ENCE defeat FaZe to reach IEM Dallas final after map of the year contender on Ancient

ENCE came out on top in a three-map series that became an all out brawl after five overtimes in the decider.

ENCE defeated FaZe once again to make it three in a row after taking them down in the Major's Challengers Stage and earlier in IEM Dallas group stage. This time around, with FaZe gloating in the comfort of a stage, it took everything in ENCE's tank to get the job done, but Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer and company did it after two one-sided maps lead to a quintuple overtime affair on Ancient that will live long in the memories of fans.

ENCE won the CT side pistol round in the opening Mirage, but having allowed a plant on an A site execute by FaZe were up against a buy that went the way of Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company. Three rounds later Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García went for a glass cannon in the first gun round, but to no avail as FaZe put a big distance in the scoreboard early on and kept ENCE always on the back foot.

Snappi and his men tried to get a foothold on the defense, but only managed to dot a few scattered rounds in what ended up being a 10-5 half for FaZe, who went into the half comfortably and with over 70% win probabilty.

Three kills by Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković kept ENCE’s dream alive, but FaZe’s dominance continued with a superb Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard getting several multi-kills in his team’s 16-8 victory. The Norwegian rifler, soaking in the stage atmosphere in which he and his team notoriously strive, ended a map in which ENCE were unable to win two rounds in a row with 27 kills and 121 ADR.

ENCE took point on the CT side of Anubis, a map the two teams have played against each other twice with both of them going the way of Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha’s men and a crucial key to their two victories in head-to-head match-ups recently, going up 3-0 after the first pistol round. FaZe exploited overeager play on a forcebuy while down 3-8 to get another on the board, but were unable to build off of it as a perfect team half put ENCE into double digits.

Going into the second half with an 11-4 lead, ENCE did one better and not only won their pick and maintained their Anubis supremacy, but shifted the momentum of the match by taking it with an even larger scoreline than FaZe had taken their map pick, dominating to 16-6 as both star players, SunPayus and Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz, started to find their groove.

Going into the final map FaZe were going to have to brute force their way to victory and rely on individuals when up against the strategic quality of ENCE, and so they did in the establishing rounds of Ancient. Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken, Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants and rain all shone in different rounds to go up 7-1, although a four-kill round by Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha got his team back into it and broke FaZe’s economy.

SunPayus, who had a slow start, got a triple of his own, and from there on out it was Snappi and his men who were in control as they took six in a row to a competitive 7-8 half. ENCE tied it up winning a clean CT pistol round, followed up by a clean anti-eco and a chaotic third round against guns to take a 10-8 lead. Ultimately, the map went down to the wire, with FaZe winning a crucial 3vs5 and Maden returning the favor with four kills in a 4vs5, which drew 15-15 by the end of regulation.

Down 16-17, broky, in flow state, won a crucial 1vs2 afterplant and got a round-ending two kills the following to get his team on match point. FaZe didn’t close it and a second overtime ensued, the match spiraling into an all-out brawl. With the playbooks thrown out the window just about every round went down to the wire and the map became a straight bare knuckles boxing match. ENCE, in the end, came out on top after stopping the buck of a wild FaZe following five rounds of overtime, 31-28.

ENCE, whose core of Snappi, dycha and Maden were in the grand final of IEM Dallas in 2023 but lost it 0-3 to Cloud9, will hope that the additions of SunPayus and NertZ will make the difference this year as they face MOUZ on Sunday at 19:30 in the best-of-three title decider.