VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 2 EMEA Challengers is well underway as the round-robin stage continues to develop. Following Team Liquid’s 2-0 victory over BBL Esports, the European medley continues to ravage on with a 2-0 score. After the matchup against the Turkish squad, we managed to speak to Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen. The Finn shared his thoughts on their current group stage run, Fade, and has opened up about the infamous Twitch clip that has surfaced not too long ago.

Interview with Jamppi

Run It Back: Congratulations on the victory. Liquid is up 2-0 in the EMEA Challengers Stage 2. Going into this matchup against BBL, did you expect so much resistance? Especially on Fracture where overtime ensued?

Jamppi: Yeah, definitely. They owned NAVI (Natus Vincere) on that map. So we had really high expectations [for them to play well]. We knew they have really good individuals and when they have the momentum going on a map like Fracture it was going to be tough. To be honest, we didn’t deserve to win Fracture, there were like 2 times 3 versus 5 that we somehow got lucky and won those rounds so I’m not actually that happy about our Fracture performance.

On Split we got a pretty bad start but then got an actually pretty good T-side (attack side). So yeah…

Run It Back: So having said that, you guys have defeated BIG and BBL, arguably the weaker teams of your group. How do you feel going up against the likes of Guild or M3 Champions in the coming days?

Jamppi: Yeah, I think we just need to have the same preperation as we have had for these two past games. I don’t think you can underestimate any team. But against M3C we especially want revenge and I think against Guild our players and playstyle matches quite well. As for M3C, they have an annoying playstyle against us. We just need to figure out a few things against M3C and go with the same confidence against Guild and we should be good.

Run It Back: As somebody that has picked up Sova in the past for Liquid, what are your thoughts on Fade. We saw her get picked up by soulcas on Icebox against BIG. But what are your personal thoughts on the Sova versus Fade debate?

Jamppi: I think Sova is more of a solo agent. You can play solo basically on your own. But I think Fade’s utility is somewhat better than Sova’s. But you need combos with it. On some maps you can play solo Fade but for an example, Fade and Raze is a really good combo, but Raze and Sova is not that good. For example you have pulls with the Fade nade and you can nade with Raze for example and with Sova you cannot do that kind of stuff.

I think Fade is super strong if you know how to play with the utility well. And I think soulcas has been enjoying her a lot and has been getting good impact overall so it’s been good for us.

Run It Back: A Twitch clip surfaced of you saying that you’ll eventually move back to CSGO. I’m not going to ask when that will happen. However, I’d like to know what drives you back to Counter-Strike that made you say that?

Jamppi: From the start, ever since I got into VALORANT, I think there is an interview even one year ago that I did and I said that I will most likely go back to CS at one point and I gave a percentage [of that happening] of seventy-five. And that was one year ago.

But I think, for me, I want to prove people wrong. I want to prove to myself that I had the capability of playing top level CS when I just couldn’t play it. I basically never got the opportunity to play at my best level. I could say that I have some unfinished business in CSGO. That’s what drives me back at some point? But I’m not going to leave to CS until I’ve achieved all my dreams in VALORANT.

Run It Back: And what are those dreams?

Jamppi: I can’t tell, but I have some dreams that I want to achieve in VALORANT and I’m not going to leave before I achieve those.

Run It Back: So this is a conditional kind of thing? First you do your business here (in VALORANT), and then maybe some day you switch back to CS.

Jamppi: Yeah, but maybe that can even change. I cannot predict the future where, let’s say, VALORANT can be in one year and where CSGO will be in one year. I’m the type of guy that lives in the moment and I’m not really thinking. I have zero interest going back to CS right now. I’m super committed to VALORANT. I want to win everything in VALORANT. I’m the type of guy that lives in the moment and right now I’m not thinking about CS at all. Even though it’s a fun game, I like CS, but competitively, I’m 100% committed to VALORANT.

*Note: Questions and answers may have been slightly modified for the sake of fluidity and or brevity.

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