Finnish esports org ENCE has announced that the company, officially ENCE eSports Oy, has filed for bankruptcy, bringing an end to the organization’s time in esports.
The Finnish esports organization has left its mark on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, StarCraft II, and many more, delivering Tier 1 titles despite competing with much larger organizations.
ENCE announces bankruptcy filing
ENCE posted the following on social media:
The End of an Era
After 13 years, the board of directions of ENCE eSports Oy has made the difficult decision to file for bankruptcy.
To our palyers, staff, and partners, thank you for everything.
And most imporantly, to our fans: thank you for standing with us through every victory and defeat. None of this would have been possible without you.
The message led to various tributes from fans and community members, who reminisced about some of ENCE’s greatest achievements in esports.
ENCE notable achievements
ENCE leaves the esports scene having won Tier 1 trophies in various esports, most notably Counter-Strike Global Offensive and StarCraft II.
In StarCraft II, Finnish Zerg player Joona ‘Serral’ Sotala played for ENCE from 2016-2023, winning dozens of tournaments, including IEM Katowice 2022 and becoming the first non-Korean player to win the WCS Global Finals in 2018.
In Counter-Strike, ENCE’s fully Finnish roster emerged in 2018 as a Tier 1 force that consistently upset higher-ranked opponents, which featured some of the most stacked rosters in CSGO history.
After winning StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6, ENCE finished second to Astralis at the Katowice Major 2019, before avenging that loss at BLAST Open Madrid, where they defeated Astralis 2-0 to claim the trophy.
The 2018-19 ENCE roster was:
- Aleksi ‘aleksib’ Virolainen
- Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli
- Jere ‘sergej’ Salo
- Sami ‘xseven’ Laasanen
- Jani ‘Aerial’ Jussila
After the infamous decision to replace aleksib with Miikka ‘suNny’ Kemppi to improve the roster’s firepower, ENCE soon vanished as a competitive force before a 2022 rebuild saw them once again return to relevance, lifting a Tier 1 trophy at IEM Dallas 2023.
Led by the brainpower trust of Eetu ‘sAw’ Saha and IGL Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer, the ENCE roster featured Tier 1 stars Álvaro ‘SunPayus’ García and Guy ‘NertZ’ Iluz, the roster was again punching above its weight before the core of the roster was sold to Team Falcons in December 2023.
In 2024, the once-again rebuilt roster saw Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander claim his last Counter-Strike trophy as a player, winning Elisa Espoo 2024 in an upset victory over HEROIC in the Grand Final.
Since then, the team has failed to break out of the Tier 2/Tier 3 space, struggling to find a stable roster to return ENCE to relevance in Counter-Strike 2.
Do you have good memories of ENCE? Share your thoughts with us on the Insider Gaming Discord.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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