About a year ago, ENCE wrote the most beautiful fairy tale in the history of Finnish CS when they – five players who found each other amidst the bleakness of CS in their country, without a gaming house, self-training, and competing online from the least known qualifiers, made it to the finals of the major IEM Katowice 2019. Climbing from rank 187 to rank 11 on the HLTV rankings, ENCE became a phenomenon in the professional CS:GO scene and quickly won the hearts of viewers worldwide.
However, in September 2019, ENCE disappointed fans when they showcased unnecessary internal conflicts, unexpectedly kicking IGL Aleksib and turning him into one of the most unfortunate players at that time, as he had no idea his teammates were turning against him until the last moment. Bringing in Mousesports’ “professional substitute” suNny, Allu and his teammates believed that ENCE would go even further than when Aleksib was on the team with this new lineup. Indeed, they have “gone very far” as with their defeat to Astralis yesterday, ENCE officially extended their losing streak to seven matches. According to HTLV statistics, in the last three months, ENCE’s win rate is… 16.7%. Terrible!
Many have taken pleasure in seeing ENCE lose repeatedly recently. They believe it’s the “karma” that Allu and his teammates deserve for kicking Aleksib. Watching ENCE’s glorious competitive days last year, even someone with little knowledge of CS can recognize that ENCE’s success largely stemmed from Aleksib’s brilliant leadership. It seems that everyone loved and acknowledged Aleksib’s talent, except for his teammates. Immediately after deciding to kick Aleksib, ENCE members continuously gave interviews that seemed to “diminish” their former teammate. First was Aerial, in an interview with HLTV implying that Aleksib’s individual skill was not high, and ENCE was “in need of more firepower” so they wanted to bring in suNny as a replacement.
Next, Allu and suNny, in a discussion about ENCE’s roster changes, also downplayed Aleksib’s role when these two repeatedly stated that Aleksib was not the only leader in ENCE. Allu mentioned that the contributions of the coach in building strategies were more than people thought, and Allu himself was also a secondary caller in the team, making many decisions that helped ENCE win. Following Allu, suNny also boasted that he had a lot of experience as a secondary caller like Allu, subtly asserting that the strategic mindset of the two was enough to replace Aleksib.
Of course, the statements from ENCE members are unlikely to convince fans as ENCE’s performance has continued to worsen after kicking Aleksib. Aleksib himself soon turned Allu and suNny’s confidence into a joke when at the BLAST Premier Series last February, he unexpectedly stated: “ENCE? I just want to say that 70% of the basic strategies they are still deploying are my ideas.” Aleksib’s statement was truly shocking, as it turned out that Allu and his teammates, after all this time, were still using the old strategies of someone they had just kicked out.
Performing poorly, most fans seem to have completely turned their backs on ENCE. Even the classic slogan “ez4ENCE” (too easy for ENCE) has been sarcastically turned into “ENCE2ez” (ENCE too easy to beat) whenever a team is about to compete against ENCE. This team has dropped to rank 22 on the HLTV rankings and may continue to slide further down.
For those who enjoy drama, they will feel satisfied if ENCE continues to fail, mocking this team for bringing upon themselves the consequences of their “mistakes” with IGL Aleksib. But for those who genuinely care about professional CS, perhaps the feeling of regret will overshadow any satisfaction. Regret for ENCE of the past, regret for that “fairy tale” of the Finns. Because the victim of this separation, Aleksib, now isn’t much better off than his former teammates, as his new teammates at OG have also yet to prove much in major tournaments. If they had kept the lineup from a year ago, perhaps everything would have been different for these five guys. Perhaps for ENCE, love and passion only burn brightly when everyone has nothing in hand. When success arrives, jealousy and personal schemes will rise up and ruin everything.