“I think Nivera balances us really well together”: Team Liquid’s Valorant pro Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen

Team Liquid recently qualified to the Valorant Champions 2021 by winning the EMEA Last Chance Qualifiers.

As we move towards the Valorant Champions, all teams have started preparing for the ultimate showdown. But before that, Team Liquid will play at the Red Bull Home Ground 2.

Team Liquid is one of the top Valorant teams in the world. The team played in the VCT Stage 2 Masters Reykjavík, but couldn’t make it to the VCT Stage 3 Masters Berlin. Yet, the team brought their best in the EMEA Last Chance Qualifiers and qualified for the Champions.

The team comprises of a great set of players, especially Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom. Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen, the in-game leader of Team Liquid’s Valorant roster, has also been one of the major backbones of the team.

Moreover, the team has also gone through a major roster chance before the EMEA Last Chance Qualifiers, by adding ScreaM’s brother, Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom, in place of James “Kryptix” Affleck.

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Team Liquid’s Jamppi speaks about recent roster changes, Valorant Champions preparation, and more

At the Red Bull Home Ground 2 press conference, Pratiti Dhang of Sportskeeda Esports asked Jamppi of Team Liquid about the recent roster changes and how the team is preparing themselves for Valorant Champions. He also revealed the team that has the potential to surprise Team Liquid at the Red Bull Home Ground 2.

Q: Nivera has recently joined the team in place of Kryptix. What do you think Nivera brings to the team? How has the team built up such a great synergy with him?

Jamppi: He helps a lot, like communication-wise, even though he's a young player. I think he has lots of experience because he used to play in the best team in the world in Counter-Strike. He has been playing with experienced players in Counter-Strike like before, and just individually, he is such an unbelievable player.

I feel like it's because the way he plays and the playstyle he has. It's a good combination for us because he's a super passive player and we have a really aggressive player. So I think he balances us really well together.

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Q: How is the team preparing itself for Valorant Champions after missing out on Masters Berlin?

Jamppi: Now, after we qualified Champions, we have, like, a one-week break, of course, to chill out and just to be relaxed because, of course, we had huge pressure going into the Last Chance Qualifier. We expected ourselves to qualify, and I think many people expect us to qualify. So it was just a huge relief.

And now we've been practicing hard again, it's going to be the first tournament that we're not going to do, like, a massive boot camp. We're only going to do, like, I'll say, mini boot camp, for five days before the Champions. So it's going to be a little bit different.

We're going to play from home, but just practicing hard on trying new stuff. This Red Bull Home Ground tournament is a good, like, warm-up tournament for us. So it's going to be exciting.

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Q: Which team do you think has the potential to surprise you in the Red Bull Home Ground?

Jamppi: Apart from the top teams, I would say NAVI. I would say NAVI, as we have been tracking them lately, like a few times. I think even when we lost against them in EMEA, they have a good structural game and a few good individuals. I think apart from the top names in the tournament, I will say NAVI has the potential to surprise many good teams.

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Team Liquid will compete with G2 Esports, BIG, and Futbolist in the group stage of Red Bull Home Ground 2. It will be interesting to see G2 Esports to clash with Team Liquid yet again after the EMEA Last Chance Qualifiers.

The tournament will be streamed live from November 4 to November 7, starting at 12:00 PM GMT every day on Red Bull’s Twitch and YouTube channels.