Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen, a Team Liquid VALORANT player and a former CS:GO pro for ENCE, told his viewers in a recent stream on Twitch that he is planning on moving back to Valve’s FPS in the future.
The 20-year-old was playing CS:GO when a viewer asked if he was interested in switching back. Jamppi retired from Counter-Strike in January 2021 after spending less than one year with ENCE, the most notable Finnish team back then. The AWPer went on to sign with Liquid in February 2021 and has since attended numerous VALORANT tournaments, including VCT Champions in December 2021.
“The earliest I’m going to return is in October [2022], not before that” Jamppi said on his stream. This year’s VALORANT Champions is going to be played during the month of September, which could mean that Jamppi is thinking about deciding his future after the tournament concludes. The clip has since been deleted from Twitch.
Jamppi was at one time considered one of the best youngsters in CS:GO, but he never really lived up to expectations. While he was still competing in Counter-Strike, he was also battling against Valve for permission to play at the Majors. He was not allowed to play at Valve-sponsored tournaments because an old Steam account of his was allegedly VAC-banned in 2015.
In April 2021, however, Valve changed its stance on VAC bans and allowed players that had allegedly cheated to compete in the Majors if their bans happened less than five years prior to a Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament.
Jamppi considered returning after Valve updated the eligibility guidelines but ultimately chose to stick with VALORANT. It’s unclear what made him change his mind and how Team Liquid will deal with him now that he wants out of the esport.
