Falcons’ anticipated market moves left ENCE with just two active players, but the Finnish organization has bounced right back. ENCE signed a trio of 9INE players on Dec. 17 to replace what Falcons took, including a European RMR invite for the PGL Copenhagen Major.
ENCE moved swiftly after losing Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia and Pavle “Maden” Bošković to Falcons. Just two days following the blockbuster transfer, the Finnish organization unveiled three new signings— Krzysztof “Goofy” Górski, Kacper “Kylar” Walukiewicz, and Olek “hades” Miśkiewicz.
The Polish trio makes the jump from their previous organization, 9INE, with which they reached the Legends group stage at BLAST Paris Major. Despite that breakthrough, 9INE couldn’t use this success as a catapult and the team kept hovering around the top 30. Their most notable achievements were qualifying for IEM Cologne and Gamers8, crashing out at the first hurdle on both occasions.
Regardless, 9INE’s performance at the Paris Major means that ENCE recovers its status as an invitee to the PGL Copenhagen Major European RMR, which they previously lost with the departure of SunPayus and Maden.
This won’t be hades’ first dance with ENCE. He was brought in as a 21-year-old prospect back in 2021, shortly after the Finnish org first went international. The Pole lasted for just over a year but was eventually released as part of another shuffle that was triggered by Vitality signing ENCE’s Lotan “Spinx” Giladi. Now nearly 24, hades will hope to use his experience to make more out of his second stint with the team.
Goofy, Kylar, and hades join their compatriots Paweł “dycha” Dycha and coach Jakub “kuben” Gurczyński, but will still have some adjustments to make. 9INE was an all-Polish gathering, which isn’t the case with ENCE. Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander was brought into the squad to take over calling from Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, who was the first player to formally join Falcons’ new project.
Gla1ve is the mastermind behind four Major titles and his Astralis defeated ENCE in the final for one of those trophies. Nevertheless, the Danish IGL will face a challenge of his own as he’s only ever played with one non-Danish player during his CS:GO career, and that one player was Swedish.
CS2 is bringing along new opportunities and new challenges for everyone, including the game’s developers. It looks like gla1ve and ENCE’s new Polish squadron are ready to face those challenges and keep ENCE among the best CS2 teams in the world.
