Official: ENCE sign gla1ve, kuben

The Finnish organization has secured its new leadership duo.

ENCE have announced the signing of a new coach and IGL duo consisting of Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and Jakub "⁠kuben⁠" Gurczyński to take over leadership in and out of the server. They will step into the long shadows left by Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer and Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha, who built ENCE up and brought them all the way to second place in the world ranking twice.

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The 28-year-old in-game leader will be back in action after a short hiatus dating back to June, when he was benched in Astralis. The Danish squad has recently been in flux with the additions of Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund from rivals HEROIC, and gla1ve, who set an era with the team by winning four Majors and myriad Big Events, was taken out of the starting five after failing to guide the side to any notable success since his return to activity in October 2021 following a pause during the online era.

Former player and veteran coach kuben, who spent five years with the legendary Polish Virtus.pro, will stand behind ENCE after parting ways with Apeks, a team he guided from August 2022 to September 2023 and took on a Cinderella run to a semi-final finish at the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

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"Big changes need big names to fill them," says ENCE's General Manager, Niklas "Willkey" Ojalainen. "We had our eyes on Jakub already three years ago, but our collaboration did not work out at that time. Now it's the perfect time for us to see what we can do together. We needed someone to fill the big shoes Eetu [sAw] left empty, and Jakub was free, so it was no no-brainer move for us.

"This is even more so after Jakub and Lukas had meetings, and it became clear that they were on the same page about the game and wanted to work together. As it was previously, it's really important for us that the coach and the IGL have a good working relationship. Jakub has shown that he has the eye for scouting and the skillset to build a good structure for the team. Now it's time to show what he can do with those skills with us.

"Lukas, on the other hand, must be the biggest addition to our roster we have ever made here at ENCE. I think it's a clear sign that we have been doing the right things when a player of Lukas's caliber wants to join us. He has won it all and has the experience to share what it takes to cross the line to do it. Lukas is super motivated to show he still has it and likes the responsibility IGL gets here at ENCE."

ENCE will play their first tournament with gla1ve and kuben on home soil, at the Elisa Masters in Espoo, Finland, where they will open their run against HAVU on Wednesday, November 29.

Date	Matches
Elisa Masters Espoo 2023
29/11/2023	ENCE 12:00 HAVU	Match

"It's an incredible opportunity for me, and I feel very blessed to be on a team with so many amazing players," gla1ve says. "I have a lot of excitement going into this project as it's a completely new environment for me, but also because we have so much stuff to dive into with Counter-Strike 2. I know what this team is capable of, and I love that I'm a part of that now!

"It's been a warm welcome so far, and we have our first tournament this week, so I'm beyond excited to be playing my first official CS2 match with ENCE already!"

ENCE is now:

Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz
Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha
Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković
Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García
Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander

Jakub "⁠kuben⁠" Gurczyński (coach)