Finnish esports team HAVU is facing major lineup changes after the removal of two key players - team captain Jussi “Airax" Airaksinen and sharpshooter Otto “ottoNd⁠" Sihvo.

These changes were initiated by the team's new coach, Petteri “peku" Jaakkola, who joined HAVU in July 2024. Prior to that, he worked as assistant coach Slaava “Twista" Räsänen at Rare Atom.

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Reasons for changes

HAVU faced problems after Joel “Jelo" Lentonen joined in April 2024, replacing Matias “Banjo" Kivistö. Despite the lineup changes, the team failed to improve their results. Coach peku noted for the HAVU website that although the motivation and the overall picture were good, the same mistakes were often repeated in the gameplay. This was one of the reasons for the lineup change.

Coach's view

peku emphasized that one of the key aspects in making the decision to change players was to observe the development curve of the players over a period of three months. Those players who were occupying important roles in the team did not show enough progress, which also affected the balance of the team.

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Current lineup and future plans

HAVU is currently looking for a new captain and sniper to strengthen their current rifle core, which includes:

• Samu “uli" Leirilaakso
• Joel “Jelo" Lentonen
• Luka “puuha" Eklund

Petteri “peku” Jaakkola remains the coach of the team, who continues to work on improving HAVU's game and searching for suitable players to strengthen the roster.

Source: HAVU website