Aerial retires from CS:GO scene

Jani “Aerial” Jussila, the former HAVU rifler, has retired from the competitive CS:GO scene to deal with his “sleep” problems. The organization has shared the information through its official Twitter account.

Professional esports players handle extremely high pressure during all tournaments, but behind all this are many hours of practice and a few hours of rest and sleep. That’s why many players decide to step away from their teams and even from the game to get some rest, mentally speaking.

This time, the experienced Finnish rifler has temporarily decided to step away from the competitive scene.

HAVU announce Aerial’s departure from the active lineup

Through an official statement on its blog, HAVU announced that Aerial would be leaving its starting lineup and stepping away from competitive play to deal with his sleep issues.

However, HAVU has also managed to move quickly to find an ideal replacement for Aerial, who would be a perfect fit for the team. In the same release, the organization announced that Olli “sLowi” Pitkänen is returning to the team’s lineup. This will not be the first time that sLowi will wear HAVU colors, as let’s remember that this was his home for four seasons (2018-2022).

sLowi is also a very experienced player in the CS:GO scene, as he has been part of several teams, the last one being JANO Esports, where he had as a teammate another legend of the game, Aleksi “allu” Jalli. During his time in JANO (9 months approximately), sLowi was the team’s second-best player and had a rating of 1.04, only surpassed by allu, who currently has 1.14.

Aerial was a mainstay at HAVU

Since Aerial signed for HAVU in 2021, he has been one of the team’s main players, demonstrating reliability and extraordinary consistency. After playing 459 maps with the team, the 29-year-old Finn has a 1.09 Rating, according to HLTV. In addition, the player was very important for the team during the Elisa Masters Espoo 2022.

While Aerial had impressive stats and mind-blowing performances, HAVU could not raise its head and achieve important results. Unfortunately, HAVU crashed out of the Paris Major after losing to 500 in the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European Qualifier Decider.

On the other hand, HAVU Gaming was also very close to reaching the grand final of the CCT West Europe Series #3. However, they fell in the semifinals to Monte Esports, one of the most surprising teams.

The first match of this new HAVU lineup with sLowi will be next May 24, 2023, at the Elisa Invitational Spring 2023. Currently, the team has a 1-1 record, and they will face LDLC looking for the second victory in the tournament.

Header: Stephanie Lindgren | DreamHack