hades and 9INE are aiming to qualify a Polish team for the last CS:GO Major

The team's 23-year-old sniper, Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz, is at the forefront of 9INE's rise in the European tier two scene and their upcoming challenge at the Regional Major Ranking event.

Poland was traditionally one of Counter-Strike's most prominent regions, especially in 1.6 and early Global Offensive days as Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski and Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas' Virtus.pro were giants in the global scene. The Poles competed at the biggest events and even lifted the EMS One Katowice 2014 Major trophy, becoming cult heroes not only due to their achievements, but also their explosive playstyle. However, The team's eventual decline over the years showed that there was little depth in the region as no Polish team stepped up to take Virtus.pro's baton on the international stage.

The region has struggled to get back on its feet and has not seen one of its products attend a Major since 2018, when Virtus.pro crashed out of the FACEIT London Major in last place. Polish players have attended Valve-sponsored events in the last five years, but no Polish-Majority team has been able to qualify, even after the switch to the RMR system.

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9INE are the latest in a series of challengers from Poland to tackle the Major qualifiers, but unlike Illuminar or Anonymo from previous cycles, the Wiktor "⁠mynio⁠" Kruk-led squad come to Copenhagen with momentum on their side. The Poles have been revitalized by hades' arrival and have made their impact in the second tier of European Counter-Strike in 2023 even edging the top 20 barrier in March. But how did hades, who was making inroads in the international scene and playing Big Event grand finals, find himself in the midst of this team's rise?

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hades' rise to the top began in 2021 as he decided to not renew his contract with Wisla Krakow and instead took a short break from competition to deal with burnout from the game. "After my contract with Wisla expired I wanted to chill a bit, take a break and see how things turn out," he explained. ENCE took note of the AWPer's free agent status, knocking on the door just two months after his departure from the Polish organization. "I definitely didn't expect a team like ENCE to contact me, especially so soon after I officially left Wisla so it was really exciting for me."

The Pole initially joined on a temporary basis as Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli's position within the team was fragile during their transition from a Finnish roster to a European one. The veteran announced his decision to step down for personal reasons in the summer, leading the team to appoint hades as a temporary stand-in. The young marksman took the transition smoothly, starring as ENCE claimed the LOOT.BET Season 9 trophy. "It was quite a big step for me as the approach to the game was completely different from what it was in Wisla," he said. "I had much to learn but, in the end, I think I managed to adapt to the style change pretty quickly." Two months later, the transfer was made permanent and hades became an official member of the squad.

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The turning point for ENCE came in 2022 as they announced the acquisition of Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković ahead of the 2022 season, a move that propelled the team to the next level and straight into title contention. The Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer-led squad reached the finals of both ESL Pro League Season 15 and IEM Dallas, as well as the semi-finals of the PGL Antwerp Major — all in the first six months of the year. Unfortunately for the European mix, they were never able to take the last step and claim a LAN trophy against giants such as FaZe, Natus Vincere, and Cloud9.

"In certain games our game plan failed, sometimes it wasn't executed correctly," hades explained. "Sometimes the other team simply shot much harder, I don't think I can point to anything specific as it was tournament varied."

IEM Cologne went live a month after the tournament in Texas and it was a disaster for ENCE as they left the in 13-16th place. hades was replaced by Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García on the starting lineup as ENCE made changes the following summer to tackle some of the firepower issues. "I guess it was my inconsistency where I could have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in a single best-of-three. An AWPer is expected to be the brightest and most consistent part of a team nowadays, so the boys for sure needed an upgrade in that aspect."

He did not sit back and quickly found a temporary home at Finest, plying his trade in the second tier of European Counter-Strike across several online competitions. The move to a different environment and a lower level of play was something hades was excited about. "Going down a tier or two was something I expected and even looked forward to, I wanted to rebuild my confidence, try out new things, and find my old style back," he stated. "I think it worked out quite well for me."

The Pole impressed with the European squad and remained with the players even after the Israeli organization announced their decision to cease operations. A little over three months later, 9INE announced hades as their fifth, marking the player's return to his native Polish region. "After I got released from ENCE I wrote to nawrot and asked him if they had found their fifth yet, and we had a small conversation on how things would work and agreed that it would be good for me and 9INE to join up," he said. "I looked forward to joining a polish speaking team once again as it's much easier to communicate and think of things on the spot which gives me more freedom and possibilities during the game."

"I just want to improve both as a person and as a player, as I know I still have a lot of things to work on. Hopefully I can just steadily work on these things and show that I am capable of playing at the highest level."

hades was benched from ENCE after IEM Cologne 2022

hades reunited with a few of his ex-teammates from Wisla Krakow, such as mynio and Krzysztof "⁠Goofy⁠" Górski, convinced that they could reach the top of European Counter-Strike. "We want to break into the tier one tournaments and have a few good runs so we just need to continue to work on our game and get as much experience from the upcoming tournaments as possible." This goal is not out of left field, as 9INE has been one of the standout teams in the European online scene, winning several tournaments such as OMEN WGR Challenge 2023 and qualifying for IEM Rio 2023, the BLAST Spring Showdown, and the European RMR.

The sniper is, however, aware that results in this level of competition can sometimes be deceiving and not representative of the team's true level when competing at more prestigious tournaments. "Our style works really well against most opponents in our tier and we have some really strong individuals that can single-handedly win games, but I agree in tier two anything can happen. So if we lose we try not to let the losses go into our heads and just try to see where and how we can improve."

The biggest test for 9INE comes in just a few days as they prepare to tackle the second European RMR in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Poles arguably have been seeded in the hardest of the two qualifiers as they share a Swiss group with the likes of HEROIC, Cloud9, G2, and Vitality. "We want to qualify for sure but the B group is so stacked we know it will be very difficult to do so, especially facing G2 in the opening game," said hades. "However, it's all BO1s at the start so anything can happen. We want to play some good Counter-Strike and will take it one game at a time and see how it goes without putting too much pressure on ourselves."

He is right. Best-of-ones at the RMRs have notoriously been unpredictable as shown by the last encounter between G2 and a Polish team at the European RMR for the PGL Antwerp Major, when Anonymo took down Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and company to go in the 1-0 pool at the event. Unfortunately for the Polish squad, they were unable to convert their early win into a qualification run, leaving Poland without a representative at the Major once again. This lack of Polish teams at the Majors is a symptom of a larger regional decline, and something that hades is well aware of. "The Polish scene has been in a very rough place since Virtus.pro fell apart."

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"There were a lot of rosters that were playing around the HLTV top 30 but never managed to break deeper into the rankings. I think now it's slowly beginning to rebuild, I see some players and some teams that seem really hungry to play and win. I think that was what was missing for so long, so maybe in CS2, who knows, maybe Polish Counter-Strike will be good once again."

When asked about additional pressure due to being the only Polish team at the RMR, hades stated 9INE have tried to not focus too much on their status. "We try not to think about it. If anything, the Polish community will put a lot of pressure on us." On the topic of additional pressure, 9INE share the RMR group with ENCE, meaning hades could potentially face off against his old team. However, the Pole is adamant about tackling the event one match at a time. "To be honest, I only try to focus on my current enemy so I didn’t really think about it that much, but if we are matched against ENCE, I will for sure be very excited."