What a day of Pro League have we had, starting off with the two incredible Semi-Final matchups, before culminating in a relentless battle in the Grand Finals. In the first Semi-Final, ENCE took Team Fontt to Consulate and Chalet, and immediately stunned the local favorites in a rapid and dominant 10-3 victory. Fontt looked unable to answer to ENCE’s strength, and was sent packing after the second map. Following that, we saw defending champions PENTA Sports takes on the other remaining Brazilian team, Black Dragons e-Sports.The home side stunned the European team by defeating them 10-5 in two maps that saw PENTA’s longstanding dominance come to an end. With Julio driving his Black Dragons team on, PENTA slumped to a 0-2 loss, much to the delight of the local crowd.
It was then time for the Grand Final, where ENCE faced off against Black Dragons to play for the final Pro League title of the year.
On Black Dragons’ pick of Oregon, ENCE swept to a quick 3-0 lead. Black Dragons rallied for 2 rounds in a row to bring the score line to 3-2, largely thanks to Julio. However, ENCE reasserted themselves, with Kantoraketti, Bounssi, and Willkey leading their side to a superb 5-2 win. The second map, Chalet, saw a role reversal takes place with Black Dragons rapidly establishing a 4-0 lead, with Psycho doing a lot of the heavy lifting for his side. ENCE were just not ready to let the map go, as they stormed back by winning 4 rounds in a row to force overtime. The unbelievable comeback continued as they racked up an insane 6 round streak with a huge 3.13 K/D ratio contribution from Kantoraketti. With this come back, they clinched the series -- and a Pro League championship title -- for the very first time in 6 attempts.
ENCE started this season off strong as usual, however, risked falling into PENTA Sports’ shadow once more, as they lost their seeding match to a side that had only dropped one single map in the entire season. Coming to LAN, they were thrown against the resurgent Evil Geniuses. The Finnish team, ENCE, elevated their game to a level never-before-seen from them as they took down Evil Geniuses, then Team Fontt, and finally Black Dragons.
While Shatte had been the main driving force for the team during the online season, Kantoraketti came alive towards the tail-end of it. At this LAN, the entire team stepped up and clinched a title that had eluded them for 18 months.
Congratulations to ENCE eSports, to their fans, and to everyone who has helped make this Pro League season a blast. We hope you have enjoyed it, and we look forward to you returning next year with the Invitational 2018 in Montreal.
