Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
ENCE was founded in 2013 and picked up a Finnish CS:GO team which competed in local tournaments.[13] In July 2014, the team disbanded after a series of disappointing results and did not return to CS:GO until 2016.[14][15] The organization fielded multiple Finnish lineups for the next two years[16][17] but did not have a stable roster until April 2018, when the organization signed Aleksi "allu" Jalli, Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen, Jani "Aerial" Jussila, Jere "sergej" Salo, and Sami "xseveN" Laasanen.[18][19] The roster of young talent went on an unexpected Cinderella run at IEM Katowice Major 2019 before finally losing in the finals to Astralis.[18][20] During the Major the team's unlikely success made them a fan favorite among neutrals and in Finland.[21][22][23] The Verkkars, a Finnish musical duo, released a song called "EZ4ENCE", titled after the team's chant; it references players, coaches, and team memes.[21] "EZ4ENCE" went viral in Finland during the tournament, eventually becoming the fourth-most-popular song in a Finnish top 50 published by Spotify.[24] The song would later be added into the game by Valve.[25] ENCE remained one of the top CS:GO teams in 2019, winning BLAST Pro Series Madrid and finishing second at DreamHack Masters Dallas and IEM Chicago.[26][10]
IEM Katowice 2019 remains ENCE's best performance at a CS:GO Major, although they reached the playoff round of StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019[27] and the semifinals of PGL Major Antwerp 2022.[28][29]
The team's results worsened at the start of 2020[30] and ENCE gradually replaced all of the players from the IEM Katowice run with an international roster.[31][32][33] In February 2022, with the release of Joonas "doto" Forss, ENCE's roster was completely non-Finnish for the first time in the organization's history.[34][35] The team instead set up a Finnish academy team.[36][37] Shortly after, ENCE partnered with ESL, receiving a guaranteed spot in the ESL Pro League.[38] The new roster has reached the top-5 of HLTV's world rankings.[39]
ENCE won their first trophy in over four years after beating MOUZ in the grand finals of IEM Dallas 2023, where Alvaro "SunPayus" García would claim his first MVP title.[40] The team would continue their strong form with grand final appearances in their following two tournaments, IEM Cologne 2023 and Gamers8 2023.[41][42]
ENCE also attended ESL Pro League Season 18, where they placed 3-4th after being eliminated in the semi-finals by MOUZ.[43]
Counter-Strike 2
On 26 November 2023, ENCE announced the departures of coach Eetu "sAw" Saha and in-game leader Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer, who were replaced by Jakub "kuben" Gurczynski and Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander respectively.[44][45] Later, on 16 December 2023, the team announced the departures of Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia and Pavle "Maden" Bošković, who were signed by Saudi Arabian organization Team Falcons, along with Snappi the day prior.[46][47] Heroic announced the signing of Guy "NertZ" Iluz on 17 December 2023, reducing ENCE's roster to only gla1ve and Paweł "dycha" Dycha.[48]
The same day, ENCE announced the signing of the Polish roster 9INE's core, consisting of Krzysztof "Goofy" Górski, Kacper "Kylar" Walukiewicz, and previous ENCE player Olek "hades" Miskiewicz.[49]