Team Liquid’s Jamppi reveals he almost quit Valorant to return to CS:GO

Michal Konkol/Riot Games

Team Liquid’s Elias ‘Jamppi’ Olkkonen has revealed that he came close to leaving Valorant and returning to CS:GO in 2021.

Jamppi burst onto the CS:GO scene in 2019 as a rising talent, but his progress was curtailed by a VAC ban that made him ineligible to compete at Valve-sponsored events, including Majors.

In February 2021, shortly after being benched by ENCE, Jamppi switched to Valorant and joined Team Liquid, one of Europe’s best teams, as a replacement for Adam ‘ec1s’ Eccles.

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ENCE
Jamppi switched to Valorant in 2021 over a VAC ban that ruled him out of CS:GO Majors

He quickly found his groove in Riot Games’ title, but then a competitive ruling issued by Valve almost saw him make a U-turn on his decision.

Valve updates eligibility rules

Up until then, players who had VAC-banned accounts were barred from Valve events forever. But in April 2021, the developer updated the eligibility guidelines for its competitions, effectively giving VAC bans a five-year term regarding competitive restrictions.

This means that Jamppi, whose ban dated back to 2015, was finally able to compete at CS:GO Majors. The Finnish player reacted to the news on Twitter, thanking Valve for finally updating its eligibility rules, which in 2019 had cost him a move to OG.

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It turns out that such was the impact of this change that Jamppi had one foot out of Liquid and Valorant as he entertained the thought of returning to CS:GO.

(Timestamp starts at 4:38 for mobile viewers)

“I basically told Liquid and my coach, Sliggy, that I was going to quit Valorant and go back to CS,” he told Dexerto.

“After a few days, I messaged family and friends asking them what I should do. I started thinking more about it and then I made the decision [to stay].

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“I don’t think CS is going to change that much in the future. If I want to go back, I can do it. But I think Valorant is going to change a lot.”

With his focus locked on Valorant again, Jamppi played an important role as Liquid made deep runs at the VCT Stage 2 Masters and Valorant Champions.

Later in April, the team will be attending VCT 2022 Stage 1 Masters Iceland following FunPlus Phoenix’s withdrawal.

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