ENCE To Play In The Spodek Arena – Miracle Run Continues

The ENCE squad upset G2 to steal their spot in the Playoffs. This is the first time in eight years that a Polish squad will play in the Spodek Arena in front of their home crowd.

At the end of 2023, ENCE had their roster shattered by Team Falcons, who bought the roster’s core players. The Finnish organization was left with Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and Paweł “dycha” Dycha, not knowing their next move.

Gal1ve took a gamble and rebuilt the roster with a full Polish squad aside from himself, coach included. Most fans thought the roster was put together as a “last-minute” team, but these heavy underdogs have proven their worth time and time again at IEM Katowice 2024.

Warming Up In The Play-ins

ENCE was not directly invited to the Group Stage, where all the fierce competitors reside. They had to hustle their way through the Play-ins. The Poles lost their first series in a Best-of-1 against BIG. At that point, most wrote ENCE off already.

However, gla1ve got a grudge match against the team that benched him – Astralis. Suddenly, the Danish in-game leader and his new team displayed a masterclass, demolishing Astralis and eliminating them from Katowice. 

ENCE then defeated The Mongolz in a close Best-of-3 to reach the Group Stage. 

The Hardest Path To Playoffs

In the Group Stage, teams who won their first two matches would guarantee a spot in the Playoffs and appear in the Spodek Arena stage to play in front of the crowd.

ENCE got unlucky and drew Team Vitality as their first opponent; the number one ranked team in the world. After trading their respective map picks, the two teams were brought into Nuke as the deciding map. 

Big-brained calls from gla1ve helped ENCE post a 9-3 lead on their T side. ENCE converted their early lead to a clean 13-8 victory to complete a massive upset against the world’s best team.

Now, ENCE was on everyone’s radar, but they had to play against G2 next, ranked sixth in the world. Sure, G2’s individuals did not show up in the series, but credit must be given to ENCE, who demolished the international team 13-8 and 13-7 to sweep the series 2-0 and qualify for the Playoffs.

 

WHEN THE HALL OF HEROES CALLS, ENCE ANSWERS

KURWA RAKIETA IS GOING TO THE SPODEK 🚀🇵🇱 pic.twitter.com/JNv4gRuxjC

— ENCE (@ENCE) February 5, 2024

What we are witnessing from ENCE is genuinely remarkable. The three newest ENCE recruits had been considered “Tier 2” players who could barely achieve anything in their old team, 9INE. The new ENCE roster had not been together for more than two months, and they had built the chemistry to defeat the likes of Astralis, Vitality, and G2.

The Poles Get To Play In Front Of Their Home Crowd

This well-deserved run from ENCE guarantees them a spot in the Playoffs, meaning they will play matches in the Spodek Arena. 

An iteration of IEM Katowice is held every year in Counter-Strike, and the last time a Polish team made the Playoffs was the legendary Virtus.Pro squad in 2016, which the current ENCE coach, Jakub “kuben” Gurczyński, was a part of.

It. Means. Everything. 🇵🇱@Dychacs ❤️#IEM pic.twitter.com/71GXxColW2

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 5, 2024

Dycha and the ENCE players were in tears after this emotional victory against G2. It really means everything to these players, and they’re putting in 100% effort to play their best.