ENCE have announced that they have expanded their lineup to six players following the signing of former SJ member Elias "⁠Jamppi⁠" Olkkonen.

The Finnish AWPer has signed a two-year contract with ENCE and will step into Sami "⁠xseveN⁠" Laasanen's shoes in the team's next tournaments except ESL One: Road to Rio, a Valve-sponsored competition, because of his VAC ban.

The 18-year-old, who joins ENCE for free following the expiry of his contract with SJ, will be competing with his new team in DreamHack Masters Spring and in the Elisa Invitational in the upcoming weeks. By mid-June, ENCE plan on re-evaluating their set-up according to how the event schedule has developed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi becomes the team's new in-game leader, taking over the role from Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli, who had been calling the shots since Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's benching after the StarLadder Major.

Jamppi will make his first appearance for ENCE on April 30

(Photo by ENCE)

ENCE hope that this overhaul will allow the team to return the top following a steep decline in form in the last eight months. A year ago, the Finnish outfit was a regular presence in the top five in the world rankings, but they are now languishing in 24th place after exiting their last three tournaments at the bottom of the standings.

"It has been a rocky road in the past few months, which has caused issues with the players mentally and affected their performance," ENCE General Manager Niklas Ojalainen told ENCE's website.

"We as an organization have to make steps towards further professionalizing the environment in a multitude of ways. Our results have been very disappointing, so changes needed to happen. Signing Elias to the team was an opportunity we couldn’t pass on and he deserves the chance to showcase his talent to the world."

Jamppi emerged in 2019 as one of the most promising young talents in Europe and was featured in September in HLTV.org's "One for the future" series. Just a month later, he came close to joining OG, but his ties to a Steam account with a VAC ban saw the famed Dota 2 organisation move in a different direction and pick up Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski instead.

Last month, DBLTAP revealed that the Finnish youngster had filed a lawsuit against Valve, claiming that the account in question had been sold to a friend and that the ban from all Valve-sanctioned tournaments had prevented him from signing a contract with OG.

ENCE stated that the lifetime ban is "far too steep" and stand behind the player in his pursuit to overturn the decision. The Finnish organisation also called on the Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSSPA) "to take his case seriously", not just for Jamppi but also to prevent potential similar cases in the future.

With this addition, ENCE currently have: