Ne0kai: "Roster changes are so difficult with ENCE"

With ENCE you can see that fundamentally the ideas that they have are good but something isn’t quite clicking.

The new team caused dycha to take a serious drop in form which hurt them a lot since his roles are pretty integral to success.

It required them to adjust his positions which can take time to be effective, but I think recently I’ve seen them look considerably sharper as a team because of it

As I mentioned earlier he looked so uncomfortable on rotates and was constantly being caught off-guard, but the main thing was that mechanically he just wasn’t there.

I think the team had a great honeymoon period with Katowice but when they really had to get down to business at events that weren’t on home soil or online, which is a different beast in itself, dycha looked like he had lost a lot of confidence.

Normally, you would talk about communication being the issue as he was being caught asleep at the wheel too often, but in this case, it doesn’t make sense with the majority of the team being his countrymen.

So for me, I think it was simply a mental issue; he had a few bad games in a completely new team, calling style, and environment and found himself in a vicious cycle which was tough to break. But they have changed up a few positions and now it’s starting to look like he is back to his old self.

If you had asked me when he was signed I would actually have said no. As much as that makes me a contrarian on the matter, I thought that gla1ve was past it, with an outdated calling style but most importantly, such weak mechanics that he would be a burden to the team.

However, I’ve been proven wrong because gla1ve on multiple occasions has carried this team on individual ability alone.

However, it’s still a tough job here because the ex-9INE core isn’t as reliable or fundamentally sound as what he was used to in the past, so it’s been a test for him to make this team competitive at the top level.
I think he has adapted well, and realistically ENCE don’t really have any options, there are so few IGLs on the market I think he is as good as they can get.

For me, I don’t think he has been the issue in the team at all, and I’m glad to see he still has it in him.

Honestly, I love the way Kylar plays. He is so audacious at times with his fights but is given a lot of support and backing to take them and it’s been working.

Without a doubt, his mechanical ability allows him to play star roles at a tier one level and recently, with the slight decline in numbers from individuals like Goofy and dycha, he has had to pick up the slack and has been doing a fantastic job.

If Dycha got back to top form there is an argument to be made there to let him try star positions but it’s a big risk and not worth it in my opinion.
As long as he can keep up his consistency then I have no issues on my side with Kylar.

He’s very aggressive, has a sound understanding of the game at the top level, and has the right amount of form to facilitate the best version of himself. Most importantly, he also has the willingness to step up in a time of need when ENCE desperately needed a star.

I think it was a bit of both. dycha looked wildly uncomfortable in his roles, getting exposed too often, not hitting his shots and struggling massively on an individual basis. But I also think that ENCE’s firepower has reduced massively.

Thankfully, it seems with the role swaps for dycha he looks considerably more comfortable, but I also think it probably just took a bit of time to build up some synergy and cohesion with the rest of the team as it was a new environment for him.

But realistically, ENCE went from having a top three AWPer in the world last year to a still very good AWPer, but I wouldn’t say Hades is on the same level as SunPayus.

Then they lost the best rookie in the world as of last year and generally speaking one of the highest impact riflers going on Nertz to Kylar. Now again, Kylar isn’t bad, but it still is fundamentally a downgrade in terms of raw mechanical ability.

Hence why expectations for this team have to be completely different in my opinion, as they are no longer a playoff shoo-in, now more of a playoff hopeful in my opinion

Honestly, roster changes are so difficult with ENCE. We know from the Katowice run that this team can make a playoff run, however, can they do it on a regular and consistent basis like their previous lineup? No way.

The ability on the team that ENCE had was phenomenal, and they have lost some real stars, most of which have gone on to do absolutely f*ck all, *cough* Falcons *cough*.

But sadly, with the ex-9INE core and an IGL who was out of the game for la year, that’s a completely different story.

These two teams have markedly different expectations. That previous lineup had to make playoffs at the bare minimum because that’s how good they were, this lineup hopes to make playoffs, but it shouldn’t be expected.

The issue is that making changes to this team is so difficult. dycha just signed a two-year extension, gla1ve is about as good as it gets with IGLs that were on the market and in their budget and then trying to alter the 9INE core could really affect the vibes.

The only person that maybe could be replaced is Goofy potentially, but then the big question is who and also who within ENCE’s budget and financial means.

I really don’t think ENCE can do anything at the moment. My expectation is that they ride out this roster until at least Christmas 2024 and then review and see what’s what.