The ambitious Team Falcons project has finally been fully revealed as the Saudi-backed team announced the five players, that will play in the green jerseys from now on.

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Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer and Mohammad "BOROS" Malhas were already signed, while Emil "Magisk" Reif has been linked with a move to the organization for some time. The real surprise in today’s announcement was the two ENCE players Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia and Pavle "maden" Bošković. Both of them were rumored to join Heroic, where their former coach Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha was announced earlier today.

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Instead, they joined their former in-game leader Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer, who can now continue the work alongside coach Danny "zonic" Sørensen to prepare the team for next year.

Magisk

SunPayus

Maden

Snappi

BOROS

The first player announced by Team Falcons is Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer, who will become the team's new in-game leader.

The organization made the announcement via the social media platform X.

Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer was already rumored to join Falcons on October 23, along with other prominent names like NiKo and m0NESY. The two G2 players did however opt to stay put at G2. Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer is now on the team alongside Mohammad "BOROS" Malhas and the Danish coach Danny "zonic" Sørensen.

Emil "Magisk" Reif has also been linked with a move to Team Falcons, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

The departure of Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer and Eetu "sAw" Saha was announced yesterday on Twitter.

On their own website, the General Manager of ENCE, Niklas “Willkey” Ojalainen explains the situation.

- Eetu and Marco wanted to seek out new opportunities for themselves. We made it possible for both of them to continue with us and extend their contracts with us with great compensation. It was their own decision to make the change, and we honor that choice. I wish good luck for both of them in their future projects.

Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer and Eetu "sAw" Saha were part of rebuilding the ENCE roster in a new international era, where the fruits of the hard work started to pay off in 2022 and 2023 with several Grand Finals and a win at the IEM Dallas 2023 tournament. ENCE peaked as number 2 in the world in the fall of 2023 under Snappi and sAw's leadership.

Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander has been rumored to replace his countryman as in-game leader for ENCE in the future, while Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer is linked with a move to Team Falcons.

ENCE

With four Grand Finals in a row, ENCE have solidified their spot at the top of CS:GO. The Finnish Organization has excelled in spotting raw talented players such as Spinx, dycha, SunPayus, and NertZ and turned them into prolific players on the team led by in-game leader Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer.

We spoke with the latest addition to ENCE Guy "NertZ" Iluz about the Danish IGL.

- Snappi has a really special personality. I was playing with a lot of in-game leaders, and I feel like when you have your in-game leader as a captain, it helps the team a lot.  I never met someone like him before. If we have some argument about a situation everyone loves him and respects him, and nobody will say anything, NertZ tells in an interview Pley.gg

The Israelian has had a great impact on the ENCE roster since he arrived at the team six months ago. At the age of 24, he is playing his first full season in Tier-1 Counter-Strike while also averaging a very respectful 1.11 rating against the top 20 teams in the world. But why is it only now, at the age of 24, that Guy "NertZ" Iluz is showing the world of CS, what he is capable of in Tier-1?

- By the sound of it, I am a bit cocky, but I was the best player of Israel for almost four-five years. I needed to start the service of the army, which not everyone is doing. After three years of service, I was almost 22 years old and had not played competitively. After I finished the army, I started playing FPL and this is why I was late (to breaking through). I am playing how I am playing right now because I sacrificed a lot. This is my dream from the start of my journey, from when I was 12 years old, that I wanted to be a competitive player, so I will do everything to be the best, NertZ explains.

When asked to put words on his own career so far, the ENCE player took a long pause before answering.

- A guy that didn’t show everything he can show.

At Pro League Season 18 we will see if NertZ and ENCE can show even more than they have already delivered in 2023. In their opening round later today, they face Evil Geniuses in a match, where ENCE are huge favorites.

In the full interview below you can hear more about NertZ and also hear where he ranks ENCE among the best teams in the world.

Nertz

Finn “karrigan” Andersen, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, Casper “cadiaN” Møller, and Rasmus ”HooXi” Nielsen.

The list of top-tier Danish in-game leaders is long, with the Scandinavian nation breeding some of the strongest minds throughout CS:GO history. 

But who is the best Danish IGL right now?

If you ask Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer it’s none of the before-mentioned names. It’s himself, he explains to [link:{"url":"https://blast.tv/article/csgo/ence-snappi-major-interview","isNewTab":true,"text":"BLAST"}].  

- I think I'm the best Danish IGL, I do honestly believe so. I think all five [cadiaN and HooXi included] of us should probably believe that we are the best because we're competitors and we're facing each other. I'm doing it with a budget that is far less than all of them, I'm bringing tier 2 players into tier 1, and I do believe that I'm good. I have belief in myself and in the current team, I don't care if it's a mad thing to say but I do believe I'm currently the best, Snappi says.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/karrigan_hneb8c","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1365,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: BLAST and Michal Konkol"}]

Finn "karrigan" Andersen at BLAST.tv Paris Major (Credit: Michal Konkol and BLAST)

Snappi then continued to touch on his two successful colleagues karrigan and gla1ve, who he also praised heavily and called the latter the best IGL over the last year and a half.

- I believe that gla1ve was obviously untouchable with the Astralis lineup, it was just everything coming together with that lineup, and I think Karrigan and I actually have a bit of a similar style when playing the game, snappi states and continues:

- I would say the difference between him and me is that he has always had the best players in the world and he has done amazingly. I have so much respect for Karrigan's achievements, especially over the last year. For everyone and for me Karrigan has been the best IGL in the world over the past year and a half, but I also have to believe I am good enough to beat them,” Snappi told BLAST.tv.

Snappi is not just all talk. Yesterday he and his ENCE squad managed to qualify for the Legends Stage at the Paris Major after going 3-0 in the first stage, defeating tough teams like OG NIP and lastly no other than karrigan’s FaZe.

In the next stage, cadiaN and Heroic awaits them together with HooXi and the rest of G2.

Before the start of the European Regional Major Ranking events (RMRs), there have been some discussions regarding the distribution and seeding of the two groups with one of them looking significantly tougher than the other on paper.

Where Group B consists of 13 Top 30 teams, Group B only features six including four teams outside of Top 50. 

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The skewed distribution is something ENCE captain Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer touches on in a podcast called [link:{"url":"https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1784677072","isNewTab":true,"text":"'Off Angle'"}], where the Dane is criticizing the seeding format stating that Group B “will be WAY, WAY harder” than the Challengers Stage itself.  

- Group B is, I would say, broken compared to Group A, Snappi quickly notes before agreeing with the hosts that it’s not an unprecedented incident.

However, this is “extreme”, Snappi explains.

- I mean there will be a lot of heartbreaks in Group B, that’s for sure, because we will see some of the major organizations not make it to the Major.

- Eight teams will make it through but there are ten big organizations in Group B – and then on top of that, there are really, really good tier-2 teams like 9INE, Eternal Fire, Monte, and Aurora. So it’s going to be a bloodbath in this group, the ENCE IGL predicts.

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Snappi admits that it’s hard to find a perfect system for the RMR seeding – however the current format has according to him made Group B tougher than the actual first stage of the Major.

- They just need to get better seeding honestly. It’s not really that hard to do great seeding. They do it a bit more random, where they can use rankings or they can do the seeding closer to the RMR events…. There has to be better ways to get the best teams to the Major.

- There will be certain teams in Group B that will just literally lose to a bunch of Top 10 teams and not go to the Major. I can promise you, Group B will be WAY, WAY harder than the Challengers Stage at the Major, and it’s not even close, Snappi says.

You can watch the entire episode of "Off Angle" featuring Snappi down below. (The discussion around the RMR seeding starts at around 22 minutes)

This week will feature the start of the Regional Major Ranking events (RMR) that works as the last qualifier before the BLAST Paris Major next month. Group A is set to start tomorrow while Group B first kick off next week.

Snappi and the rest of ENCE, who are placed in the deadly Group B, will start their RMR campaign against Monte next Monday.  

Discussions about closed circuits in professional CS:GO have been a common thing ever since the two big tournament organizers ESL and BLAST Premier rolled out their so-called “partner team” structure.

One who’s been particularly vocal about this is ENCE’s in-game leader Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer.

In a recent tweet, the 32-year-old veteran reacts to the news that Evil Geniuses, a BLAST partner team, is set to field their academy at the upcoming BLAST Showdown, while ENCE not even got the chance to qualify due to the scheduling.

ATK coach, Daniel Kogan chimes in stating “We [ATK] had to give up 3 tournaments/qualifiers. Fun stuff not being a partnered team”, in the comment section.

It’s not the first time Snappi has criticized BLAST for their way to run things. Last year he said the following to Pley.gg in an interview.

- I’m sad about the way BLAST is running the league - like how the model is so advantageous for the partner teams so it’s almost impossible to get in unless you are a partner team.

This sarcastic Tweet is also a great example, where he sheds a light on the extremely difficult road to qualify for one of their prominent events.

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Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer and his men from ENCE are just one step away from securing a spot in the Champions Stage at the IEM Rio Major, following an impressive 2-0 victory over Team Vitality that avoided them an exit from the event. This means that if ENCE win their next matchup which is tomorrow, they will lock in a spot in the top eight of the IEM Rio Major, where the likes of FURIA, Cloud9, Outsiders, and fnatic are already waiting.

After ENCE’s huge victory over the world’s No. 1 team in Team Vitality, Pley.gg caught up with ENCE’s captain, Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer for a post-match interview, in which he did not just comment on the victory, but also the impact that Alvaro “SunPayus” had in their win. The 23-year-old Spaniard delivered an exceptional performance in the elimination match, which saw him finish on the top of the overall scoreboard with a 60-31 K/D and 1.51 Rating. Over the two maps, SunPayus also had an impact rating of 1.70, 27 AWP kills, and 15 Opening kills.

In the interview, the 32-year-old Danish in-game leader also revealed that giving the Spanish AWP’er fewer responsibilities in the future was a priority in order to fully utilize the talented sniper.

Watch the full interview with Snappi right here:

Everything looked good for Bad News Eagles after the Challengers Stage. The Balkan team had surprised everyone again and gone 3-0. But on Day 1 of the Legends Stage, Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi and his men have been disappointing.

Both Spirit and ENCE were not afraid of facing BNE on what was supposed to be their best map. On Ancient, ENCE dominated hard on their CT side winning the first half 12-3.

With Bad News Eagles' fantastic CT stats in mind, that could have been enough to at least push the game to overtime. But ENCE quickly found the last four rounds to close off the game winning 16-7. A big win for ENCE, who had started the day losing to FURIA.

Bad News Eagles are now left with best of three matches to try and qualify for the playoffs. Both teams are back in action tomorrow.

ENCE – Bad News Eagles 1-0 | IEM Rio Major Legends Stage

16-7 (Ancient) | {cflag:DK} Snappi – 1.83 Rating / 25-14 K-D / 120.6 ADR

Bad News Eagles

The ESL Challenger Rotterdam 2022 event began with a bo1 clash between ENCE and TeamOne, in which Maden and company from ENCE came out on top with a comfortable 16-5 victory to go up 1-0 in the group. It was clear to see that ENCE’s had built on the good form they showcased at the RMR’s where they secured a legend spot at the Rio Major with a 3-0 record. That means ENCE won’t have to participate in open qualifiers before the next Major.

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The match between ENCE and Brazilian TeamOne was being played on Dust2, where Snappi finished on top of the scoreboard with a 1.68 Rating, 107.0 ADR, and a 24-10 K/D.

Snappi | 24-10 K/D | 107.0 ADR | 76.2% KAST | 1.68 Rating 

Maden | 19-11 K/D | 90.4 ADR | 76.2% KAST | 1.38 Rating 

SunPayus | 17-10 K/D | 83.0 ADR | 81.0% KAST | 1.38 Rating

Valde | 16-11 K/D | 88-8 ADR | 90.5% KAST | 1.36 Rating 

dycha | 16-14 K/D | 77.6 ADR | 71.4% KAST | 1.07 Rating

iDk | 18-16 K/D | 81.0 ADR | 71.4% KAST | 1.21 Rating 

pesadelo | 11-18 K/D | 66.4 ADR | 57.1% KAST | 0.77 Rating 

trk | 10-19 K/D | 53.6 ADR | 66.7% KAST | 0.69 Rating 

Maluk3 | 10-20 K/D | 72.5 ADR | 42.9% KAST | 0.66 Rating 

malbsMd | 7-19 K/D | 51.0 ADR | 66.7% KAST | 0.56 Rating

ENCE’s next match will be against the winner between Outsiders/Fluxo tomorrow at 17:10 (CET), while TeamOne will go up against the loser at 20:30 (CET).

TeamOne

The new-look ENCE squad featuring the two fresh additions of Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia and Valdemar “valde” Bjørn Vangså has started to heat up. The European mix arrive at ESL Challenger Rotterdam with an impressive result in the bag from RMR, where they managed to secure a Legend spot at the Rio Major.

For valde speaking, the transfer to ENCE has meant a comeback for the Danish rifler who had not featured in an official match since April this year. In an interview with ESL, valde talks about his role in the team and how his new captain is placing a lot of responsibility on him.

- I think so yeah [valde said when asked if we’ll see him on his top level again]. I have some good roles in the team, and I know Snappi puts a lot of trust in me. Yeah obviously, I got to perform as well, but at the end of the day we are five individuals in the team, and I don’t think you’ll win any tournament if everyone is not performing.

- It’s a team game at the end of the day and we all got to put up our best individual level to win.

ENCE kicked off their ESL Challenger Rotterdam campaign with a convincing 16-5 victory over TeamOne in the opening round. Regarding their expectations to win the entire tournament, valde said the following. 

- I wouldn’t say it would be a big disappointment not to win the event, but obviously, we are here to win. Going 3-0 in the RMRs was a big deal for us after the ESL Pro League results. So I think it’s just about showing some good Counter-Strike and refining our game.

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valde

Day 4 of the European RMR is live with Bo3s all day. The first Bo3 was between ENCE and BIG who both were 2-0, which means that the winner will qualify for IEM Rio Major 2022.

Dust2, Nuke, and Mirage were the maps being left over in the veto. ENCE came off to a good start on Dust2 as they managed to force back on BIG´s pistol round win. ENCE managed to play some fast counterstrike which BIG found hard to counter. ENCE came up 12-3 on the CT side and closed the game 16-9 on the T side.

ENCE copied what they found successful within the first map. ENCE started Nuke by pressing the speeder to go 5-0 on the T side of Nuke. The first half has 8-7 in favor of ENCE. After an intense match on Nuke, ENCE took the victory 16-14 after a reasonable effort and a well-played T side for BIG.

ENCE – BIG 2-0 | IEM Road to Rio RMR (Group B)

16 - 9 (Dust2) | {cflag:DK} Snappi – 1.34 Rating / 19–14 K-D / 90.8 ADR

16-14 (Nuke) | {cflag:ES} SunPayus – 1.37 Rating / 22–11 K-D / 74.0 ADR

ENCE got off to a fine start at the European RMR tournament with a 16-8 win against HEET in the opening round.

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The new AWP'er on the team, Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia performed excellently with a 1.47 rating during the match. After the win, in-game leader Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer told the desk at ESL how the integration of the new Sniper has been.

- SunPayus requires a lot more space which is a good thing because I want my AWP'er to roam around the map a lot. So we kind of had to find ways to integrate him moving around both on T and CT-sides wherever he wants.

You can hear the full answer on the integration of SunPayus on ENCE here.

[twitchClip:SmoggyFuriousPieBibleThump-Er9ZhnVQB56cebX8]

On HLTV's Confirmed, Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer talked about who ENCE had set their eyes on at the start of the year, where the team had to find a replacement for Joonas "doto" Forss.

During the interview, Snappi was asked about the selection of their new fifth member of the roster.

- The different names was Josef "faveN" Baumann, Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar, Pavle "maden" Bošković, and Dion "FASHR" Derksen. Those were the four names that were in the discussion. Some of them were not possible. With NEOFRAG, SINNERS just denied him to go. faveN went to BIG. I am not really sure we had a priority list, but I am just happy that we ended up getting Maden in the end.

After Maden's entry on ENCE, the team had made deep runs in ESL Pro League Season 15, PGL Antwerp, and IEM Dallas, and is currently ranked third in the world.

You can see the entire HLTV Confirmed in the video below. At about 19:10 the conversation about the new fifth player starts.

NEOFRAG

FASHR

faveN

SinnerS

Watch some of the best clips from the quarter-finals. We're looking forward to seeing more in the semi-finals on Saturday. 

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s1mple

ZywOo

Whose Frag is That? is back! This time with the Danish IGL Snappi taking on the challenge!

ENCE has been one of the positive surprises of 2022 with good results, and Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer has been a key figure on the team. One thing, in particular, has been interesting to see. The economy game from ENCE is setting the standards of CS.

Let's see if Snappi is as good at guessing frags as managing the economy?

[youtube:www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ss5ML5nRr8&ab_channel=betwayesports]

Yesterday’s thrilling conclusion to the group stage at IEM Dallas presented six decisive matches. Here ENCE and BIG managed to grab the favorable semifinal spots in front of FaZe and FURIA after two impressive performances.

Furthermore, did Cloud9 and G2 eliminate Vitality and Liquid in their respective lower final matchups. The results on Wednesday have given the following playoff bracket.

Eight days after the conclusion of PGL Major Antwerp, it's time to initiate the next top-tier tournament in IEM Dallas. The $250.000 event will take place over the Atlantic in Dallas, Texas, and features a star-studded lineup of teams. Despite Heroic, NAVI, and Entropiq all being unable to travel to the United States, there will still be superstar teams in FaZe, G2, ENCE present.

The opening round will work as a Best-of-1 format, which is set to kick off at 18:00 (CET) this Monday. 

ENCE will probably have to do without their star player Lotan “Spinx” Giladi for the upcoming IEM Dallas starting next week. Allegedly, the strong rifler has had trouble obtaining a visa to enter the United States which endangers his participation in the $250.000 tournament, [link:{"url":"https://www.dust2.us/news/28855/snappi-spinx-hasnt-been-able-to-obtain-a-visa-so-we-might-need-to-play-iem-dallas-with-a-stand-in","isNewTab":true,"text":"ENCE IGL Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer told Dust2.us in a recent interview"}].

(…) we have IEM Dallas coming up which won't be that good sadly because Spinx hasn't been able to obtain a visa for the US so far, so we might need to play with a stand-in. That's how it is, huge blow to us but apart from that, going into BLAST and Cologne people will see a very strong ENCE, Snappi said to Dust2.us.

As Snappi also said, the absence of Spinx will be a huge blow for ENCE with the 21-year-old rifler being their highest-rated player this year averaging a stellar 1.18 Rating. He has risen to the challenge alongside the rest of ENCE, who can see themselves among the very best teams in CS:GO right now. 

IEM Dallas will begin on Monday the 30th of May and features a star-studded lineup of teams from the very top of CS:GO. 

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Spinx

Natus Vincere have just qualified for the Grand Final of the PGL Major 2022 in Antwerp after surpassing ENCE in the Semi-finals. Whilst it was by no means undeserved, it leaves ENCE with a bittersweet taste in their mouth after managing to prove to everyone that they are in fact a real contender and a scary opponent to face. 

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We talked with the Danish IGL of ENCE Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer about the recent loss as well as his thoughts on ENCE's performance at the event in its entirety. Unsurprising it was a disappointed "Snappi" that talked upon the fresh defeat, however, he expressed how content he was with how far he and his teammates have made it at the event: 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/snappi_znib4f","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

Although stating that the huge crowd and Natus Vincere chants might have affected some of the ENCE players, the experienced IGL looks inward and accepts the fact that they simply didn't perform at the required level when facing the CIS giants: 

Whilst it is sad to see ENCE go out after their recent form, proving to everyone that they are in fact a contender for a tier-one title, it boats well for the upcoming future of ENCE. "Snappi" talks about how he sees ENCE improving and only getting better in the near future: 

To hear more about what "Snappi" had to say after the heartbreaking loss to Natus Vincere in the Semi-finals, you can watch the entire interview down below: 

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	4	14
Maps count	6	28

Snappi

Player stats

Articles mentioning Snappi

Falcons announce Magisk and ENCE duo

Falcons acquires Snappi

ENCE bid farewell to Snappi and sAw

Nertz on Snappi: I never met someone like him before

Confident Snappi: I'm the best Danish in-game leader

Snappi is not impressed by the RMR seeding: Group B is way harder than the Challengers Stage

Snappi takes a shot at BLAST prior to BLAST Showdown

Snappi: I see SunPayus as our main star going forward

Snappi leads ENCE to first victory

ENCE cruise to victory over TeamOne

valde after two months in ENCE: Snappi puts a lot of trust in me

ENCE is ready for IEM Rio Major with a win over BIG!

Snappi on SunPayus: He requires a lot more space

Snappi: We had our eyes on faveN, NEOFRAG, Maden, and FASHR

Great moments from BLAST Premier Spring Finals quarter-finals

Snappi Plays Whose Frag is That?

IEM Dallas playoff matches set

Today in CS:GO - Monday 30/5 - 2022

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Snappi: "We only have ourselves to blame"

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