Snappi: "ENCE has been nothing but good for me"

The Danish captain spoke about his first weeks with the international team in the latest episode of 'HLTV Confirmed'.

Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer was signed by ENCE in January to help bring order to a team that had been left in disarray just weeks earlier. Their issues were laid bare in December when Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli was publicly criticised by then-teammate Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi and former members of the team while he appeared as a guest on the 'HLTV Confirmed' podcast to discuss ENCE's disappointing results in 2020 and the controversial removal of Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen from the lineup in 2019.

After that huge blow, ENCE launched an internal review into the issues and hit the reset button, keeping just allu, Joonas "⁠doto⁠" Forss, and head coach Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha from the old roster, and bringing in Snappi, Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha, and Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi.

ENCE are already starting to reap the rewards of the new path they are taking, with the team having qualified for the ESL Pro League playoffs following victories over MOUZ, G2, and Vitality. Snappi appeared on Tuesday as a guest on the 'HLTV Confirmed' podcast and revealed why he joined ENCE despite the turmoil.

"I received a lot of good offers during the off-season, but I felt that this ENCE offer was very intriguing because I think allu is a very underrated AWPer," Snappi explained. "ENCE has been nothing but good for me. I’m getting along with allu amazingly and I can’t see why I wouldn't. We are very straightforward in the sense that we talk to each other as soon as a problem arises."

According to the Danish in-game leader, everyone in the team should be able to speak with each other to address internal issues, and they have a sports psychologist to help them with just that. "When you spend 40 hours a week practicing, you’ll get f**king annoyed at some people, that’s just how it is," he said. "So we have to have this kind of space where we got two hours at the end of the week to talk about whatever happened."

Despite being the captain, Snappi is not the one in charge of the team. sAw has taken the reins of the project as ENCE opted to take some of the power away from the players — which is starting to become a pattern in the competitive scene.

"We call him the big boss," Snappi said, laughing. "Obviously, as an in-game leader I have more of a say on how we play, but I think that everyone in the team is kind of equal. sAw is the one who will eventually say how something goes if we cannot find an agreement inside the team."

The Danish tactician was contacted by sAw, allu and doto during the off-season, with dycha also high on the team's list of priorities at the time. Spinx and Thomas "⁠TMB⁠" Bundsbæk were both considered for the final spot before the Dane eventually joined MAD Lions.

The Israeli youngster has proved to be a solid addition to ENCE's lineup, finishing the ESL Pro League group stage as the team's highest-rated player (1.05). Snappi had nothing but praise for Spinx, whom he knew from their time together in c0ntact.

"His work ethic and mentality are among the best that I have ever seen," ENCE's captain said. "He just tries to learn every single day and get better and better. A player like that just progresses fast and he’s just a good guy to have on your team because he never creates problems. I have no doubt that Spinx is going to stay at the top for a long time. He’s just that good."

ENCE re-entered the top 30 last week off the back of their success in the ESL Pro League group stage. Snappi said that there are still "a lot of gaps to fix" and noted that tactical discipline alone won't be enough for the team to continue to move up the rankings.

"I think most of my teams had always a pretty good tactical foundation and just by having that you can get pretty far," he said. "The rest that is going to push you is the individual talent because if you’re competing against the likes of Astralis and Vitality, then having a system is just not enough, you also need to shoot better.

"For me, we have more time to improve and we're definitely not there yet. Almost everyone in the team can play even better, so I don't think the ESL Pro League group run was an overperformance, but I guess time will tell, right?"

You can access the full VOD of Tuesday's episode of 'HLTV Confirmed' below.