When Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen became a free agent in VALORANT in January, he became free in more ways than one. After having just been released from ENCE, it was evident his time in CS:GO was coming to a close. With his future in the game controversially stripped from him, it made sense for him to pursue a future in VALORANT.
Liquid VALORANT has a potential new star in the making in Jamppi. (Photo via Red Bull)
While still free from Valve’s chokehold, he is however no longer a free agent after now joining Team Liquid. Jamppi joins former CS:GO superstar ScreaM and the rest of the Brits on the Liquid roster. Prior to Jamppi’s signing, the team moved Adam “ec1s” Eccles after some tough results in the first stage of the VCT. Liquid fell at the final hurdle of Challengers 1, losing to FunPlus Phoenix in the main event. Then at Challengers 2, they lost to Alliance in round-of-16 of the open qualifier.
Liquid’s momentum has stalled slightly since acquiring the Fish123 roster back in August 2020. After qualifying for First Strike back in November/December, they fell in the quarterfinals to eventual champions Team Heretics. While ScreaM has always been a constant source of kills for Liquid, the struggles come when the rest of the team is able to keep up with him.
ScreaM has aspirations of more than just being a great aimer. He recognizes the value of playing tactically and says whatever team fully unlocks that first will be unstoppable. In a long-form piece on Team Liquid’s website, he talks about what strategy can do for a team.
ScreaM has a new teammate with a ton of potential. (Photo via Team Liquid)
“In my opinion you can really destroy everybody if you have the perfect strategy. There’s no team right now like this. The Astralis of Valorant is gonna come for sure and it’s gonna be really beautiful to see.”
ScreaM is absolutely right, but eventually, multiple teams will be on similar levels when it comes to tactics and strategy. When it comes to that, then the best talent will win out in the end. So for Liquid, it helps to now have an unmistakable talent in Jamppi.
As Jamppi was rising through the ranks of Finnish Counter-Strike, he looked destined for greatness. An electrifying, high-impact AWPer whose aggressive playstyle would catch enemies off guard. He was featured in HLTV’s “One for the future” series, alongside notable names like ZywOo, poizon, ceRq and sergej. He was set to make his leap into tier-one, courting offers from OG as they set to break into CS:GO. But reports of his ties to a VAC-banned account from years prior forced OG to go in a different direction.
ENCE was Jamppi’s final stop in his short CS:GO career (Photo via ENCE)
Jamppi went to incredible lengths to defend himself, even going so far as to sue Valve for not letting him compete at major events. But rather than spend years in Counter-Strike with little to no hope of competing at a major, like many NA pros had, he’s taking on the new opportunity in VALORANT. And at only 19 years old still, he’s got plenty of time to make his mark.
Liquid will debut their new young sniper at the open qualifiers for EU Challengers 3.
