CSGO: Return to the roots, the story of His Majesty Allu

“I believe ENCE will be among the top teams in the world.” – Allu, in the Inside ENCE documentary series

ENCE winning the EU Minor to attend the IEM Katowice 2019 Major is a dream come true for many people. For the Finnish CS community in general, this is a great return to the most prestigious tournament CS: GO. For ENCE, this is an effort of years of building up a team, investing in the necessary facilities for young Finnish talents to develop. With the vast majority of members on the team: Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, Jere “sergej” Salo, Jani “Aerial” Jussila, and Sami “xseveN” Laasen, this will be their first time attending a Major. For Aleksi “allu” Jalli, this will be his chance to re-appear. Allu is a veteran CS:GO player who has been competing at the top of CS:GO for many years. The last time “His Majesty” attended the Major was at PGL Krakow 2017. Now, after a year and a half has passed, he will return and fulfill his Major wish with an all-Finland squad.

For the motherland and the country

With so many players, there is no greater dream than playing for a team that has members from the same country. We are always proud to represent our country. This idea actually dates back to the early days of CS:GO when the WCG was considered a Major and in those tournaments, only teams with members of the same nationality could participate.

This idea helps players revive the CS community in their region. Not only do they represent the country, they also help build the lineup, facilities, and culture for the regional CSGO scene. With a national roster, they create their own legacy, allowing players to share their knowledge and experience with future CS generations. That importance cannot be underestimated: it is one of the main reasons why Danish Counter-Strike is as strong as it is today.

For countries with weak CS: GO, this is like a dream. Players like Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovacs and Harvard “rain” Nygaard have dreamed of having an all-Slovak or Norwegian squad, but that dream is too far away, due to the lack of talent in both regions. to compete in the international arena. Therefore, these players are forced to join international teams if they want to develop more.

That’s what happened to Allu. At the beginning of CS:GO, he was torn between the Finnish or international roster, until he joined NiP in 2015. During that period, Allu showed the world that he was the top AWPer, helping NiP to achieve a lot. High ranking in many tournaments. After a year of playing for NiP, Allu decided to return home. Allu was perfectly good enough to join any international or North American team he wanted at the time (he stood-in for Liquid at ELEAGUE Road to Vegas), but Allu decided to join ENCE.

However, the return of the emperor has not been able to revive Finland. Finnish CS used to be one of the best CS 1.6 platforms, but not CS:GO. They are not what they used to be when the players have retired, CS is also gradually not as popular as before, people have to join the army and those factors make the Finnish CS system weak.

Allu tries to do what he can as the team’s superstar and the one who’s been at the top of CS:GO, but it’s not enough. In August 2016, Allu realized that the time was not yet ripe and so he signed with FaZe Clan.

Try it again

FaZe is considered the mercenary of the CS:GO world. The team owns international superstars. Despite the talent on the team, they still need an IGL to bond. That leader is Finn “Karrigan” Andersen, when he led FaZe to the top in 2017. Allu is also a part of FaZe Clan, becoming the second strongest team in the world in the first half of 2017 – consistently appearing in tournament finals. international. This was also the year Allu had his first major event win, at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3 against Astralis.

FaZe Clan entered PGL Krakow as one of the hopefuls to win the award. However, internal problems caused the team to be eliminated from the group stage. Not long after, FaZe built a new superstar lineup: replacing Allu with GuardiaN. For Allu and ENCE, the second half of 2017 was a period of crisis. Allu played for OpTic – a time he really tries to forget. As for ENCE, the team tried to build around young players, but the results were not positive. On June 20, ENCE announced the departure of the CS:GO team and it seemed the Finnish CS:GO dream was dead.

However, a new wind blew through Finland. Before 2018, the boys weren’t ready yet. They need more time to develop and mature. ENCE realized that as 2018 began. The first step that ENCE took was to bring Allu back to his homeland. They recruited him on March 12, 2018.

Back home and journey 2018

For Allu, this is the second time he has returned to his homeland and the third time trying to build an all-Finland squad. Allu has been under enough pressure to play for the big names. This time, he wanted to try to bring Finland to the world. A month later, ENCE announced the remaining members of the team. We have the best Finnish talent in the region, with the exception of Miikka “suNny” Kemppi. Aleksib is the IGL of the team and an influential player despite taking the position. Aerial is the entry fragger that can free the site. XseveN was once one of the tallest fraggers on the team, ready to stoop to take on the roles the team needed. The main firepower of the team comes from two stars: Allu and Sergej.

Allu used to be one of the most famous CS:GO players: he played for top teams in different eras, NiP in 2015 and FaZe in 2017. If Allu was the past and present of CS:GO Lan, then sergej is their future. At the age of 16, sergej shocked the world. As Allu says in the ENCE kit,

“Sooner or later, hopefully sooner, Jere[sergej] will be one of the best players in the world.”

Although the puzzle pieces were enough, the experience was not. The team gradually grew in 2018 and learned how to be a better player. In Sergej’s case, he said competing with Allu really brought many benefits:

“There are so many little things I can learn from Allu.”

Not only between Allu and sergej, the rest of the members also benefit. Although some members are as old as Allu, their CS:GO experience is not as good. None of the members (except Allu) have attended major international tournaments or Majors. Allu attended both and he taught these players how to deal with pressure, movement and how to be a top player at the top.

ENCE went to ESL One Cologne 2018, one of the biggest events of the year and made it to the top 8. In the win bracket, the team was knocked out by Astralis. Astralis beat ENCE 16-5, but Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander was impressed by his opponent’s ability:

16-5 against @ence here at @ESL One Cologne

Dont get fooled, even tho the result doesnt show they play good CS. Will do 100% damage

GG WP

— Lukas Rossander (@gla1ve_csgo) July 3, 2018

ENCE proves gla1ve’s words to be true when going down to the losing bracket. They beat NiP and Mouz in the BO3 series. Afterwards, ENCE faced Na`Vi to determine who would advance. This is an extremely tight series, ENCE won the first map Dust 2 16-14, lost map 2 Mirage 14-16, and then got eliminated on map 3.

Though it failed to proceed, ENCE showed the world that it was a formidable threat. Like many emerging teams, ENCE has not shown its stable use yet. ESL One Cologne is seen as an unexpected journey and gradually other teams and players will get to know this team, adjust and adapt to the gameplay. With ENCE, this is what happened at EU Minor 2018.

They were considered one of the Minor contenders, but lost to OpTic and NiP. Despite the painful defeat, this is considered a necessary process for the team to grow – when the members have never been pressured to expect before. ENCE then ended the year with high rankings for the rest of the season in smaller LAN events: second place DreamHack Montreal, winner of StarSeries i-League Season 6 and DreamHack Winter 2018.

EU Minor 2019

By the time the EU Minor 2019 started, the team had already accumulated half a year of experience. It plays an important role in many things, including morale, confidence, tactics, stability and teamwork. All of this is very important at EU Minor 2019, which is much more difficult than last year.

CS – With our victory in the European Minor we take a look back at the event and what is to come next at the IEM Katowice Major.

Read More https://t.co/tYgczOj0Of#EZ4ENCE pic.twitter.com/J9qOY4ln1r

— ENCE (@ence) January 23, 2019

At this EU Minor, ENCE defeated the Space Soldiers using stand-ins, Valiance, and North. Windigo is a solid Bulgarian team. Valiance is an international mix, with good shooters, namely Nemanja “huNter” Kovac, NiKo’s cousin. Valiance was the dark horse of the tournament as they knocked mousesports out of the tournament with skill and anti-strat ability of their opponents. Valiance won the first game in the series against ENCE. After losing game 1, the team discussed the troubles and showed Allu’s worth:

“When we are with TS, the team has to be careful with huNter, because he likes to hook tires. He was always moldy and we didn’t know what was going on then. Aimbot is like huNter’s brother. [Đội cười] OK. Let’s win.”

The team then returns to the series and defeats the opponent.

ENCE meets North in the next round. It was a fierce showdown with North, and ENCE fought relentlessly at Train. In this map, the two teams throw everything they have: creative strategies and constantly adapting to the opponent. For example, ENCE dominated the B hall gunfights. In response, North placed three players on the B ramp to take down the enemy early. However, when sergej is killed, the information is communicated and ENCE immediately attacks A fast.

In terms of firepower, it was a duel between Valdemar “valde” Bjorn and Sergej. Every time one side has a sad handling phase, the other side immediately responds. Valde pulled off an unbelievable ace on the 24th eco round, nearly helping North finish the match on Train. As for Sergej, he also countered with an ace in Inferno, ending North’s hopes of coming back from the series.

With that victory, ENCE qualified for the Major. For Allu, this is everything he has strived for throughout his CS:GO career. Before joining NiP, he tried out the Finnish squad. After leaving NiP, Allu tried again in 2016. After a stint with Faze and OpTic in 2017, he returned to the Finland region and tried again for a third time. This time, everything turned out to be a success. They have solid organization in ENCE, great leadership in aleksib, and essential players in Aerial, xseveN, sergeji, and Allu.

WE ARE GOING TO THE MAJOR!!!!!!#EZ4ENCE #IEM #TORILLATAVATAAN pic.twitter.com/QQd5shErQS

— ENCE (@ence) January 19, 2019

For Allu, this is a victory both personally and in Finnish CS:GO history. Although he attended the Major, they came from the famous teams NiP and FaZe. At ENCE, he helped the team grow from the ground up. Allu became one of the important members to help make the dream of building Counter-Strike Finland come true. For ENCE and all the players, this Minor victory is a testament to the hard work and faith of the Finnish region. For Allu, this is his pilgrimage. Three times Allu managed to revive Finland as the top team in CS:GO and on the third time, he finished and brought Finnish Counter-Strike back to the Major once again.

“I always support the Finnish players, if given the opportunity.” – Allu, from Road to IEM Katowice: Episode 2

According to VPesports