"I will play much better at this event"- dycha ahead of ESL Pro League, recent struggle in form and current mood in ENCE [Exclusive]

ENCE is ready to make its mark in ESL Pro League Season 19 as they play against a revamped GamerLegion in the second week of the event. The team had a blazing start to the year with a strong showing at IEM Katowice 2024 with the Polish quartet making waves along with Danish legend Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander. Since this event, ENCE has been on a downward spiral with Paweł "dycha" Dycha, in particular, having a rough time in terms of individual form.

Ahead of the ESL Pro League, Sportskeeda Esports had the opportunity to have a conversation with dycha and explore the structural changes to the current ENCE roster and the struggles he has faced along with the solutions that he and the team have taken up.

ENCE's dycha talks about the team's struggles in the last few months, gla1ve's impact on the team and expectations for ESL Pro League

Q) How has ENCE's preparation been ahead of ESL Pro League

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dycha: I am doing fine and I think we have prepared much better than we had for any other event so far.

Q) That's a pretty promising thing to hear considering ENCE's poor form over the last few months. Do you think ESL Pro League is a good opportunity for the team to bounce back and have a strong performance?

dycha: The biggest problem for us from the start was that we didn't have much time even before IEM Katowice 2024 to build anything. Right now, we have played from home for at least a month or even more. We have had time to talk about how we want to play maps and had the necessary time to build strategies on these maps. We finally had the time to switch positions in the team where every player is in a position that fit them.

Q) I would like to know more about your underwhelming performances ever since IEM Katowice 2024. Do you think the problems in position were the main factor in your poor form or were there other external factors in play?

dycha: The problems with our positions were not the only factor and there were other things connected to it. The main thing for me was that I had to switch from the old ENCE lineup to the new ENCE lineup. This meant that I had to switch positions. Sometimes, I used to play aggressively in the old ENCE roster but at the start of this new lineup, I had to switch 95% of my positions to new ones when I was the aggressive guy.

It was working well at times and not well at other instances during practice but I was trying my best. It was fine during IEM Katowice because all of us had moments where we saved rounds with hero plays. We also had insane rounds which gla1ve was calling. We always had a Plan A and Plan B for rounds. Even if these plans were not working, we were able to frag a lot.

After IEM Katowice we missed the hype to play CS. Even during the PGL Major and the RMR, we didn't have the energy inside of us to fight. My performance was tough and I was trying to play a lot of CS and it simply wasn't working. When I was trying to take some off-days it was also not working and it even got worse at times. I had to go and work with our mental performance team and I also had to talk with my team because I had to be honest with them about the situation.

I feel like there was also a lot of pressure on me from the outside because I am used to playing in the playoffs stage and finals a lot of the time ever since 2023. I think I had a bit too much going in my head and I had to chill and step down since we had to build everything from scratch with this new ENCE roster.

I feel like taking this step back and chilling a bit was a really good thing for me and I feel like things are much better now and we are taking things step by step. I am not promising anything but I feel like I will play much better at this event hopefully as I can already see the difference in practice on how I am playing right now to how I was playing before.

Q) Do you feel like ENCE is rejuvenated and motivated again for this event similar to the mood at IEM Katowice?

dycha: I feel like we are hungry to play on LAN. Before, we didn't have that much time to prepare between events. From IEM Katowice to any other event, it was a few days only and we didn't have time to prepare. We only played officials and it was also super hard to play some open qualifiers. When you are only losing, it kills you a bit inside.

Right now, we feel like we have much more power since we haven't played anything for a long time outside of a few officials online just to test things. We are much better prepared and the spirit inside us is a little bit higher than it was before.

Q) We have seen Kylar being the aggressive player and tip of the spear for this new ENCE roster. With the changes in player positions, can we still expect to see him maintain this role?

dycha: It was mainly Kylar and me switching our positions so I went back to the positions that I played in the old ENCE lineup. For example, on Mirage, I am playing Short. On the T side, I am playing either as a lurker or going with the team if they need me but I am playing the positions that I played before.

Kylar and I had a really deep talk and I said if we want to be on a different level then I need to go back to my old positions. During the initial days of this lineup, I went out of my comfort zone and was willing to sacrifice but we had to talk since things were not working out.

At the start it was kind of working at IEM Katowice since we had the hype and the Polish crowd and the tournament was important for all of us which is why it went well for us. After the event, we hit a roadblock and we couldn't click.

There were a lot of mistakes and communication problems. Right now, Kylar is good at connecting between players. He says what he expects from other players and I am better on the positions when I am alone so I feel like this position swap will benefit us much better than the previous one.

Q) What has gla1ve's role been in these key decisions such as swapping positions? How has his overall impact been ever since he joined ENCE?

dycha: He is trying to be the guy who is connecting all the dots. For example, even if I do something good in my position we will have deaths on the other side of the map. He will try to fix these issues and connect the players. Sometimes even if I think I am doing something really good and other players on the other site of the map also do well but it's not connected then gla1ve and kuben are good at connecting people.

They are also not people who force you to do something but rather ask us if certain concepts are good and how the team feels about it. I feel like gla1ve is also really good at mid-round calling. As I said before, he is good at connecting things and he is also very open to the team after every official on how we feel and the things that worked and did not work.

Q) With all these internal changes made in ENCE ahead of ESL Pro League, what are the realistic expectations for the team at the event?

dycha: Our overall goal is to make playoffs and this is our primary goal as well. Our little goal is to play better as a team to showcase that the work that we have done so far on the server will pay off. We want to show that we are better than what people think and we want to have a better performance than what we showed in the last couple of months

Q) Any closing thoughts that you would like to share with the fans supporting ENCE?

dycha: Thank you for supporting us even though it has been tough times for us. I feel like the struggle time is over and you will see a better ENCE now.

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