ENCE’s fairytale run continues at IEM Katowice
The Polish home crowd could finally get to see a Polish core perform at the Spodek Arena again.
It’s been a while. Not since March 2016 (Virtus.pro), the home crowd in Katowice has seen a Polish team playing in the playoffs at the prestigious tournament.
In the 2024 edition, there weren’t any signs of either Rebels or ENCE making it to the playoffs, perhaps not even the main tournament. Both qualified though, and after yesterday’s opening round, ENCE has a real opportunity to qualify.
The new ENCE roster, compiled of three players from the old 9INE roster, Paweł "dycha" Dycha from the previous iteration of the successful ENCE roster, alongside the most winning in-game leader in competitive Counter-Strike Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander, won against the current number 1 in the world, Team Vitality. The first-round match saw both teams winning their own map picks comfortably before the match headed to Nuke for the decider. Here ENCE came out strong on their T side to take a commanding 9-3 lead into the second half, where they finished off Vitality 13-8.
A victory that shocked the CS scene including ourselves, who have probably not seen the new ENCE roster as a real contender for any titles in the near future. Now they are one win away from the playoffs.
In the upper semi-finals of Group B, they will now face G2, who took care of Heroic in their opening game.
Turkish delight
In Group A Eternal Fire continued their hot streak with another impressive win. This time it was Falcons who were dismantled. Eternal Fire is now on a six-match winning streak. The Turkish roster will however be challenged in the next round against FaZe.
In the same group, we also got to see another masterclass performance from the 17-year-old Danil "donk" Kryshkovets. The Russian rifler drove his team to a 2-1 win against their CIS rivals from Natus Vincere.
Results of Day 1 at IEM Katowice:
Falcons – Eternal Fire 0-2
G2 – Heroic 2-1
FaZe – Rebels 2-0
Natus Vincere – Spirit 1-2
Complexity – Apeks 2-0
Vitality – ENCE 1-2
Day 2 schedule: (CET)
13.30: Monte – GamerLegion
13.30: MOUZ – Cloud9
16.30: Spirit – Complexity
16.30: Natus Vincere – Apeks (Elimination match)
19.30: Eternal Fire – FaZe
19.30: Falcons – Rebels (Elimination match)
