CSGO: BIG’s murky future after failures in 2019

BIG is one of the most disappointing teams of 2019. At the end of 2018, they looked like they were going to explode into the top 5 in the world. The squad then consisted of: Fatih “gob b” Dayik, Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz, Tizian “tiziaN” Feldbusch, Can “XANTARES” Dortkardes, Johannes “nex” Maget, and Owen “smooya” Butterfield. The BIG of 2018 has an in-depth strategy, knows how to use utilities, has a team play, but the shooting skill is not high. Therefore, when the team brought in XANTARES, many people thought it was the right direction.

The first tournament with XANTARES was pretty good: BIG finished third at the ELEAGUE CS:GO Invitational. But then, smooya came off the bench, and since then, BIG has been on a downward trend. Not long after, they replaced smooya with nex, and then Denis “denis” Howell. Everything BIG does doesn’t work. Most recently, tabseN is constantly appearing as an IGL, and gob b is looking to switch to a trainer role.

Most recently, Dekay said on Dexerto that BIG is looking to replace both gob b and denis, and gob b is difficult to become the coach of BIG.

Everything is really a mess. Denis has never been seen as good enough to play for a top 10 team. He will soon be substituted. Meanwhile, what we saw in the first half of 2019, shows that gob b has not been able to lead the international squad to success. Unlike Finn “karrigan” Andersen, it seems gob b is limited in finding the right player to succeed.

Next, we have the leadership glitch of tabseN. It usually takes 2-3 years for IGL to become good (some captains can grow faster if they find the right coach). In the case of BIG, the team didn’t have time. A person with a shooting skill like tabseN probably wouldn’t spend too much time trying to become an IGL at the moment. He could join another international team and get better results. The same goes for XANTARES.

The only other way that BIG can keep these two pieces is to change the formation. If you look at the last two ‘changes’ after smooya got himself off the bench, they had nex and denis. This shows that BIG is not an organization that pays to acquire talent. In addition, they only use players from within Germany, where there is a fairly limited number of good players. Even when BIG decided to try out the international lineup and find young talent, like HellRaisers, they proved incapable of scouting. Even if they did, the team would need a proper leader to develop those players, and gob b is being phased out.

The only ray of hope that BIG can do is bet. BIG needs tabseN to be an IGL and a star. Team needs to unlock XANTARES (almost all power off last year). The team needs to find young rising talent who can develop into stars or play well in their assigned positions. In the end, BIG needs to hope tabseN and XANTARES don’t go looking for a better place.

This prospect is too risky. If BIG cannot go further, this will be the end of the inspiration named BIG.