ENCE edge past Eternal Fire; advance to Rotterdam grand final

Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer's crew will face off against Outsiders in the competition's grand final.

ENCE are the second team to advance to the ESL Challenger Rotterdam grand final after taking down Eternal Fire, 2-1. The Europeans dropped their opponents' map pick Vertigo 11-16, barely came out on top on Mirage 16-14, and scored a commanding win on Nuke, 16-7.

Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García was key to ENCE's success in the last two maps, consistently finishing atop the scoreboard and hitting definitive shots including a triple-kill on Mirage's final round which ultimately gave his team the victory. The Spaniard logged 62 kills and a 1.22 rating across all three maps, the best among all other players on the server.

ENCE opened Vertigo with a four-round spree, before Eternal Fire quickly answered back with a similar run of their own. The competition remained intense for the rest of the half, with Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković and Ömer "⁠imoRR⁠" Karataş dropping multi-kill after multi-kill for their respective teams. Eternal Fire eventually recovered their early four-round deficit and went into halftime up 8-7.

An imoRR triple-kill on the Dualies gave his side a perfect start to the second period. The Turkish superteam reached an 11-7 lead before ENCE bounced back and scored four of the next five to reduce their deficit to one. Eternal Fire would put up a flawless defense from then on, however, and an Ahmet "⁠paz⁠" Karahoca quad-kill versus ENCE's hard-eco sealed the map for the Turks, 16-11.

Eternal Fire kicked off the second map with a 7-2 lead over ENCE. Snappi's men constantly got the bomb down, however the European mix often faltered during post-plant situations. The latter part of the first was more competitive as ENCE finally found their groove and started to threaten the Turks' lead, but Eternal Fire held on to their advantage and went into the switch up 9-6.

imoRR and company brought their first half momentum over to the second and extended their lead to 12-6. Just when the series appeared to be in the Turkish squad's hands, ENCE mounted a comeback with Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha and Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså leading the charge. The battle on Mirage went the full distance as the European mix turned a six-round deficit into a 16-14 victory, sending the series to a decider on Nuke.

Eternal Fire took a 3-0 lead on the deciding map, but after their early success ENCE took control and entered the switch leading 9-6. ENCE may have dropped the second pistol, but the rest of the game was a masterclass from Snappi and company as they won seven consecutive rounds en route to a series reverse-sweep and a spot in the grand final.

ENCE barely have any time to rest, though, as their grand final matchup versus Outsiders begins later at 17:15 . The winner will not only take home $50,000 in prize money, but a spot at ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference as well.