ENCE vs paiN Gaming Prediction: dycha picks up his first win at the home tournament

One of the oldest and most important tournaments in the CS:GO world, IEM Katowice 2023, kicks off on Wednesday, 01 February. ENCE and paiN Gaming will face each other in the first matches of the Play-In phase.

We last saw the Finnish team almost two months ago. The guys from ENCE like to disappear from the radar and then suddenly surprise everyone with a good game. The latest tournaments for the team were Elisa Masters Espoo 2022 (home mini-lan) and CCT North Europe Series #2 (online tournament). They were unsuccessful in the first one, but won the second online tournament, although there were only four games against not the top teams. The team will not play in the BLAST Tournament, so the tournament in Poland will be the first for the team in 2023.

The ENCE squad has been unchanged since the last major in Rio de Janeiro. The latest changes in August saw the Spaniard SunPayus and the Danish sharpshooter Valde enjoy a measure of credit. The team looked promising despite ENCE not making the playoffs at the Brazilian major.

IEM Katowice is the home tournament for the legendary Polish player dycha, who will provide ENCE with great support from the stands.

This team is strong in the expanses of South and North America, but for the European CS:GO team, paiN Gaming looks like a representative of the tier-3 scene. This team didn't make it to the home majors in Brazil, which is a failure and a big disappointment, but the squad hasn't changed since that fiasco, which was a bit of a surprise to me.

We have yet to see paiN Gaming in big tournaments, they always play in their regional tier-3 tournaments, so it's hard to judge the Brazilians' form. But let's not get our hopes up about paiN Gaming, because I don't believe Brazilians will overcome at least the Play In stage.

In the match ENCE vs paiN Gaming is the clear favorite in the face of ENCE, and I am sure that the team has prepared for this tournament, and therefore it is worth paying attention to the betting options, taking into account their handicaps.