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

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.

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.

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].

“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.”

• Read more: Fearoth joins Fnatic on loan for VCT Stage 1 Masters Iceland

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.