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ENCE signed Valdemar “valde” Vangsä to replace Lotan “Spinx” Giladi on their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster, but it has been revealed that he was not necessarily the first choice.
Valde joined the team after his spell at OG as the team’s rifler. He has also played alongside Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, the in-game leader of ENCE, during his time with Heroic in 2016 and 2017.
Although he was signed by the franchise, he was not ENCE’s first pick. The Finnish esports organization previously had their eyes set on Laurențiu “lauNX” Țârlea, the resident rifler in Sprout. However, they could not strike a deal with the team. ENCE’s IGL revealed that after trying to sign lauNX and failing, the team hosted tryouts for a new player.
”LauNX was the only one where an offer was made early on, and he wanted to go,” Snappi said.
“We bid a lot, but Sprout denied it, and his agent didn’t put a buyout in his contract. After that, we did tryouts on some players as we weren’t 100 percent sure who to go for.”
He continued, “Valde did amazing, and the team preferred him. I think he will do great, and he truly seems motivated to do big things as he didn’t achieve what he wants to. He has great comms, and with the addition of him, it opens up more possibilities to play more ‘open’ rounds without an end goal.”
ENCE considered Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski to be another player to take the place of Spinx. The Polish player left Anonymo in December 2021 and has stayed a free agent since then. He stood in for Spinx during the team’s participation in the IEM Dallas and gave an impressive performance.
Due to visa issues, Spinx was unable to participate in the event, but Snax certainly made up for the team’s star player’s absence. Despite not participating in tier one events in a while, the 29-year-old was the highest-rated player on ENCE’s team during IEM Dallas and assisted the team in getting to the event’s grand finals. The astonishing performance was given with little time for the player to practice.
Snappi revealed that the Polish legend was one of the four potential players selected by the team.
“Yes, he [Snax] was considered. We had four different players we picked between as a team, and he was one of them. It was close that we picked him. I love Janusz, and I’m truly sorry that I didn’t hold up my tweet after Dallas,” the IGL said.
”I wrote it both to help him and also because I actually meant it at the time.
“So, sorry to the Polish community, but mostly Janusz, for not picking him. I’m sure he will find somewhere soon, though; he is not like other older players; he has motivation, drive, and, most important talent. I really hope I see him again soon; he is amazing.”
Spinx left ENCE earlier this month to replace Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier at Team Vitality. The player’s contribution to ENCE made them one of the best CS:GO squads worldwide and earned him the spot as the best player on the team. This year, Spinx averaged a 1.15 rating covering 115 official maps and was an essential part of the team’s position as runner-up in the April ESL Pro League Season 15 as well as their semifinal run in the PGL Antwerp Major that took place in May.
The ESL Pro League Season 16 is slated to take place in September and will see ENCE’s additions, Valde and Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia – the team’s new AWPer – make their debut. The team was placed with Astralis, HEET, MOUZ, Heroic, and Complexity in Group C. BetOnline has ENCE as -256.41 favourites to win their group.
