Snappi: "We're probably in a mentally stronger place than we were one year ago"

The Danish in-game leader explained how he believes it's important to have confidence in an interview with HLTV before the IEM Cologne playoffs begin.

ENCE have enjoyed a strong run through IEM Cologne thus far, bypassing the first round of playoffs and earning a berth straight to the semi-finals after defeating HEROIC in the Group A upper bracket final, building on their opening wins over 9INE and fnatic in the group stage.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2023
05/08/2023	ENCE 15:30 Vitality	Match

HLTV was able to speak with Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer before play makes its way to the famed Lanxess Arena on Friday. The Danish captain touched on Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García's recent uptick in form, his view on the current Counter-Strike meta, his confidence as a tier-one in-game leader, and how ENCE will prepare for their time in the Cathedral of Counter-Strike.

Straight to the semis. Do you think that ENCE are still a little bit underrated?

Apart from the Major, where we screwed up, I think we've been — at the last three tier-one events, EPL, Dallas, and here — we've been top-four, and we won Dallas. So we are probably underrated if people don't expect us to go far at this point.

Does it feel different to last year, where you had a similar ranking? Obviously better results now, it feels more like a team where everyone is chipping in a bit more. Does it feel more legitimate this time?

I feel like we probably have less flaws. I think that in general, we are a more mentally strong team now. We've grown, the players in the team, but also the players we got are not stage-frightened. I think that we've gotten more experience and I think SunPayus is a guy who elevates his game on stage. I would say that we're probably in a mentally stronger place than we were one year ago. We were also great one year ago with the Spinx and hades lineup.

SunPayus has really elevated his game this year. You've spoken about it as well, trying to get him to watch more aggressive snipers. I think he has one of the highest T-side ratings so far this event, can we put that narrative to bed now? Is he ready to perform on both sides?

I think it's something that we've been pushing, me and sAw, a lot. We've been trying to get him to... I think it was more of a mindset thing. He saw some other AWPers, some of the Russians AWPers, being the supportive guy, standing behind, setting up the team, and he had this way of thinking about how to play the correct CS.

I do think there are certain aspects of that that are really good, but I also think that we wanted to push him to be more, in a way, selfish and go with the AWP, try to re-frag people, try to lock down angles, instead of constantly trying to set-up the team. I think we've been pushing him in that direction and he's also grown a lot as a player. He's on the same page as me and sAw now, whereas when he joined he wasn't on the same page. I'm just really proud of his development; I think he's mentally strong, I think he's also grown as a player and now he's a great AWPer on T and on CT-side and I think that's amazing.

And on NertZ, when you had Spinx in the same or similar roles, it was mostly built around him since you had a supportive AWPer in hades. How impressed are you that he's able to have the same amount of form? Is the team built around him as much as Spinx, is there an element of that?

I don't think they are at all the same player type. I think Spinx is more calculated and more passive and I think NertZ is more flamboyant and aggressive. But they can both play a lot of the same positions. We tried to set Spinx up as our big star, and we also try to do it with NertZ. I think both of them have the capabilities but they do it two different ways. So yeah, I'm obviously impressed by NertZ, but not that impressed, because I knew he had it in him when we first picked him up.

One thing on the meta itself coming into CS2. Where do you feel it's at right now? Do you think it's progressing?

I think the meta has shifted a lot on T-side, maybe. With us, Vitality, and FaZe, I think we are all playing a pretty chaotic playstyle. I think we do a lot of chaos on the map, a lot of openings, not necessarily set strats. I think all teams also play a lot of defaults, but what we also do is have these three or four-man openings towards an area where we take some space, and then we kinda see what situation you get in and you make a mid-round call from there. Whereas before, it was a little bit more default-heavy, so maybe the meta has shifted a bit in that regard.

I think on CT, people give Heroic a lot of credit because they are very active, they are taking a lot of calculated gambles. It looks like, at times, blind gambles but it's obviously based off of counters or one guy pushing or hearing something and they're trusting their instincts a lot in that sense. I'd say the T-side meta is probably going in that direction. And the CT-side meta, people are trying to apply this relentless aggression on the CT-side or do that stacking like Heroic does, or in the past VP or Jame had this very gamble-y style, and I think that is being applied a little bit.

One thing on Nuke. It's always been the home map of the best team in the world. At the moment, it feels like your home map, you have a bit of a streak with some huge wins on it. Is that a really good sign for the future?

I don't think I've ever been on a team where Nuke was a bad map. I love the map, and I think in any team I have ever played in, it's been one of our strongest maps. It's not a surprise to me that it's in a good place, because I think that's one of my strengths, that Nuke will always be in a good place if I'm in the team.

Do you think it's one of those maps that if you understand CS and you understand rotations, it's inevitable that you'll be good on it?

No, I think different maps require different playstyles. I think Nuke is a map that doesn't... it's not like other maps. You need to manipulate a lot of rotations and you constantly need to make calls, you cannot run default on Nuke. Obviously, you can run a default on Nuke, but you instantly have to shift it into something that isn't a default... unless you see Yard smokes as default, then ok, most teams are running defaults.

I would just say that Nuke is a very different map, whereas on Mirage and Overpass, you will be running a lot of defaults, or doing a lot of where you take some Mid control and then you maybe shift it into a split or something, right? On Nuke you cannot just play 'Let's default and then see what happens.' If your guy goes behind T Red without any support, he just dies, right? So I guess the Nuke default is probably the Yard smokes into some variation.

There was a little bit of controversy about a Dust2 headline ages ago about the best Danish IGL and now kassad has called you the best Danish IGL. I'm not asking 'Are you?', I'm asking how important is it to have the confidence to believe you can be?

I think it's important to have confidence that you are the best when you play the other teams. Objectively, there are a lot of names that come into the conversation. apEX is doing good with Vitality, cadiaN is doing good, karrigan is doing good, HooXi is doing good, blameF is now doing good. I'm probably forgetting a bunch of names, right? But whenever I play these teams, whoever I play, I believe I am the best, and that is what I think; I don't need everyone else to think it, but I think I am the best and I trust it. Whenever I play any other in-game leader or any other team, I believe I am smarter than them and that's just the way I have self-belief, and I think it's an important thing to have.

Do you have any preference for the semi-final matchup? What do you think about Vitality picking up flameZ?

I don't have any preference whether it's Cloud9 or Vitality. The only guy who has a preference is NertZ. I think both Spinx and flameZ wanna beat NertZ and NertZ wants to beat them, it's kinda like... I mean it's a friendly rivalry because they are all friends in real life. They hang out, they go for BBQs, but it's kinda like friendly banter. If I play my good friends in football, I wanna win, I wanna have the bragging rights and I think it's kinda similar for them.

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Editor's note: This interview was conducted before it was announced that Ax1Le had obtained a visa and was therefore able to compete for Cloud9 in the IEM Cologne playoffs.

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If Cloud9 were to win that game, how do you even approach preparing for a game like that?

Well, it depends if they have Ax1Le or not, I guess. But regardless, how do you prepare for Cloud9? There's not going to be a lot of data on them, so you kinda have to trust your own instinct and your own playstyle a lot. Then you kinda have to go back from what you saw in the matches. Do they have some tendencies? They probably still play like they do with Ax1Le, but maybe on CT-side it shifts a little bit more because Ax1Le is one of the best riflers in the world, he probably requires less help on his site. I heard buster didn't play for a month coming into this tournament, so maybe you want to shift the rotations a bit more towards his site, but when you have Ax1Le you maybe don't. So who knows? I don't know if Ax1Le is playing or not. Also their success will come down to if he arrives or not, I think.

You got over the hump at Dallas. Is this the big one now?

Yeah, I mean we got over the hump, but we proved to ourselves that we can do it and I think we are pretty calm. We believe in ourselves and no matter what the result is, it's not too important as long as we give everything and so long as we don't lose to ourselves. Then we can look ourselves in the eye and be proud regardless. The only thing that could tilt me is if we're not there mentally.