ENCE dominate Movistar Riders in ESL Pro League S18 Playoffs

The ESL Pro League Season 18 quarterfinals ended with two more teams confirming their semifinals appearance. In the first match of the day, ENCE took down the Movistar Riders in what was a very short series. 

Movistar Riders reached the quarterfinals after a relatively strong showing including a few surprises. The team had a straight run through the upper bracket in the group stage to qualify for the playoffs first along with Team Vitality. In the playoffs, they’ve had a relatively easy time going up against 9z which brought them face-to-face with ENCE.

But ENCE proved to be too much of a match for Movistar Riders. On Overpass and Anubis, the result was pretty much the same. 

Overpass is a CT-sided map, but the ENCE 13-2 first half was just too much for Movistar Riders to handle. With 23 kills, dycha was in a league of his own. With a 130.1 ADR, he ensured that ENCE got the necessary dominance on the CT side. Movistar Riders could simply not find any leeway into the defense on Overpass. 

There were multiple attempts on both bombsites, but the ENCE defense held strong. The meta shifted as the game progressed with ENCE often mixing aggression with passive holds. 

Ultimately, it ended with a 16-2 score, a relatively one-sided and very quick ending for Movistar Riders.

The first map of Overpass was Movistar Riders’ map pick. And they lost 2-16, so expectations were very low from the team for the second map. 

Anubis was ENCE”s map pick and they started on the CT side. Once again, ENCE started off strong - an 8-0 start - on Anubis. The map looked to be going the same way as Map 1. However, a few late half-round wins by Movistar Riders allowed them a respectable 5-10 half in the first half. But after ENCE won the pistol round in the second half, it seemed dire for Movistar Riders. 

Movistar Riders failed to win a single CT side round on Anubis, ending the with a 5-16 score. SunPayus ended the map with 22 kills to his name, with a +15 KDA. With a 1.81 performance rating, he seems to have been the biggest difference between the two teams. However, the ENCE squad was simply much better in strategy and firepower compared to Movistar Riders. 

ENCE will now face off against MOUZ in the semifinals of the ESL Pro League Season 18. With CS2 already announced, the ESL Pro League is very well the last Tier 1 League to be played on CS:GO. 

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