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After being one map away from elimination in 16th place, ENCE somehow turned their fortunes around to become one of the most surprising Major finalists in recent memory.
When ENCE were 1-0 down against BIG in the first elimination game of the New Legends Stage at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice Major 2019, most people had the same thoughts. They'd had a great run and making the top 16 at the Major would have been a solid achievement for a young team that had very little experience of playing on the biggest stage.
Then, being just one map away from elimination they turned it around, taking Train 16-14 and Overpass 16-10 to keep their Major run alive. They would still have to win another two best of threes to even make it to the top eight, and couldn’t afford to lose one, but there was still a chance they could pull something out of the bag.
CS:GO veteran and former member of both Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan, Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli, has assembled a young team of Finnish talent, including rifler and in-game leader Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen, rifler Jere ‘sergej’ Salo, entry fragger Jani ‘Aerial’ Jussila and support rifler Sami ‘xseveN’ Laasanen. They knew the Major would be difficult, stacked with challenges, but their full run has been nothing short of hugely impressive.
A week and a half of serious CS:GO competition later, ENCE found themselves in the grand final of the Major, having upset some of the best teams in the world and gained a massive new group of fans, both worldwide and in the Spodek Arena. Their unlikely run was finally coming to a climax and all that stood between them and becoming world champions was arguably the best team CS:GO has ever seen, Astralis.
You have to go back all the way to December 2018 to find the start of ENCE’s journey to the Major final. While their opponents, Astralis, started their IEM campaign in late February, ENCE themselves had to battle through the closed qualifiers, the European Minor, and the New Challengers stage before making it to the same stage as Astralis. It was an incredibly long journey and one that few people thought would result in a trip to the final day of the competition.
“Many people questioned Jalli’s decision to take a step back in his career to build a brand new Finnish lineup from scratch,” says CS:GO caster Alex ‘Snodz’ Byfield. “He brought in players with limited experience at the top of the professional scene and was lacking Miikka ‘suNny’ Kemppi, who was considered the best Finnish player at the time. Allu must have seen something special in these young prospects, and my god he was right!”
Once this young squad that had already surprised people got to the New Challengers stage, they looked good, going 3-1, only losing in a best of three to fellow top eight team, Renegades. Despite this, few still people considered them credible Major winners. To even make the main stage, they would have to win three matches against some of the very best teams in the world, and despite ENCE’s obvious skill, it seemed unlikely that would happen.
After 16-13 and 16-12 losses to Renegades and HellRaisers respectively (two teams you would expect a Major finalist to be able to beat) ENCE were put into an elimination match with BIG. A loss in this best-of-three would eliminate them, and after going down 16-5 on Dust 2, things looked dire for ENCE.
“We saw something very similar at the Boston Major with the former Cloud9 team going 0-2 in the Challenger stage, to then go all the way and not drop a single series,” says Byfield. “It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly it was that suddenly flipped the switch for ENCE; maybe the do or die situation they were left in had them more focused than ever.”
After overcoming BIG, the seemingly tough challenge of G2 Esports awaited, but ENCE took them down as well, although the first map on Dust 2 did go to overtime before ENCE won 19-17. A much simpler 16-10 victory on Mirage saw them advance to a deciding match against Kazakh squad AVANGAR, which ending up being a simpler affair with straightforward 16-12 and 16-7 victories sending them to the Champions Stage and a terrifying match-up against Team Liquid.
Many had picked Liquid as the team most likely to dethrone Astralis in the final, and few gave ENCE any chance of success against them. Maybe they managed to take their map pick, but that was looking like a best case scenario, at least until things got started. They cleaned up on Mirage 16-11, and shocked the entire stadium. Liquid were clearly rattled – they expected this to be the easiest of their main stage games on route to the final – and despite a close map that went to overtime, they couldn’t overcome ENCE, with the Finns advancing 2-0.
Natus Vincere, the Ukrainian juggernauts, were the next team on the ENCE chopping block, and they did manage to hand the Finns their first loss after a nine-map winning streak. But the 16-3 loss on Dust 2 clearly inspired ENCE, as they bounced back with an amazing CT side on Mirage to take map three 16-14 in the most tense series of the main event. ENCE booked their place in the final, and finally, the doubters started to join the Finnish hype train.
"If you told me at the start of the playoffs that ENCE would reach the finals, I would have never believed you,” says caster and host Jack ‘Jacky’ Peters. “After their performance against Liquid however, you could see the belief in each and every single one of them, as they realised that there was a chance. For them to them beat Na’ Vi as well, that's the craziest storyline we've seen at any Major, ever.”
Of course at the end of this incredible journey were Astralis, the defending Major champions, and quite possibly the best CS:GO team to date. While ENCE went on a miracle run, Astralis did exactly what was expected of them, calmly destroying everyone that was put in their way. Astralis didn’t drop a single map getting to the final, and unfortunately for ENCE that didn’t change. The Danes calmly took down ENCE 16-11 and 16-4 in one of the more one-sided Major finals we've seen so far. Astralis were just one step too far for the Finns.
But still, this was one incredible run from ENCE. Many didn’t even expect the underdogs to make the top 16, and they were even one map away from crashing out in 16th place. But something changed and they went on a massive win streak and made Major history. They may not have won the event itself, but they did win the hearts of thousands of CS:GO fans, and created one of the greatest stories CS:GO has ever seen. It wasn’t the result they, or many of the fans in the Spodek wanted, but ENCE has an incredibly bright future ahead of them, and this is hopefully just the first part of a longer story this team can write in the coming months and years.
