A real “super team” of Finnish players have come together in ENCE eSports after the failure of their previous teams left them no choice.





ENCE roster making its International Premier LAN debut in ESL One: Cologne 2018 (Credit: ESL)





With the obvious exception of mousesports’ Miikka “suNny” Kemppi, ENCE eSports has managed to acquire the best possible mix of Finnish players that could be put together. A roster consisting of the talent it does was bound to find their place sooner or later. The balanced roles, home country chemistry, and a new core for top teams to figure out made for the ultimate recipe for Finnish success. Today, I will be informing you of the Finnish talent hidden within this young ENCE roster.





Aleksi “allu” Jalli

Easily the most notable of the bunch, allu makes his return to the Finnish scene in the latest iteration of ENCE, a team that he is no stranger to. The now 26 year old Finn has had lots of experience with international rosters like mousesports, the FaZe Clan, and most recently OpTic Gaming. Most notably, allu spent 2015 with the Swedes of 2015 the Ninjas in Pyjamas make him a prime candidate to act as captain of the team. He was playing with some of the best players in the world in each of these teams in names such as Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, Havard “rain” Nygaard, or Finn “karrigan” Andersen. It was undeniable that he had the capability to come back to the scene as one of its top snipers after falling from his peak while on the FaZe Clan, and he has just begun to show this potential now in ESL One: Cologne 2018. Since joining ENCE, he has acquired a total of 191 AWP kills in official matches, making up more than all his other weapon kills combined at 182. Battles with AWPers like Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev are two very impressive feats for an experienced player like allu to show that he still has what it takes to out aim the best. Leading his team in frags alongside sergej, allu is a strong asset to chain this team together and should bring a sense of leadership outside strategy to the team of young.





Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen

Being as young as he is, the 21 year old in-game leader has found himself quite a few minor tournament victories. His domestic success has branched into the international scene, most recently qualifying for the upcoming Europe Minor for a spot in the FACEIT Major in London. He’s also lead the team to a top 8 placing at ESL One: Cologne 2018. The ex-HAVU Gaming player caught a break with this ENCE lineup and has used a variety of tools given to him to create the first heavy hitting core Finnish team in quite a while. The team’s coordination and strategic executions were stellar at such a high level of Counter-Strike last week, and undoubtedly had to do with Aleksib’s leadership. The preparation put into this event allowed the team to show what they are capable of strategically and definitely have more tricks up their sleeve for the future. Seeing how he is so young, he only has room to grow, learn, and develop as a player and a leader for years to come.





Jere “sergej” Salo

After deciding to leave HAVU Gaming in the end of 2017, sergej took a break from playing official matches and searched for a new shot at the top. The Finnish scene was not making much progression until the opportunity arose to join this ENCE lineup. Joining ENCE was the 16 year old’s chance to show the world what he is capable of when surrounded with other players of his caliber. Reuniting with his in-game leader Aleksib helped sergej make a smooth transition into maintaining the potential he had once shown. With names like Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin, David “frozen” Čerňanský, and Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut making their debut as some of the youngest talents to shock the scene, sergej is one of the very few to finally get their chance in a team holstering accommodating players with equal or more to offer to him. With 238 official matches, sergej has managed a 1.25 kill/death ratio with a stunning 974 kills than he has deaths. He has 3206 rounds with 1 kill or more which is almost 200 rounds more than he has with 0 kills, which is quite impressive for a player as young as he is. To put things into perspective, throughout the 8 maps that sergej had played in Cologne, he had finished the event with the 2nd best rating overall behind only s1mple himself. Being 16 years old, he has quite a lot of time before he exits the professional scene and should bring home results for years to come.





Jani “Aerial” Jussila

Aerial brings a style of play that you would normally see from your top European entry-fraggers. He contains the ability to explode out and get the kills required to not only open, but close down a round for the team. The aim he possesses in tangent with the teamwork Aleksib puts into play makes him an absolute unit for opposing teams to watch out for. Previously of VITALIS, which later became SuperJymy, he was constantly being beaten by regional rivals in HAVU Gaming. with players who he would soon join forces with in this very lineup. Playing against higher tier competition more consistently, Aerial’s statistics have managed to stay equally as impressive, if not more so. With an opening kill rating of 1.05, Aerial tends to make entry kills more so than he fails to do so. Like many players of the team, he was one of the only shining hopes of his past rosters and now moves up to play with stronger opposition and holds a 1.13 rating as of now. His days of reaching the finals of Finnish events to fall at the knees of his brethren are no longer, while he rises from the ashes in ENCE.





Sami “xseveN” Laasanen

Last, but not least, xseveN is the support player of the team who was stolen from the grasp of iGame after a year spent there. A rather standout team with prospect players, iGame were a roster to be feared at one point. Alas, the team began to break apart piece by piece until the once desirable parts of a strong team were scattered across various rosters. However, xseveN would remain in iGame until his contract was bought out by none other than ENCE to play in the best Finnish lineup to have been put together possibly in the history of its scene. A relatively disappointing 0.92 rating at ESL: One Cologne has to be expected for a player as new to the big stage as xseveN. This player’s ability to function in a supportive role as well as find multi-kill rounds and high impact plays makes him a valuable piece to the puzzle that ENCE was looking to put together.





With the Europe Minor for the FACEIT Major 2018 in London coming up in a little over a week, ENCE looks to shake up the teams in their way. Seeing as they are one of the most balanced group of players in a team participating. With LeftOut as their first match for the minor, they're looking to take a clean win. LeftOut are fielding Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey as their leader, making it not too crazy to expect a win. With some of the strongest teams in the LAN with such handicaps, the world may finally see ENCE eSports stickers. Now I hope that things are not too ez4ENCE and we get to see some elite quality Counter-Strike played.