Following the long ordeal of transferring former in-game leader Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen to the OG organization, ENCE put out a video announcement supposedly explaining how aleksib’s replacement came to pass. But CSGO and ENCE fans weren’t pleased with the information included in the video.
ENCE’s days of late haven’t necessarily been the sunniest. Apart from the drop in results compared to earlier in the year, much of the talk online regarding the team has to do with a player no longer there.
Ever since the team announced that aleksib would be removed from the starting lineup at the conclusion of the Berlin major, fans of the Finnish franchise, and Counter-Strike fans in general, have longed to know why they would part with the leader that led to them to so much success in the earlier part of the year.
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After the the December 18 episode of ENCE TV, titled “Discussing Contract Extensions & Aleksib Trade Details”, fans were left disappointed by the continued lack of information regarding why the situation unfolded. And the only information that was provided only led to more questions.
In the video, marketing director Joona ‘natu’ Leppänen and CEO Mika Kuusisto explained that they offered all the players extensions in the summer, after their miracle IEM Katowice major run. During that time, they say they considered signing Miikka ‘suNny’ Kemppi, but were unable to do so due to financial reasons.
But in August, when they had another opportunity to sign him, they went ahead and did so, and informed aleksib of their decision the next day.
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Fans were very local about how letdown they were about the information that was revealed, alleging that it hadn’t added anything new, specifically regarding why aleksib was dropped. On both the reddit and YouTube comments, fans criticized the organization for providing only “non-answers.” Fans on Twitter voiced their displeasure as well.
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What did you address actually? You told us nothing new.
— Grddy (@ggrddey) December 18, 2019
Some fans even zeroed in on ENCE signing aleksib to a contract only to sell him with presumably a bigger buyout clause later. They pointed out that the notion of selling him for financial reasons conflicts mightily with previous statements from the team that “he didn’t fit,” and that it was a team chemistry issue.
Regardless, the video only drives home the idea that the organization really wanted suNny, but provides no information on why they decided that aleksib would be the one cast out. Fans also critiqued the lack if communication with Aleksib on the situation, stating that they felt he was misled in an effort to sign a new player rather than stick with him.
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Their string of results to close out 2019 reflects negatively as well. Since removing aleksib, ENCE have struggled at the offline events they’ve attended, only making playoffs once in five tries, where they lost in the grand finals of the CSGO Asia Championships to mousesports.
Meanwhile, Aleksi appears to be settling in well with OG, making the semifinals in their debut tournament at cs_summit5. They’ve also been invited to participate in the BLAST 2020 season.
