eyebrows yet. Though it wasn’t the cleanest game, Apeks recovered and won their second match against AMKAL, 16-13 on Overpass, to put their record at 1-1; not the worst result. 

Sense Struggles At His First Major

Newly picked-up in-game leader, sense, who is the youngest member on the roster, showed signs of trouble under pressure. Against Imperial, a team supposed to be much inferior to Apeks, the 20-year-old could only manage five kills in a 20-round game, resulting in a 7-13 loss for Apeks. They are now 1-2, one loss away from elimination.

Another Victim To Brazil

The elimination matchup for Apeks featured coldzera’s squad, Legacy. This team is ranked 35th in the world, the third-lowest ranked team at the Major. There was supposed to be no way that Apeks would lose, but they did, and it wasn’t even close.

On their map pick of Ancient, Apeks could not find their footing on their Terrorist side, only winning three rounds in the first half. The lead was too big for the Brazilian squad, as they could easily close the map 13-7 to put Apeks on their final lifeline.

The next map was Inferno, Legacy’s map pick. After being down 2-4, Apeks strung five in a row to win the half 7-5 – a decent position. However, Legacy won eight straight rounds on their Counter-Terrorist side to win the map 13-7 again. Apeks did not win a single round in the second half.

Like ENCE, Apeks was met with a similar fate, as all three of their losses were handed by Brazilian teams. The team’s world-class AWPer, nawwk, posted the lowest rating in the Apeks camp throughout the Major.

The Brazilian participants, with the exception of FURIA, were not seen as notable competitors prior to the start of the Major. However, they have taken down notable names such as ENCE and Apeks, some very high-ranked teams. 

Header: ENCE