ENCE have benched veteran player Valdemar “valde” Bjrn Vangs from their starting CS:GO roster following a devastating IEM Katowice 2023 run, it was announced today.
The team have opted instead to sub-in academy player Henri “HENU” Ylilehto for the upcoming CCT Central Europe Malta Finals. It doesn’t look like the 20-year-old will stay in the active lineup though, as the team is reportedly trying to sign Endpoint’s Guy “Nertz” Iluz, according to HLTV.
The organization already had tried to obtain Nertz, the report adds, back in the summer of 2022. Yesterday, however, it was revealed that Nertz won’t be playing in Endpoint’s BLAST.tv Paris Major qualifier due to personal reasons. The report states that “ENCE has shown renewed interest in the Israeli and could potentially make a move for the 23-year-old.” Unlike Endpoint, ENCE have already qualified for the RMR tournament for the French Major, which will take place from April 11 to 14.
Valde, on the other hand, is one of the newest ENCE signings, having joined the squad in August 2022. Since then, he has recorded a 1.05 rating during tournaments in the past six months, according to HLTV.
Related: G2’s CS:GO star breaks down the team’s journey to IEM Katowice championship
ENCE also had a poor start to 2023. At IEM Katowice 2023 play-ins, they won their opening game against paiN Gaming but were overwhelmed later on by Cloud9 and Complexity, which saw them exit the tournament. Afterward, they took part in the closed qualifier for IEM Brazil 2023, but failed to advance after losses to HONORIS and BIG.