After a period with lackluster performances and results, HAVU coach Taneli "disturbed" Veikkola has chosen to take the consequences and leave his head coach position.

The 29-year-old ex-pro has been in charge of the Finish team since October 2019 and will continue working with the organization – though, it will be behind the scenes, disturbed explains.

- The decision has been hanging around me for a while now as I’ve failed to produce the results I or HAVU wanted. The past few months have been really hard for me as I couldn’t fix the mistakes we were making as a team or individually. This team needs a fresh start after a really challenging first half of the year and I think a new approach to the game is also needed. I hope this move unlocks the potential this team has and gets them back on the grind.

- Although I’m stepping down as a coach, I won’t be leaving HAVU entirely as I’ll stay as one of the partners and work behind the scenes, disturbed said in an official [link:{"url":"https://havu.gg/blogs/news/disturbed-steps-down-from-coaching-position","isNewTab":true,"text":"statement"}].

HAVU, led by the former ENCE duo Sami "⁠xseveN⁠" Laasanen and Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila, peaked in April last year where they managed to climb to a 14th spot on the world ranking after winning Snow Sweet Snow 2 and Funspark ULTI 2021 Season 1. However, in 2022 the results haven’t been near acceptable for the Finish team, with the team struggling to find success after changing the roster in mid-January.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"ottond-returns-havu-sm1llee-comes-along","isNewTab":true}]

{cflag:FI} Joona "⁠Sm1llee⁠" Holmström

xseveN

Aerial

HAVU

HAVU has finalized their roster going into the new season with the signing of Otto "ottoNd" Sihvo and Joona "Sm1llee" Holmström. The two Finns will be the last pieces to the lineup after Jemi "jemi" Mäkinen and Lasse "ZOREE" Uronen’s recent departures.

With the transfer, ottoNd is set to initiate his second spell at HAVU, as he represented the Finnish organization in a one-year period from 2017-2018. The 24-year-old AWPer later on transferred to international lineups as CR4ZY and c0ntact Gaming.

- I'm glad to announce ottoNd and Sm1llee have signed with us for next season! After parting ways with ZOREE and Jemi we needed dedicated AWPer and a rifler. Otto "ottoNd" Sihvo was an obvious pick for us as he brings experience and very needed controlling AWP-play to our team. Otto even played for us in 2018 before moving on to international fields.

- For the last spot we have Joona "Sm1llee" Holmström. He's an up and coming 19 year old talent who has raised interest in the Finnish scene, putting up good numbers on the board during his time with hREDS. Joona is a perfect fit for us role-wise and has an incredible aim and communication to work with, Taneli "disturbed" Veikkola, Head Coach of HAVU said.

[link:{"url":"https://havu.gg/blogs/news/welcome-ottond-sm1llee","isNewTab":true,"text":"HAVU statement"}]

ottoNd

Sm1llee

sLowi

The Finnish e-sports organiztion of ENCE took the world by storm in 2019, when they managed to catapult themselves to the top of the global rankings in Counter-Strike. However, they weren't always a big contender. Whilst the Finnish Counter-Strike scene was filled with players trying to compete with their fellow Scandinavians and their impressive results it seemed as if it was never going to happen.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"teams/ENCE/Copyright_-_Bart-Oerbekke_-_ence_xn3jfp","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Bart Oerbekke ESL","alt":"CS:GO, Counter-Strike"}] 

After 5,5 years of hard work and determination ENCE finally managed to secure a top-8 finish in a premier event. Thanks to former ENCE player Joona "natu" Leppänen taking on a managerial role and star player Aleksi "allu" Jalli ENCE finally proved to be a real contender in the professional Counter-Strike scene once they announced the launch of their new roster in 2018.

The predominately unknown roster that would become one Counter-Strikes biggest surprises featured the following players: 

At last, it seemed as if ENCE had finally managed to put together a roster that could compete at the top of the professional Counter-Strike scene. And they did. At least until the roster that had proven that the Finnish Counter-Strike scene was more than just a meme fell apart. Just as quickly as they had appeared and started to dominate top teams they started hitting slumps and fell down the rankings once again. 

In December 2020 the core of the Finnish roster fell apart, leaving behind only captain "allu" of the sinking Finnish ship. ENCE is currently trying to rebuild the roster and is sporting a new European look featuring the likes of Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer and Lotan "Spinx" Giladi. They are currently ranked as the 24th best team in the world. 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Copyright_-_Bart-Oerbekke_-_Snappi_q1jdgb","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Bart Oerbekke ESL","alt":"CS:GO, Counter-Strike"}]

To watch more about how ENCE proved to everyone that they were not just a laughing matter, you can watch the entire video down below: 

allu

sergej

Aleksib

ENCE

Yesterday, HAVU managed to take down the dominant Virtus.pro at Funspark ULTI EU Final, which means that the Finns progress to the next stage, while VP has to head home empty-handed. The underdogs in HAVU founded the victory with a stellar overtime win on the first map on Train. During the second OT, Jani "Aerial" Jussila stepped up huge by winning this insanely tough 1v4 clutch. 

Watch Aerial take down VP with a little help from buster:

[twitchClip:BenevolentPunchyLionPunchTrees--iYm2RujGegZnNpT]

Virtus.pro

 The two Finnish players delivered an outstanding duo presentation when they turned a situation around where they were 2 against 5, but for the deadly duo this was didn’t matter.

The Finnish organization has been playing great in the last couple of days, and this has allowed them to win the Funspark ULTI Europe trophy.

Today at 17:00 they are taking on the Swedish organization Dignitas in the final of the event, HAVU is favorites to take the trophy, but in a final, anything can happen, it is like the finals have their own life.

HAVU will hope that their deadly duo can keep up the momentum, by taking them to the trophy.

[twitchClip:PoliteAmorphousLorisKappaRoss-eHZzfG5JPD_l0U__]

ZOREE

Team Dignitas

We can't really decide what we love more. The fantastic play from Jani "Aerial" Jussila or the hyped Finnish commentator. But nevertheless, this is our pick as Pley of the Day.

The play happened in the Grand Final at Pinnacle Cup.

Gambit Esports

To have the guts to hold your trigger and not take the easy kill, will always be a very brave and tough decision to make. However, the gains and winnings from a successful trigger discipline could be huge and the most times, round-winning. 

Earlier today, HAVU's star rifler Jani "Aerial" Jussila gave a fantastic example, when he let 3 Gambit players cross his crosshair, to eventually kill them all. 

[twitchClip:KitschyEphemeralTapirDancingBanana-OrbSvNCALuD11I_e]

HAVU has started this year in flying fashion, with the Finns ripping the entire Tier-2 scene apart. After the acquisition of the former ENCE profile Jani “Aerial” Jussila, HAVU has managed to set up an extremely strong level of Counter-Strike, and today the victim was no other than the dominant Germans from BIG.

Aerial and company didn’t hold back at any point in this vital semifinal at Pinnacle Cup, as they steamrolled over the #8 team in the world throughout the entire match. Both on Overpass and Dust2, the Finns were in control and the 2-0 result wasn’t up for discussion at any point.

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/gambit-came-back-against-spirit-secured-spot-final/","text":"Read more: Gambit came back against Spirit and secured a spot in the final"}]

HAVU will after the impressive semifinal victory clash against another strong team in Gambit, owing to the Russians beating Spirit in the previous matchup earlier today. The Grand Final at Pinnacle Cup will be played tomorrow at 12:00 (CET). 

16-11 (Overpass) | Aerial – 1.58 Rating / 31-17 K-D / 93.8 ADR

16-9 (Dust2) | ZOREE – 1.56 Rating / 22-9 K-D / 82.8 ADR

Jani “Aerial” Jussila – 1.50 Rating / 51-26 K-D / 87.8 ADR

Finnish team HAVU is currently on a 16 match win streak. An incredible rise for the Finns, who managed to win Snow Sweet Snow 2 after a victory in the Grand Final against AGO.

Two players have stood out so far in 2021. Sami "xseveN" Laasanen and Jani "Aerial" Jussila have performed incredibly so far in 2021 with ratings of 1.29 and 1.26. They have both previously been representing the other major Finnish team, Ence. Here they were part of the team, that made the Grand Final at the IEM Katowice 2019 Major.

Now the duo is running the show at HAVU with great success. Sami "xseveN" Laasanen joined the team in August 2020, while Jani "Aerial" Jussila was acquired in December 2020. 

One single loss has been the amazing outcome of 2021 so far for the Finns, who won $44.000 at Snow Sweet Snow 2.

At the tournament, Sami "xseveN" Laasanen topped the rankings with an incredible 1.32 rating during the 18 maps.

You can see highlights from their Semi-Final match against Winstrike here. The Russian team is actually the only team, that has defeated the Finns earlier this year.

HAVU is currently ranked as number 27 in the world, while they were placed as number 80 at the start of the year.

The winner of Snow Sweet Snow 2 has been found!

An easy day on the office for HAVU as they won the Grand final against the Polish-side from AGO with a clean 2-0 result. Jani “Aerial” Jussila’s team closed out Nuke 16-8 in a dominant performance following a 10-5 first half, and put up a strong T-side display on Mirage which allowed them to finish things out and wrap up the series 2-0, with a 16-11 result. The Finnish squad has with the title victory won themselves the biggest prize earning in the tournament, $44.000.

 Jani “Aerial” Jussila – 1.47 Rating – 87.7 ADR – 46-24 K/D

At Snow Sweet Snow 2 four teams entered the tournament in the Quarter-Finals. Gambit, Sprout, Cloud9, and Ninjas in Pyjamas all got an invitation for the playoff stages, but none of them made it through.

The first team to leave the tournament was Sprout. Paired against HAVU, the Germans were steamrolled in two of the three maps, with the two former ENCE players Jani 'Aerial' Jussila and Sami 'xseveN' Laasanen in absolute top form.

In the second match of the day, Ninjas in Pyjamas could not bring down Michał 'snatchie' Rudzki, who was the big difference in the match for AGO. The Polish team took down the Swedes after three maps.

Cloud9 was the third team to be eliminated. The "Colossus" fell after a battle against the Russian team Winstrike. Again it was evident, that Cloud9 is missing a dedicated AWP'er on their team. Winstrike won after all three maps ended 16-10.

Lastly, it was time for the IEM Katowice winners from Gambit. In their first match since the huge triumph at Katowice, the Russian side faced Copenhagen Flames. The Danes were tipped as heavy underdogs, but it was quickly evident, that this was not going to be easy job for the Russians. 

On Vertigo Gambit took the expected win, but it came very close in the end with a good last push from Flames. On Train, the roles were reversed. Here Copenhagen Flames steamrolled the Russians in the first half and managed to stay calm in the second to claim the second map. 

Overpass was left as the decider. Again Copenhagen Flames came out firing and took the first half with 10-5. In the second half, the Danes completely outplayed the Russians and took home one of this year's most surprising victories by 16-10.

Copenhagen Flames advance to the Semi-Finals, which will be played Wednesday.

snatchie

Copenhagen Flames

Winstrike

At the playoffs at Snow Sweet Snow 2, the well-playing Finns from HAVU will try to keep their unbeaten streak alive when they take upon Sprout, in a vital quarterfinal matchup. 

HAVU and Sprout both come into the match in stellar shape, as the two teams present an 11-game and a 7-game winning streak respectively. However, one thing is certain - After today, only one team can continue their streak and advance to the semifinals. 

Sprout

A spot in the Quarter-finals was up for grabs when AGO faced Sinners in a Bo3-series in the Snow Sweet Snow 2 event. A close series was on the cards, and whilst it ended 2-0 in favor of AGO both teams seemed ready and eager to fight. 

Failing in capitalizing on their own map-pick, Sinners had to see themselves beat 16-11 on Vertigo. The second map took place on Train and being picked by AGO they managed, unsurprisingly, to drive home the 2-0 victory with a 16-13 map win on Train. 

16-11 AGO (Vertigo) | F1KU 1.39 Rating / 114.3 ADR / 25-19 K-D

16-13 AGO (Train) | F1KU 1.50 Rating / 111.6 ADR / 28-20 K-D

Going into the series Nemiga were, on paper, the favorites. However, that didn't seem the case when beginning their battle. The series started on Copenhagen Flames territory and despite Nemiga's best attempt, it was also the Danes to take home map one on Overpass. 

Det second map was to be played on Inferno. The map was picked by Nemiga, but with Copenhagen Flames fired up from map one it proved to be a difficult task for the CIS team. They had to see themselves beaten at 16-7 on Inferno, and therefore also 2-0 in the series. 

16-13 Copenhagen Flames (Overpass) | jabbi 1.69 Rating / 92.6 ADR / 28-14 K-D

16-7 Copenhagen Flames (Inferno) | nicoodoz 1.30 Rating / 74.9 ADR / 18-11 K-D

Anonymo is the second Polish team to have made it to the playoffs of Snow Sweet Snow 2, however, their destiny would prove to be different than the one of AGO. After losing 16-10 on Overpass and being crushed on their own map pick of Train 16-6, they will have to see themselves defeated by the Finish players of HAVU 2-0. 

16-10 HAVU (Overpass) | sLowi 1.62 Rating / 102.3 ADR / 27-15 K-D

16-6 HAVU (Train) | Aerial 1.37 Rating / 90.4 ADR / 23-14 K-D

The last game of the Round of 16 in Snow Sweet Snow 2 was between Winstrike and MIBR. Both teams seemed ready to battle, but one more than the other. Carrying on the theme of successful CIS teams, it was Winstrike to ultimately defeat their opponents with a dominant 2-0 victory against MIBR.

16-9 Winstrike (Mirage) | El1an 1.61 Rating / 88.0 ADR / 25-9 K-D

16-12 Winstrike (Overpass) | NickelBack 1.37 Rating / 97.0 ADR / 23-15 K-D

F1KU

Jabbi

nicoodoz

SinnerS

MIBR

Anonymo

Nemiga Gaming

Sami “xseveN” Laasanen and Jani “Aerial” Jussila has played at some of the biggest stages around the world and has through a joint and successful tenure on the big Finnish team ENCE established their names on the CS:GO scene.

The experienced duo has after a two-and-half-year period on ENCE joined troops on HAVU at the beginning of 2021, which has been an outstanding decision if you look at the results and their numbers. Because HAVU has since the start of this year won 8 out 9 matches so far.

And today, xseveN and Aerial led HAVU towards a new victory with the Finns defeating SAW at Snow Sweet Snow 2, meaning that they now are secured a playoff spot.

14-16 (Nuke) | Aerial – 1.38 Rating / 27-18 K-D / 85.6 ADR

16-4 (Overpass) | xseveN – 1.91 Rating / 19-7 K-D / 104.6 ADR

16-11 (Dust2) | sLowi – 1.44 Rating / 24-16 K-D / 91.0 ADR

Jani “Aerial” Jussila | 1.32 Rating / 59-43 K-D / 81.1 ADR

Dust2 can be an unforgiven place to run into a bad streak. Yesterday Endpoint learned this the hard way against HAVU. 

The Finns were annihilating Endpoint, and at the scoreline 13-1 they decided to buy the G3SG1 auto sniper rifle. 

[twitchVideo:tebtv3/clip/PluckyBoringVelociraptorBudBlast-4Oe5Qba6IuWsHRda]

After the mow down the two HAVU players switched their guns to AK47 and won the round and the subsequently the match by 16-1.

jemi

Endpoint

The Finnish team HAVU has in an official statement, confirmed the signing of ENCE profile Jani “Aerial” Jussila. The 27-year old Finn joins for an undisclosed fee and will begin his new venture at HAVU 01.01-2021.

HAVU disclose in the statement that the deal already was made back in October, but only was made public today. Back in October, when ENCE signed Joonas “doto” Forss from HAVU, the two teams agreed in a deal that sent Aerial the other way.

Taneli Veikkola, Head Coach at HAVU expresses his satisfaction and says that he’s very happy for the signing of Aerial.

"Last piece of the puzzle has been announced! I’m super thrilled to start working with Jani and the rest of this crew for 2021. This lineup has enormous potential to succeed and take Finnish CS back on the map of Counter-Strike."

Aerial himself looks forward to continuing his career at HAVU and to join the server again in January.

"First of all I would like to thank ENCE and my former teammates there for the past two years. But now it's time to focus on a new chapter with HAVU, I couldn't be more excited about starting practicing again in January!”

The Finnish team Havu Gaming is according to DBLTAB.com and their renowned reporter Jarek Dekay Lewis, very close to signing Jani "Aerial" Jussila from ENCE. Lewis states that the transfer already has been completed back in October, through ENCE's signing of Joonas "doto" Forss. 

Aerial has been on sick leave since the 22nd of October alongside teammate Jere "Sergej" Salo, who afterwards have been criticizing the team and star player Aleksi "allu" Jalli. It's clear that there has been something going on behind the scenes at the Finnish organizations for some time now, but only now have been made public. 

Read more. "ENCE issues a statement after allu interview" 

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/ence-issues-statement-after-allu-interview-sparked-reactions/"}]

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Copyright_-_Bart-Oerbekke-_allu_r5xcm7","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Bart Oerbekke ESL","alt":"CS:GO, Counter-Strike"}]

Aerial joined ENCE in April 2018 together with the notable trio of xseven, Aleksib and sergej, where allu already was signed. The Finnish roster won several prominent tournaments as Blast Pro Series Madrid 2019 and StarSeries & i-League Season 6 in 2018. However, the most remarkable achievement was their impressive second place at the IEM Katowice Major in 2019, where the Finns took down both NAVI and Liquid. 

At HAVU, Aerial will reunite with his former teammate from ENCE Sami "xseveN" Laasanen who joined the Finnish team in early August this year. The rest of HAVU's roster will hold the following players if the transfer goes through: 

You can read the full report from DBLTAB.com and Jarek Dekay Lewis right here.

[link:{"url":"https://www.dbltap.com/posts/sources-havu-gaming-to-acquire-aerial-from-ence-01esq1tr78q5"}]

The Finnish roster ENCE looks to replace Jani "Aerial" Jussila and according to dbltap.com rumors say that they are targeting the rifler Jesse "zehN" Linjala. 

Aerial stepped down last week, meaning that ENCE is left with an incomplete roster of 4 players. Still seeking the success of 2019 and with one of their key players stepping down, ENCE is more desperate for change now than ever before. The transfer of zehN could be the missing piece of the puzzle, but whether or not the transfer is going to happen is questionable, since GODSENT is in negotiations regarding a complete roster transfer.

Despite the rifler being Finnish it would be his first time representing the ENCE organization and ZehN is seemingly a perfect fit for the lacking roster. With an official HLTV Ranking of 20, GODSENT has been playing Counter-Strike at a high level for some time, and a great amount of their recent success can be credited to zehN and his consistent performances.

zehN

GODSENT

Elisa Invitational starts at Monday featuring strong teams like Heroic and GODSENT. It’s a very vital event owing to the fact that it works as the qualifier for Blast Premier Fall 2020 Showdown in November.

The absence from ENCE has meant that the tournament grand final is cancelled and instead there will be an extra ticket to the big Blast event at stake.

The teams 8 competing for the two spots at Blast Premier Fall Showdown are divided into two groups, which ends out in a small playoff that eventually will name the two qualifiers.

Heroic                                      

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Aerial

Player stats

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HAVU confirms big signing

Media: Benched ENCE profile signs for HAVU Gaming

Ence targets zehN as a possible replacement for Aerial

ENCE steps down from Elisa Invitational, changing the tournament structure

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