Snappi praises Maden: "He has played a phenomenal tournament so far"

The Danish in-game leader stopped by the mixed zone after ENCE's 3-0 run at the Major's Challengers Stage.

ENCE have become, along with G2, the first teams to qualify from the BLAST.tv Paris Major's Challengers Stage to the Legends Stage with a clean 3-0 record. Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer's men did so against a solid set of teams, as well, dispatching of OG and Ninjas in Pyjamas in best-of-ones before clinching the Legends Stage berth in series against FaZe.

ENCE's veteran in-game leader stopped by HLTV's mic in the mixed zone after the qualifying series to share his thoughts about BLAST. The Dane spoke about how they beat three partner teams on the way to the next phase, ENCE's great form since the addition of Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz, surprising with great showings on Anubis — a map they had a big losing record on —, and how Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković has been reactivated ahead of the Major in Paris.

You just made it to the Legends Stage, 3-0, against OG, NIP and FaZe. Pretty good teams to get through and you did it cleanly. What are your first thoughts on such a great performance in this Challengers Stage?

It was good, it was three BLAST partner teams, right? So finally we got our chance to participate in this tournament. It felt good, I hope they will reconsider their format in 2024 and open it up so it's not like a franchise league. It will benefit the whole circuit, I think it will benefit their tournament and viewers, and I hope it's something they will reconsider.

That's the beauty of Majors, everybody can make it. Tell me a bit about this good form you're in, going 3-0. Do you think you'll be able to carry it through into the Legends Stage?

Yeah, I believe so. We had a phenomenal week leading up to the Major. We played an online tournament to find our mistakes and it was really beneficial. We obviously didn't want to show what we created and in the lead up to the Major we had very productive practice, I would say. The best week we've had with this team.

We just feel confident coming here, I feel like we're a team that tend to perform a bit better on LAN, especially now that we brought on NertZ. I think people have this feeling that we'll play well whenever we come on LAN.

It seems like all of the pieces have really been falling into place. You're kind of hitting peak form coming into the Major, which is what every team wants. Do you think this is where you'll hit your best form this season?

Well, time will tell, right? Now we're going to have some off days, it's important that we stick to a good schedule where we relax while also practicing and try to view our games, maybe add some new stuff so we can surprise our opponents in the next games. Time will tell, it's a completely new stage next time, it's some best-of-ones and you never know what happens in these, so we'll see.

You talk about surprising. Anubis, you had a 0-8 record [Editor's note: It was a 1-8 record]. You played it twice here, now it's a 3-8 record. Were some teams underrating your ability on that map?

I think we were 1-8, but the thing about this map is that it was 16-14, overtime, 16-14, overtime — that was the losses we had, we didn't get smashed once and we put a lot of work in. We just needed a bit more marginals on our side and I think it showed both today against FaZe, but also against OG. We had two very convincing wins, I think people will now respect it, probably.

One of the things we noticed in this Challengers Stage is that all of the players have been able to step up at different moments. Is that one of the secrets to how well you've played here?

Yeah, I think one of the things we tried to focus on a little bit was on how to get Maden more involved again. After we got NertZ in, he's a very aggressive player, so we tried to kind of create a little bit of space in the last week and some plays that Maden could make so he would feel engaged in the game. I think he has played a phenomenal tournament so far and I think overall everyone is just doing a good job. It's nice.