ENCE defeat fnatic in opening ESL Pro League playoff series

The Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer-led side swiftly knocked out fnatic and set up a quarter-finals matchup against Group C winners Movistar Riders.

ENCE kicked off the ESL Pro League playoffs in excellent form, taking a victory in the first series of the elimination stage against fnatic 2-0, winning both Overpass 16-5 and a comeback win on their map pick of Nuke, 16-12.

ENCE's win is another step forward for Snappi and his squad, who have seen a bit of success recently at the BLAST Premier Qualifier and the Europe Closed Qualifer of FantasyExpo EU Champions Spring, where they finished first and second place, respectively.

Despite their best efforts, fnatic lost the series after being overwhelmed by ENCE's firepower on both maps, finishing their campaign in 9th-12th place after their first-round exit.

fnatic started their map pick strong, taking the first pistol round for themselves as the attacking side. Both teams traded rounds and kept it close, with ENCE finding themselves in a 3-2 lead. From there, the game started slipping away from fnatic, as their opponents won six consecutive rounds, which gave them a deficit of 9-2. Snappi and his men closed out the half 11-4, with Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi and Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz being the star performers at this point in the game, racking up 17 and 16 kills respectively.

The second half opened with a pistol round win for ENCE off the back of a quad-kill from Spinx. They made quick work of their opponents, winning five out of six rounds that were played to end the map 16-5 and take a 1-0 series lead.

ENCE took the first pistol round of their chosen map, Nuke, after planting the bomb and successfully preventing it from being defused. Starting on the CT side, fnatic were on the back foot early, being forced to preserve the team's economy which allowed ENCE to take the first three rounds for themselves. Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson and his team were able to take their first gun round of the map in the fourth, and were able to turn the tide in their favor, taking control of the rest of the half and asserting their dominance, entering halftime with a 11-4 lead.

The second pistol round of the map went they way of ENCE once again, which sparked an impressive comeback as they took nine straight rounds, completely shutting down any attack that fnatic threw at them. Although they dropped the 25th round after an unsuccessful A-site retake, it was merely a bump in the road en route to them taking the map 16-12, and the entire series 2-0 after overcoming a seven round deficit at halftime, ultimately knocking fnatic out of the tournament.