ENCE GM Niklas Ojalainen: "I think fans will come back once they see that we've made the right decisions to move forward"

The Finnish organisation's chief discusses the deep-rooted issues that destroyed the previous team, going international and the goals for 2021.

For ENCE, 2021 started with a revolution. After launching an internal review into the issues that affected their Finnish team - which were laid bare following an episode of HLTV Confirmed with Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli -, the organisation opted for a change in direction and looked abroad for talent.

The new-look ENCE, featuring players from four different countries, have shown some encouraging early signs, with the team breaking into the top 30 in the world rankings after posting some victories. But you have to look beyond the lineup to understand the full scope of the changes that have been implemented by the organisation.

In this interview, Niklas Ojalainen, General Manager at ENCE, opens up about what went wrong with the previous team and why he was disappointed that none of the players ever brought the issues up. He also comments on the decision to give coach Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha the team's reins, limiting the influence that players have in the decision-making process, and explains the lineup choices, including the second chance offered to allu and the departure of Elias "⁠Jamppi⁠" Olkkonen.

You announced in mid-December that you were going to "internally evaluate the situation." What conclusions were drawn?

Of course, we wanted to hear all sides of the story. This means all the players that were on the team at the time and some players that were not on the team anymore. It came to our knowledge that no one had told us before that there were issues with some players in the team. And it's kind of sad that we had been embracing an open culture where you could come and talk to anyone in the management if there were any issues. People could always talk about them and we would take them up for discussion. And that didn't happen. The problems got bigger and then it all just kind of exploded. How can you solve problems when no-one brings them up?

Who was to blame for what happened? Do you have a better structure in place now?

Any sports team is constantly improving, and that's why we made the changes that we did for the 2021 season. Of course, there are a lot of people responsible for what happened. Me, the coach, though I wouldn't blame sAw, the new coach, because he had been with the team for so little time. All these things had started in the past or at least 12 months before what happened. So it would not have been possible for him to know all those things. But yes, there are a lot of people responsible.

Something that became clear was that this was not an isolated incident but something that grew over time. When did you realise that something was wrong with the team? Were there hints?

Of course there were hints, but I would say that everyone had the same goal all the time, which was to do well. They wanted to be the best, and everyone worked for that same goal, but when results didn't come and people were banging their head against the wall, I think that affected everyone. I would say that there were hints, but it was problems like the playstyle or the structure of the team more than these personal issues that, in the end, led to the destruction of the team.

Do you think that Twista’s ban played a role in the way that things unfolded?

There were so many things and situations where things could have turned around. There were multiple tournaments where we had some close matches, lost some crucial rounds and we got eliminated. Or tournaments where we started off with a demoralising loss or something. Twista's ban affected the ESL Pro League season, but it wasn't the catalyst for what happened. We were leading the EPL group before the ban came, and after that, we still made the playoffs and then lost to Complexity and mousesports. Without the ban, maybe we would have made a deeper run in the playoffs and the team would have felt, 'Okay, now we are going in the right direction'. I think there is a reality where the team would have stuck together because they were getting results. But because it was yet another disappointment, it's quite humane to look for problems other than the things that are happening on the server.

As you watched things unfold during the 'HLTV Confirmed' episode, with former players and suNny disputing allu’s account of the events, what went through your mind?

As I said in the lineup announcement video, I grew up in sports culture. In Finland, ice hockey is the number-one sport. I played it from the age of seven until the age of 18, and I still play in beer league, you can call it that. There is this locker room culture where, if there are issues, you bring them up and solve them in the locker room. You don't go shout from the rooftops about these things. You bring it up to the person and say, 'Hey, this is an issue'. Or you bring it up to the coach and you solve these things. For me, that was the most painful thing to see, that they didn't do it in a way that, in my opinion, would have been the right way. It's just my opinion, and, as I said before, if no-one says anything or brings up the problems, how can you solve them? And to make them public... I think that's the sad part of what happened. Everyone has a right to their opinion, but there are always two sides to the coin. I think it was unfair to put that much blame on one person when there are multiple people in the team that are responsible for the decisions and the actions that happened.

Could you explain how decisions were made in the team? Has that process changed?

In Finnish esports - and esports in general - this process has been a problem for a long time, in that teams have been quite player-focused. It has been changing in the last year or two. I would say that, as things become more and more professional, the influence of the players is getting smaller and smaller. But it was the coach and the leading players of the team that had a huge impact on the decisions that were made. But of course, everyone has their own opinion, and sometimes, opinions clash, and then members of the team have to pick sides, which can cause issues. I think players had too much impact before, and now, with sAw and the new lineup, we made it clear to everyone - even the old players because we weren't sure if they wanted to continue with the structure that we wanted to build - how things were going to change. Now, the final call always belongs to sAw, who discusses with me the decisions that are made about the team. And he of course listens to all the players and what they have to say, but the final call is always his. This is what happens in every sport. In esports, there are teams that already have this structure, and I think that's the way we have to move to build more professional teams.

It seems that there was a point where players did not want to play for the team. Aerial took some months off, while sergej stepped down from the team to complete his military service. As the biggest Finnish organisation, how did that make you feel?

Of course, it's sad when people lose motivation. Regarding health issues, there's only so much that you can do. You can have a structure in place to try to prevent those things, but if someone gets ill there's not much that you can do. Regarding sergej, it's sad that one of the biggest talents in Finnish CS history loses motivation to play, but that wasn't the first time that it happened. The same thing had happened in HAVU. When we talked to them, they were like, 'We know how you feel'. You have to always remember that these are young guys and that most of the CS players have zero experience of normal labor. They haven't done any of those like shitty jobs, so they are sometimes missing the necessary perspective to understand the privilege that they have to play CS as a professional. But that's only one factor. And if you don't have the passion to practice, to try to be the best that you can be, then I think it's the right decision to step down. If you don't have the drive to do it, then you should find something else that you find happiness in. I think everyone should do something that makes them happy.

When you announced your team in 2018, all the players except allu were relatively unknown outside Finland. Why go international now instead of picking young Finnish blood again? Is that part of ENCE’s strategy as an organisation?

Oh, no, no. We looked at all the possibilities to stay with a Finnish lineup. That was the first thing we did before we decided to go international. We looked at the talent pool that we have in Finland and contacted some of the players. We had a brief, very brief conversation about if we would be able to make a Finnish lineup. But in the end, we came to the conclusion that we were scraping the bottom of the barrel and there was nothing left. Hopefully, in the coming years we will have more rising talent in the Finnish scene. And maybe one day we can go back to a full Finnish lineup. You never say never, but for the time being, there's nothing left in the barrel. If we wanted to stay competitive, we had to go down the international route. We then started to look for the pieces for the puzzle. It wasn't clear who we could get or who wanted to come, but in the end, all the pieces that we wanted, they wanted to come. So I think that tells something about the things we have done right. Because people wanted to come. So we had to decide which players we wanted to sign because different players have different buyouts. Then it's a math game. How much do you want to pay? Which players do you think are the right pieces? Is this the right amount of money for the talent that you are going to get?

You mentioned that there aren't enough quality Finnish players out there at the moment. Are you thinking about starting an academy to help solve that?

That's always a possibility, but I'd say at the same time that there's no manpower to do it. The business is not big enough yet to do it, at least not in Finland. All these junior programs and teams are usually run by registered associations. Some people are working full-time there, but most of the people in those associations are volunteers or working part-time. At least in Finland, that's the structure that is usually in place for kids. So who is the first to build that? I'm not sure if it's going to be any of the organisations in Finland. Maybe it will be some passionate parents who want to start making junior programs and they will start an association like this.

Who picked the new players? Did you build the team together with Snappi?

We had a tier list with names suggested by the players we had under contract, except suNny. We asked them to put the players that they would like to play with into these tiers and then we talked about these options with sAw. Quite early in the process, it became clear that Snappi was the IGL we wanted to build the team around because we really needed an experienced IGL that could make the players around him better. So he was kind of the first piece of the puzzle, at a time when we didn't even know if we would have doto or allu in the team. So it was like, 'Which of the Finnish players are we going to keep, and how many other foreign players do we need to bring in?' When we decided to go international, it was clear that we couldn't take only one foreign player. We had to have at least two, and it was better if we had three because of the balance of the team so that there wouldn't be a group of Finnish players talking Finnish amongst themselves and then the outsiders. We wanted to keep the cohesion in the team and make everyone feel welcomed.

ENCE mentioned that the reason why Jamppi is not on the team is his VAC ban. When you signed him, you already knew that he would not be eligible for Majors. So why did you sign him? Did you expect him to win the lawsuit?

When we signed him, the situation was that he just wanted to have the chance to play at the level that we could offer. At the same time, we needed to bring some ideas to the team, xseveN was showing signs of burnout and we needed to bring in someone. We knew about the lawsuit, but at the same time, it was a calculated risk because there wasn't much to lose. So it was like, we bring him in and he gets the opportunity to play against the top teams in the world, in ESL Pro League and so on, while we get the chance to get this extremely good talent. And because he was this raw diamond, we could shape him as a player the way we wanted. The risk was quite minimal because it wasn't like we paid a huge fee for him. So it was a no-brainer to give him a shot. And the lawsuit looked good. If you get banned for things that happened when you were a minor and at the time you weren't even using the account, it's kind of common sense. But of course, it's quite a big can of worms that I think Valve wants to keep shut as long as they can.

When we started to build the team, it was clear that the new players wanted to have a shot at the Majors, and Jamppi cannot play in those. So we needed to find something else for him. In the past, players that were in a similar situation didn't have the opportunity to chase their dreams elsewhere. And now there are opportunities. So it's like, 'Do you want to fight against Valve and maybe lose the best years of your career, or will you move to the competitor game and chase your dream?'

allu seemed to be at the root of some of the team's issues. Did you consider the possibility of not keeping him?

We had a long discussion inside the team and the organisation, and there was the possibility that we were not going to play with allu. The things that happened and the things that he did or said weren't always the best, he wasn't always the best teammate and there were things that he did wrong. And of course, we as an organisation cannot accept some of those things. But at the same time, he has shown that he wants to improve as a person. We used a sports psychology company that analyses personalities and how people work in a team environment. And even before this thing happened, allu was really excited about this, he wanted to know more about his personality and how he could improve as a person and say things in a way that he wouldn't be misunderstood. So he showed that he wants to be a better person, and that was a positive sign for us, it was a sign that this could work. At the same time, the sports psychology company highly recommended that we keep him, so this was another factor. And then one more factor was that, while people may hesitate to play with him, at the same time they know that they can learn so much from him that they want the chance to play with him. When we started to recruit these players, everyone had questions about the other situation, about allu as a person and the like, but they all wanted to play with him because they know that he's a player who can bring their game up. They know that he's a world-class AWPer who will always do his job. He's not ZywOo or s1mple, a player who can win the game alone, but you know what you get from him. In every game, you have a chance to win because your AWPer does his job.

You sold xseveN and Aerial to your biggest rival in Finland, HAVU. What does it say about ENCE as an organisation?

[laughs] It may seem like we are big rivals, but, behind the curtain, we always talk to each other in good faith and in a good manner. And it was just a matter of finding the right home for everyone. If a player needs to take a medical leave or if you don't find the results that you want and you need to make changes, you want the best for the players that you need to let go. Aerial is an excellent player that we would have looked to keep, but at the same time, we cannot have ten players on the roster. We needed to move on, and because his medical leave was indefinite, we didn't know when he would come back. We had to make a decision. And then it's just about finding a home that players want to join and with whom we can enter into an agreement.

SADDYX and suNny are currently on the bench. What is their situation?

We are trying to find new homes for them, but these are two players who have very different experience levels in the game. suNny wants to find a team that can be top five in the world, while SADDYX wants to find a team where he can improve as a player because he's a young guy who is not so experienced. I'm sad about his situation, and I've said this to him in person. It's an unfair situation that he ended up in. He got the chance to play with us, we signed him, and then the team that we had signed him for just didn't exist anymore. He had worked so hard during the bootcamp for DreamHack Masters and he was so happy to get this chance to learn from better players, like allu and suNny. I hope gets a shot in another team. I know he's looking for an international team. So if there's any team out there looking for a great and highly-motivated player for their team, I think they should talk to SADDYX, for sure.

How do you plan to reconnect with the fans?

With hard work. Once the Covid-19 situation gets handled, we can have again these meetings with our fans and they'll flock to LAN finals. Everything is going to be more natural after that. And in the end, it comes down to results. It's easy to kick the guy when he's laying on the ground, but once he steps up and starts to get results again, I think the fans will come back. They will come back once they see that we have made the right decisions to move forward. Of course, we are going to lose some of them because we are not full Finnish anymore, but at the same time, we are most likely going to get some new fans from Israel, Poland or from any other country who like our players and our brand. So I think it comes down to results.

What are your goals for this year?

That's actually a hard question because of Covid. At this time of the year, we would normally know what the calendar would look like to an extent. But for this year, we will have the ESL Pro League seasons, but besides that, it's kind of like, 'What tournaments are there?' We want to qualify for the Major, that's our main goal, and we want to do well in these EPLs. We've decided to cut these goals into smaller segments to make things easier. Because in the end, they have practiced for three weeks. We want to go with small goals, small steps forward and get the Major spot later in the year, if there's going to be a Major. I'd say we can set more goals once we know more about the year, but at the moment, there's such a big cloud covering all the tournaments that it's impossible to set goals for the entire year.