CS 2
Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia and Valdemar "valde" Bjorn Vangs have been formally added to the ENCE roster, confirming prior rumors that they were on the verge of joining the organization. In addition, Olek "hades" Miskiewicz, benched at the beginning of August, is replaced by the Spanish AWPer, while Lotan "Spinx" Giladi, who just transferred to Vitality, is replaced by valde. Let's see what these newbies can give to the team.
valde
OG decided to bench the Dane due to the European team's failure to meet expectations in the European RMR competition for the PGL Major Antwerp 2022. Although, as a Spinx substitute, valde is a step back for ENCE, the Israeli became a star player showing an impressive rating of 1.15 in 2022. The Dane has a similar 1.12, but he played only 27 maps while Spinx participated on 118.
valde cannot replace the lost firepower, but he can add more experience to this team. Compared to Spinx, valde has a higher rating against the top 10 teams: 1.17 and 1.06, respectively. In addition, he is the only player who won at least something notable: DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018, DreamHack Open Valencia 2018, DreamHack Open Tours 2018, and DreamHack Open Monreal 2017. Also, he was awarded MVP for Flashpoint 2 and DreamHack Open Valencia 2018 and ranked as the 20th best player in 2018.
Furthermore, Valdemar can play a lot of different positions on all maps, becoming a helping hand for any player; Spinx has a limited range of roles and cannot insure other players. ENCE lost a bit of aggression, as the Israeli is one of the most aggressive players on the scene, but got the second IGL. Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer sometimes struggles to regain control over the team when things don't go according to plan. valde can replace him and bring some fresh ideas to save the situation. This isn't the first time they played together – they were in Heroic during 2016-2017.
SunPayus
Movistar Riders and SunPayus expressed themselves greatly this year, reaching the IEM Cologne 2022 semifinals and the ESL Pro League Season 15 quarterfinals. Also, the Spanish side won home ESL Challenger Valencia, which gave them even more titles than ENCE. SunPayus has contributed a lot to the team's successes. The Spaniard scored a solid 1.16 in 2022, while hades had only 1.07. Against the top 10 teams, SunPayus delivered a 1.14 against only 1.01 from the Polish. In the pistol rounds, Alvaro scored 1.25 destroying Olek with his 0.87.
hades like lost his confidence after the lost ESL Pro League Season 15 finals, the best rating on a big tournament since then was 1.10 at BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2022 Europe. The Spaniard, in turn, showed a robust season-ending performance of 1.03, 1.30, 1.34, and 1.16 stats at the last four events.
The main possible disadvantage of SunPayus arrival is his weak English and absence of experience in international teams. He played for Movistar Riders for more than a year, being the only star with the best conditions to grow. Now, he moves to the next level, so the new organization will expect and demand more from him, not tolerating the failures. SunPayus must prove his ability to adapt to new requirements and cope with new challenges.
