How VAC-banned CSGO star Jamppi was forced into Valorant ENCEOn January 26, 2021, Finnish CSGO prodigy Elias \u2018Jamppi\u2019 Olkkonen finally announced his rumored switch over to Riot Games\u2019 Valorant after a short, turbulent career in Valve\u2019s hit FPS title. At just 19, Jamppi has had a career dissimilar to most of his peers. At the age of 14, Jamppi says he lent his CSGO account to a friend to play on, and received a VAC ban for cheats used on the account. To this day, the ban stands, with Valve\u2019s strict policies preventing him from playing in Valve-sponsored Majors, and an ongoing lawsuit between the two making matters even harder for the Finn. Despite having a particularly promising future as a player, Jamppi never got to live out his expected career trajectory. Here\u2019s how it all went wrong. Finland\u2019s CSGO prodigy Coming up just playing with friends in Finland, Jamppi shifted his career plans away from the ice hockey rink and into the server. Before he became the worldwide phenomenon he is recognized as now, Jamppi made an incredible mark on the Finnish scene. Playing in a local LAN against the likes of HAVU\u2019s Aleksi \u2018Aleksib\u2019 Virolainen and Otto \u2018ottoNd\u2019 Sihvo, Jamppi fought through a broken wrist, cranked his sensitivity up and put on a stellar performance. It became immediately clear that if a broken wrist couldn\u2019t stop him, not much could. Watch Now: Jamppi\u2019s Tragedy: How a VAC Banned CSGO Pro Was Forced to Play Valorant ENCE or bust Jamppi joined ENCE in April 2020, offering him the opportunity despite ongoing troubles with his VAC ban. The team was made up entirely of players from his native Finland in Aleksi \u2018allu\u2019 Jalli, Jere \u2019sergej\u2019 Salo, Jani \u2019Aerial\u2019 Jussila, Sami \u2018xseveN\u2019 Laasanen and Miikka \u201c\u2019suNny\u2019 Kemppi. For many, including perhaps himself, this was to be Jamppi\u2019s big break\u2026 His chance to prove himself and hopefully, a time for Valve to reconsider their stance on his ban. Instead, Jamppi found himself left in the dark as to what his future holds \u2014 and he\u2019s taken it upon himself to change that. From CSGO to Valorant Like many top pros in other esports, Valorant offered a new path to success for Jamppi. We\u2019ve seen top Overwatch stars such as Jay \u2018sinatraa\u2019 Won make the switch, while fellow CS:GO pros like Tyson \u2018TenZ\u2019 Ngo and Matthew \u2018Wardell\u2019 Yu are considered among the game\u2019s best. Rumors had been circulating regarding Jamppi\u2019s future, with talk of a Valorant switch on the cards, and that was made official on January 26. After dedicating his entire teenage life to making it in Counter-Strike, the Finnish prodigy will be aiming to make waves in Future Earth, swapping the AK for the Vandal. The move is one that doesn\u2019t really come as a shock, but could be a source of sorrow for the CS:GO scene, as it loses one of its most promising talents to a game frequently branded as the CS:GO killer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How VAC-banned CSGO star Jamppi was forced into Valorant ENCEOn January 26, 2021, Finnish CSGO prodigy Elias \u2018Jamppi\u2019 Olkkonen finally announced his rumored switch over to Riot Games\u2019 Valorant after a short, turbulent career in Valve\u2019s hit FPS title. At just 19, Jamppi has had a career dissimilar to most of his peers. At the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}