CSGO: BIG’s amazing journey at ESL One Cologne

One of the most intriguing stories at ESL One Cologne was BIG reaching the final round of the tournament. Here’s the Cinderella story from BIG, who haven’t had any impressive international results since the PGL Krakow Major with a completely different roster over a year ago. Two weeks before ESL One Belo Horizonte, the boys left no impression that this was possible. But at ESL One Cologne, considered the mecca of Counter-Strike, everything changed. BIG performed surprisingly well, defeating Team Liquid, Renegades, MIBR, G2, and championship contender FaZe. The team’s luminaries: ohannes “nex” Maget, Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz, and Owen “Smooya” Butterfield played at a level we’ve never seen before. With excellent performance and Gob B leader, BIG had a memorable journey at ESL One Cologne 2018.

To better understand why the performance of these players is so important, we need to look back at BIG’s international results at the PGL Krakow Major in 2017. Along the way, the team reached the quarterfinals of the Major, using Use systematic, team play. They researched all the teams participating in the event and knew that Inferno was the most competitive map. In Inferno, BIG has a variety of tactics and small tricks to surprise the opponent. We must mention the phases of fighting A and B using nade to destroy the bombsite, isolating each member of the CT side and killing them one by one. Also, people can’t forget the “jump peek”.

Thanks to careful preparation, the team made it to the playoffs. But here, their journey also ends. It was a close match against Immortals when BIG lost 1-2. This loss shows the importance of the stars in the team. If you can compare BIG and Immortals at PGL Krakow in terms of teamwork, BIG is superior. The German guys have better setups, better systems and make the best use of utility in the tournament. But they don’t matter, as the only player to reach superstar level is tabseN. LEGIJA played well, but he was only a support for the team so his kills didn’t have enough impact on the team. In addition to the two above, nex and keev competed in underperformance.

This is the key point to understanding Counter-Strike. You can have good strategy, you can play with great teammates, but without good shooters, it’s hard to get any further. Therefore, next year the team gradually changed blood. LEGIJA moved to the trainer position, BIG brought back tiziaN from ALTERNATIVE aTTaX and acquired smooya.

At the time of ESL One Cologne 2018, BIG had all the resources. Gob B just put them in place. The first two names in the lineup are tabseN and smooya. tabseN was BIG’s breakout player of 2017, and many believe he can prove himself as the team’s superstar. Smooya shows a lot of potential as an AWPer on Team Epsilon.

Together, these two names are enough to make the name BIG all the more terrifying. This duo is enough to wreak havoc on the opposing team. We see this clearly in CT, when the team applies a double AWP setup for tabseN and Smooya. They try to set up together in every possible situation. tabseN is a defensive AWPer. He chooses a safe position and retreats if he loses that position. And Smooya combines active play and camp, depending on the situation of the round. In addition, smooya is very good at retake situations, so holding AWP when retake site does not hurt him.

OWENED!@smooyacs @BIGCLANgg #ESLOne pic.twitter.com/bgFDCJYld0

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) July 8, 2018

Between tabseN and smooya, the two continued to have opening picks, giving BIG a big advantage in gun rounds. This is impressive, obviously, but what makes BIG special is its double AWP style, which forces opponents to use their most powerful weapon: the utility.

With two AWPers in a row, BIG doesn’t need to waste early round nade to control key positions. Instead, they force the opponent to use utility to occupy these positions. This slows down the game, lengthening each round, so that BIG can use its power of utility and team play, in long rounds.

Although both played great, the brightest star of the team was Nex. His ability to compete was a big surprise, not because he couldn’t before, but because he was always underperforming. Nex started to shine in 2015, but has not performed well in pressure matches. When it came to the playoffs, Nex suddenly stopped shining. In front of the spotlights, he was shy in front of the crowd, cowering under pressure. But those are gone at this ESL One Cologne. We see the nex explode. He became the brightest star among the three players of BIG.

While tabseN and smooya are thunder and lightning, nex is the fire of the team. The player who deals the most damage to the team, takes the most lives, and is the driving force behind the team’s motivation. He doesn’t have flash kills, but always gets his own kills with great consistency in ESL One Cologne 2018. At the same time, he has explosive rounds, who can forget the ace against Na` Vi on the map Dust 2? He proved himself to be the X factor that BIG needed to make it to the finals.

Behind these three stars, what connects them together is gob b and tiziaN. They don’t have impressive numbers, but these two are always up to the task, and make sure the other members can play to their strengths. Especially the gob b, with his key tackles in the team’s big moments.

Unfortunately, their journey had to stop before Na`Vi, but no one can deny the power of BIG. They fought hard as they passed Renegades, MIBR, G2, and FaZe. This is a prime example of BIG’s preparation, top form and aggressive play. Surely this journey will always be remembered in this holy place in the years to come.

According to vpesports