Jamppi suing Valve for supposed unfair VAC ban
Finnish CS:GO pro Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen is reportedly suing Valve for alleged damages that came from an old VAC-banned account, which prevented him from signing for OG in 2019.
In the lawsuit, it is also stated that Jamppi bought a second copy of CS:GO in 2015, when he was only 14-years-of-age, so his friend could play with him. The account in question later received a VAC ban, however, because it was bought by Jamppi, it was believed the Finnish CS:GO pro himself was the one violating the rules. Jamppi reportedly tried to contact Valve to clear his name but was told that the ban will remain, effectively preventing him from participating in any Valve-sponsored Major tournament.
His ban from participating at Major tournaments, however, was a huge factor that discouraged OG from offering Jamppi a contract and instead opted to sign Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski as their fifth player, who joined Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt, Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen, Valdemar "valde" Bjørn and Issa "ISSAA" Murad at the newly formed European CS:GO squad.
Jamppi began his CS:GO career in 2017 when he played for a Finnish CS:GO stack REHTI, where he competed in some national online tournaments. In 2018 Jamppi teamed up with Team Viral, where he continued to compete in Nordic leagues. In April 2018, Jamppi joined SuperJymy and in June 2018 made his first LAN tournament at Vectorama 2018, where he finished second after losing to ENCE in the finals. With SuperJymy Jamppi continued to put up solid results in some lesser Nordic leagues, which earned him renown as a highly talented CS:GO pro.
In February 2019, SuperJymy rebranded as SJ Gaming, where Jamppi continued to play, reaching a reasonable amount of success in both Nordic and European leagues, including gold medals at Finnish Esports League Season 6, LBET Invitational #1, Finnish Esports League Season 7, silver at Assembly Summer 2019, Telia Esports Series Season 1, Lantrek 2019 and top-three placement at Arctic Invitational 2019.
Despite his success with the team, Jamppi got benched by SJ Gaming in December 2019 and was later replaced by Toni "STOVVE" Liukkonen who took over as the team's AWP. Since SJ Gaming removed Jamppi from the active roster, the Finnish pro was seen playing for a mixed Finnish team KYNYNIEKAT, which made an appearance at Assembly Winter 2020 back in February, where Jamppi and co. and finished fifth-sixth.
Jamppi, however, is not the only CS:GO player who is denied entry to a Valve-ran Major tournament due to VAC ban. One other such case is a Brazilian talent Vinicius “vsm” Moreira, who currently plays for DETONA, but is unable to compete at Majors, after ESL launched an investigation and found out one of his old Steam accounts has a VAC ban to it.
At the time of writing, it’s still unclear whether Valve will look to unban Jamppi and allow him to compete at CS:GO Majors. That being said, VAC bans are not taken lightly in the CS:GO competitive scene, as there has yet to be a single occasion where Valve decided to lift a VAC ban from a pro player and it’s highly unlikely that will change anytime soon. What’s more, it was also reported that Counter-Strike Professional Players Association (CSPPA) ignored Jamppi's request to support him in his lawsuit, meaning the Finnish CS:GO pro might struggle to find justice.
