Miikka "suNny" Kemppi is a rifler for PENTA Sports and one of the more promising CS:GO players to hail from Finland. After one year with ENCE eSports, suNny signed with PENTA on Jan. 16, with the full roster finally being completed two weeks ago.

suNny took the time to speak with theScore esports about ENCE, Finnish CS:GO and the new PENTA lineup.

It’s been almost a year since we last spoke, back when you were still part of ENCE eSports. Why did you end up making the move to PENTA? What have been the big lessons from your time with ENCE?

ENCE was my first “professional” team, which allowed me to go full time, so it’s almost impossible to put it in a few words. I guess the most important thing that I learned last year was how things work in a team and what needs to be done to find success at some point.

allu [Aleksi "allu" Jalli ] was a big part of that for sure because he has what it takes, even though he is not a leader type person in some things. And of course, you can’t be perfect as a player ever, you always have something to learn, it’s all about your mentality.

At the end of the year I wanted to take the next step towards big stages and for a few reasons it wasn’t possible in Finland, so I guess, it was a natural choice to join an international team and prove myself there.

I liked PENTA and the former coach Alex almost instantly after I played with them, it felt good that we had the freedom to build the team we want and the management had the trust in us.

PENTA announced its final five players a few days ago, though you guys have already played a number of officials before the news was actually announced. Could you provide some insight into how this roster was finalized? Why drop certain players and pick up others?

Well, I liked to play with stfN [Stefan "stfN" Seier] and fox [Ricardo "fox" Pacheco] a lot. stfN is an entry fragger with lots of raw skill in terms of aim and taking good duels, but he couldn’t go full time so he wasn’t an option for us. We wanted fox as main AWPer, but we just couldn’t find a good way for both parties to go forward.

After all, since I joined PENTA we knew all the players who would be good for the team and we just played with different lineups to see which one will work out best.

In my opinion it’s really important that we are all “hungry” players and kinda on the same page what we have done before and that we don’t have anybody thinking they are above each other.

What’s the current setup of the team (who’s IGL, AWPers, etc) and what are your first impressions of this team?

kRYSTAL [Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend] is AWPer and in-game leader, while HS [Kevin "HS" Tarn] and innocent [Paweł "innocent" Mocek] go with him. zehN [Jesse "zehN" Linjala] is a ”support” player on the sides and I am the lurker and the "leader" of the team. I help kRYSTAL a lot with mid round calls and disadvantage situations, such as CT 3v4, 4v5, etc.

Considering it’s a pretty multinational roster (one German, two Finns, one Estonian and one Pole), how’s in-game communication? What about outside of the game, how are the different cultures getting along?

Everybody on the team speaks good English so it’s not a problem. Can’t answer for the second questions because we have not spent a single moment together yet in real life, but I think the mood is good in the team.

I believe this is also the first time you’ve played on a team that wasn’t 100% from Finland, what are your thoughts on that change?

Well, it’s not a big deal for me, all I care is that the team is doing fine and going forward. Good thing in an international team is that everybody is taking it more seriously and it feels like we didn’t come here to hang around and chill. We all want the same thing, go forward and find success.

Though you guys are no longer in the running for ECS Season 3, you have a strong record in the Mountain Dew League Season 24 (ESEA Premier), which is a path into ESL Pro League. What do you think are your prospects for the future with this team?

Of course I trust in us, I wouldn’t be here if that wasn’t the case. It’s just a matter of time, but we will surprise many with how good we will do, trust me.

What are your goals for the year? Any other final thoughts?

I guess every player would say I’ll work harder than ever, but yeah, in my opinion it should be obvious to work hard if you want something. We want to play on big stages and in biggest leagues. That’s the first goal, let’s see how far we can go after.

I want to thank PENTA and all my fans for supporting me and us, keep it going. Every kind word makes me more hungry!