Interview With ENCE’s dycha, Ahead of ESL Pro League S19

Ahead of ESL Pro League S19, I had the pleasure of interviewing Pawel “dycha” Dycha from ENCE. Here’s what we talked about.

1. At the Copenhagen Major, you lost against three Brazilian teams in the first stage. I was convinced that you would defeat all of them. What do you think happened there and how long did it take you to mentally recover after this result?

I feel like we were not ready, both mentally and as a team, after IEM Katowice, to play at the Major. We had a big success in a short period of time. After Katowice, we played some open qualifiers but we really didn’t have that much time to build. I think that was missing during the Major. We didn’t have that much structure to rely upon.

At IEM Katowice, we were winning the duels and making a lot of kills. During the Major we were not able to do the same. We already played badly during the RMRs I think. In some of the matches we did ok, but in others we didn’t even exist on the server.

In recent weeks, we had more time to build and do the roles switch. I am now back to my old roles.

2. Is CS2 like chess, in the sense that you can prepare positions in advance? Is it super tactical or do you go with the flow?

It depends on the game. Some things can be prepared. But in many situations you need to go with the flow and rely on your feeling. Most of the time we are preparing for the match and we know what we will do, especially the weapons for each scenario: pistol rounds, first gun rounds, force-buy, anti-eco, etc. But you can’t prepare everything.

Beautiful day for our LAN comeback and to kick off EPL 🤩

🆚 @GamerLegion
🕜 13:30 CEST pic.twitter.com/3a5sPXXBH8

— ENCE (@ENCE) April 30, 2024

3. What are your expectations at this event? Can ENCE finish in the top eight?

Our main goal is to qualify for the playoffs stage in order to see some progress. But what we really want is to show that we are better than we were a few months ago and that the things we practiced during training are working. We also want to fix anything that’s broken in our strategies. Overall, I feel like the main objective is simply to play good CS.

4. Is qualification easier in this format? I think it’s a triple-bracket, which means you need to lose three times to get eliminated but you will probably encounter weaker and weaker teams if you start to lose.

Yes, for sure. When you have three chances, even if you start slowly, you have time to adjust. Every single match is best-of-three, so it’s much easier. When we play in a Major or an RMR, everything is best-of-one. This makes it stressful for the players.

In this format (triple-elimination), you can prepare for every opponent from the start. When the groups are revealed, you know who you can meet.

5. Don’t you think that organizers should be a bit more rigorous when it comes to Major qualifiers? Wouldn’t this format work better than the Swiss System?

Yes, I think they should change something. My opinion is that the better team will always win. It doesn’t matter if it’s best-of-one or best-of-three. However, every team will have this one match where things are not working. If we want to make sure that the best teams qualify, the matches should be best-of-three.

Right now, with best-of-one matches, it’s quite random because you can have upsets every single match.

6. What do you think about the MR12 format?

I think it’s fine. It’s not as bad as people thought it would be. It’s super easy to comeback but it’s also super easy to throw your lead. Every single round is important. You need to calculate more and prepare better for each match.

7. Are you happy with the game’s current economy? With so few rounds to play on each map, would it not be better to give the losing team more money? Or perhaps the winner of the pistol round less money?

I think they should change something. If they don’t want to change the whole economy, they should at least change the economy of the first several rounds.

8. Who do you think will be the toughest team to beat in your group?

I feel like MOUZ will win the group. Based on how they played at previous events, it’s clear to me that they will be the team to beat.

9. How many weeks of training did you have as a team before this tournament?

I think we had around three or four full weeks.

10. Do you all play from different locations or do you do boot camps?

We didn’t have time to do a boot camp.

11. How is CS2 evolving? Do you think it has improved a lot since its release? Are you satisfied with its current state or is it still full of bugs?

It still has bugs but with every single update, they make it better and I like it.

Alright. Thank you for the interview, and good luck at the tournament!

Header: ESL