ENCE announced changes to its Counter-Strike 2 roster on May 29. Two players were benched and two new were signed in their place. While the community thinks one change makes perfect sense, they’re baffled with the other.
The two players who ended up being cut from the CS2 roster are rifler dycha and AWPer hades, and they’re replaced by veteran sdy and young talent Paavo “podi” Heiskanen. Dycha has been in a lackluster form for a few months now, amassing negative stats in numerous tournaments this year. The benched sniper hades, on the other hand, has been a stand-out player for ENCE, and fans can’t believe this roster move.
“HADES??? ARE YOU DRUNK???” esports content creator Express replied to ENCE’s X post. They’re not alone in their sentiment: “Wait hades? wtf,” another fan wrote. “Hades for podi is Jks for nexa type of downgrade,” another fan pointed out, while many repeated the same thing on X.
In the last six months, dycha has indeed been underperforming for ENCE, recording a poor 0.98 rating, according to HLTV. It’s the second-worst ratio right after the team’s in-game leader, gla1ve. Hades, on the other hand, has been ENCE’s best player, at least stat wise, with a 1.13 rating. He’s often been the artist behind a few flashy plays that kept the squad alive in a couple of matches.
The former roster of ENCE formed in December last year and initially showed great promise. Shortly after the end of winter break, the Polish roster achieved enormous successes by qualifying for the IEM Katowice 2024 playoffs, where they had a chance to compete in front of the home crowd. Shortly after, they qualified for the PGL Copenhagen CS2 Major.
However, when they got to the Valve-sponsored tournament, they went 1-3 in the Opening Stage and quickly finished their Major dreams. From that point onward, ENCE failed to show promise for the future, opening the door to the roster changes.
