IEM Rio preview: ENCE
Will the new-look ENCE roster come out alive from the Legends Stage?
IEM Rio will be the second CS:GO Major of 2022 and the first-ever Major tournament to be held in Brazil. The Challenger Stage of the Major will kick off on October 31, with the Grand final of the event set to be played on November 13. Once the Legends Stage kicks off, a total of 16 teams will be competing for the lion’s share of the $1.250.000 prize pool, with the winner walking away with a Major trophy and $500.000.
Challengers Stage: Oct 31st – Nov 3rd
Legends Stage: Nov 5th – 8th
Champions Stage: Nov 10th – 13th
ENCE:
Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer
Valdemar “Valde” Bjørn Vangså
Pavle “Maden” Boskovic
Pawel “dycha” Dycha
Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia
Qualified as: Legends
Last Major: 3-4th
Odds of winning IEM Rio: 12.5-13
ENCE were one of the teams who made big moves in the off-season, upgrading their AWPer with the 23-year-old Spaniard Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia and replacing their star rifler Lotan “Spinx” Giladi with the 27-year-old Dane, Valdemar “valde” Bjørn Vangså. The changes didn’t make a huge difference right away, as the team struggled during ESL Pro League, their first tournament together, where they got eliminated with a 2-8 map record. Not long after the ESL Pro League, ENCE were ready to participate in the BLAST Premier Qualifier. Here, ENCE took 3rd-4th place and didn’t manage to secure a ticket for the BLAST Showdown 2022. In the qualifying round, ENCE took down 777 twice but failed to defeat HAVU and ECSTATIC.
However, it was clear that the new-look ENCE squad had made some small adjustments in their style of play and approach to the game heading into RMR’s. That paid off, and ENCE went off to grab a 2nd place finish to secure a spot in the Legends Stage of the IEM Rio Major 2022. Just a couple of days after the RMR’s, ENCE would go on to secure another 2nd place. This time at the ESL Challenger Rotterdam 2022, where they took $20.000 with them home, but unfortunately not a ticket to the ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference.
The real question is: How will ENCE thrive at the IEM Rio Major? Well, it would be unrealistic to view such a new team who needs time to develop as favorites to win the Major, or a team who could go on to win against the likes of FaZe and NAVI. ENCE still needs more time together as a team to develop and learn each other completely. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a good chance of making it out of the Legends Stage into the Champions Stage. Considering the fact that probably many teams wouldn’t know what to expect from ENCE, we at Pley.gg believe that ENCE very well could be making it to the Quarter-finals of the event if they manage to do good preparations, with innovative ways of playing to make sure they can stay unpredictable throughout the beginning of the event.
Pley.gg prediction: ENCE to reach Quarter-final
ENCE’s 2022 best results: 2nd at ESL Pro League Season 15, 1st BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2022 EU, 2nd IEM Dallas 2022, 2nd IEM Road to Rio 2022 EU RMR B, 2nd ESL Challenger Rotterdam 2022.
World Ranking: #13
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