As the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 for CS2 was about to begin, many predicted that ENCE would at least make it to the Elimination Stage, making their picks in their Pick'Em accordingly. However, the Polish roster, led by Lukas gla1ve Rossander, was knocked out of the major with a 1-3 record. In this article, Bo3.gg will explain why it's premature for ENCE to draw hasty conclusions and should retain its current roster.
The Brazilian Snowball
Before condemning ENCE's exit from the first major in CS2 history, let's see who they lost to. Among the teams that defeated gla1ve's squad were Imperial Esports, paiN Gaming, and FURIA Esports. It's clear that ENCE was simply caught in a Brazilian snowball.
Before the major began, no one could have imagined that teams from the American region could challenge European squads, but reality proved otherwise. paiN, Imperial and FURIA successfully made it to the Elimination Stage. Notably, a fourth team from the American region, Legacy, has also made a good impression.
Don't Just Blame dycha
Immediately after ENCE's exit from PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, fans started theorizing about roster changes. The community's main candidate for exclusion was Paweł dycha Dycha. But why him specifically?
dycha had the worst LAN performance of his career. On average, he inflicted 59.2 damage and had 0.45 kills per round. His average rating in the Opening Stage was 5. These statistical figures spawned a lot of negativity towards him. However, if you look at the statistics of the other roster members, it's clear that they didn't perform much better than dycha at this tournament.
Overall, the team looked unbalanced. Just look at the individual performance of Aleksander hades Miskiewicz. The ENCE sniper performs phenomenally on one map, and on another, he hits one shot out of five. Similar moments can be observed with any player on the team. So, the problems of ENCE definitely don't lie solely with dycha, but are much deeper.
What Should ENCE Do?
So, should they change the roster or not? Definitely not. ENCE's performance cannot be called a failure. The roster, which was assembled hastily, performed admirably at IEM Katowice 2024, making it to the playoffs, and then successfully qualified for the major. The stickers from PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 will at least cover the buyouts of the trio from 9INE, which is great. Moreover, the club's management does not like to make hasty decisions, and it's unlikely to happen this time.
The current ENCE roster needs to be given time, at least until the summer break, and then make a decision about the future of the team. gla1ve and Jakub kuben Gurczyński will better refine their system, and other team members will have time to work on stabilizing their form. Moreover, with each subsequent LAN, the young Poles will become less and less nervous. Save the roster and believe in a bright future!
ENCE finished 20th-22nd at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 and earned $10,000. The Major took place from March 17 to March 31 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Teams competed for a prize pool of $1.25 million. Follow the schedule and results of the tournament through the link.
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