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esports
Get to know OG’s JerAx in the latest episode of Esports Unfold
The Finnish superstar heads home to talk Dota, food, fun and adjusting to life after two multi-million dollar wins at The International.
Jesse ‘JerAx’ Vainikka stands on a cliff overlooking the cold, windswept Baltic sea. It’s a world away from where most people are used to seeing him: on stage at Valve’s mega money Dota 2 tournament, The International. Yelling his OG team-mates on in the booth, being showered with confetti and clutching the Aegis of Champions, which OG have lifted two years running, against all odds.
But he’s now home in the countryside with his family nearby, and a sauna (it is Finland, after all). As much as under the lights of a global esports tournament, this is where he belongs, it is where it all started. See for yourself in the latest edition of Esports Unfold below.
8 min
Get to know the real JerAx
Jesse 'JerAx' Vainikka is devoted to Dota, but he's trying to figure out his priorities outside of the game.
JerAx has travelled the world with OG and won tournaments on three continents but home has always been where the heart is.
“My daily life consists of friends, parents, my family, talking to them and having fun together, going out and sharing experiences,” says the 27-year-old.
“I remember vividly how my parents were very supportive. We had a very, I would say, standard life. I played soccer and I had a lot of nice friends around the neighborhood. We used to go to each other’s houses and play video games. As there was no internet, it was natural to just get around the same PC and play on the same keyboard.”
That interest in computers came from his dad, who built them. But as he recalls, the competitive spirit he carried over from football was all his own.
“We didn’t just play for fun. We wanted to challenge ourselves. Winning was a really big deal. I found it extra fun to get into the mindset of being better than my friend. That could be described as the beginning of my competitive mentality.”
Then, as a teenager, JerAx discovered Dota – the WarCraft 3 multiplayer map/mod that provided the basis for Valve’s standalone sequel, Dota 2.
“When I first played Dota I was 15,” he remembers. “I had a friend in my school who had been playing Warcraft 3, almost semi-professional already back then. He introduced me. I didn’t like Warcraft 3 myself as much, but then I found a Dota map, which I kind of jumped into.”
Dota’s team-based gameplay and deep strategy scratched an itch for JerAx and it was a trip over the border to Sweden that opened his eyes to the possibility of turning his hobby into a profession.
“The first time I thought that this could be something was when I first travelled to Sweden,” he remembers. “This was during high school. I got really good at this game called Heroes of Newerth, which is very similar to Dota. This was my first trip away from my country, and meeting up with the guys I’d been playing with through the internet. We got together in this tournament and got to live the esports life where you actually get to see who you’re playing against, and get the feel for people watching you play, seeing this all live in front of you. This was the very start of me thinking it was something that might work out.”
JerAx says his friends have helped him stay grounded
© Red Bull
Just as the TI prize pool has ballooned over the last decade, so too did JerAx’s career take off. In early 2015 he was tapped to play for South Korean team MVP HOT6ix, and the squad managed to qualify for The International in Seattle that year. They placed last in the group and never made it to the arena. Nonetheless, JerAx considers it a pivotal moment.
“I think that really pushed my mentality and motivation from there on, because now I had once been successful. I had given myself the chance to travel to Korea, and really go crazy with this career idea. It worked out, and I could only believe that it was going to work out again.”
After a stint with Liquid, OG came calling after three players left, forcing talismen Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein and Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik to rebuild. JerAx found he had an instant rapport with his new squad, which also included Anathan ‘ana’ Pham, who would prove instrumental in their back to back TI victories in 2018 and 2019.
“When I joined OG, I understood right away what they’re looking for, and I 100 percent agreed with it. I think when people ask what OG stands for, it’s mostly not for the letters themselves, but for enabling people as what they are. That’s the essence of why OG have been working as a team, and why we are such friends with each other.”
Wins at the Boston and Kiev Majors soon followed, but then in the first half of 2018 the team’s form dipped. Fly and former TI winner Gustav ‘s4’ Magnusson left. OG would have to rebuild once again, and quickly – that year the team received no direct invite to The International.
They needed players, fast. Spitballing, JerAx proposed Topias Miikka ‘Topson’ Taavitsainen, a fellow Finn and prolific streamer – with no tournament or team experience.
Ana was brought back and a roster hastily formed in time to run the gauntlet of wildcard qualifiers for TI 2018. The rest is history. OG went on to win the whole tournament, and then do it again the next year too, the five members becoming the highest earning pro gamers of all time in the process.
Uncharted territory
What next for JerAx?
© Red Bull
For JerAx however, the real validation came in knowing that pursuing Dota as his competitive outlet had been worthwhile. “I think what esports gave to me was a way to prove myself, to be able to practice at something and then have this test. Are you really able to do it?” He says. “I think this helped me a lot because it helped me be self-confident.”
But his success in Dota has come at a cost, and JerAx is keen to re-establish relationships with friends that may have been set aside from a cycle of bootcamps and tournaments.
“As a part of this competitive life I’ve been living, I accept that I can’t have everything,” he says. “But I think I’ve maybe sacrificed a bit too much. Having important people around you is very powerful. It can’t always be your team-mates. It’s a really nice thing to have other friends who you can talk with, share and enjoy moments. I value that.”
The OG line-up have reached a rarefied place in esports, perhaps occupied only by them and three-time League of Legends world champion Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok. You’ve won everything, and won it again. What now?
“It’s hard to tell what the future holds, but it’s definitely something that these lessons will carry over from,” JerAx says thoughtfully. “After playing for so long, there comes a time when you start thinking about what you want to do.
“Is a third TI what we’re looking forward to? Is it something completely different? The questions I ask myself are: What makes me happy? What do I hold value in? What is really that important for me that I want to pursue?”
At least publicly, JerAx isn’t quite ready to answer these questions.
“I will keep thinking about how to challenge myself, and how to keep being able to make mistakes and learn from them,” he says.
From last to first at TI – wherever next?
