tabseN talks about BIG going international: It might be necessary
The profiled German discusses the disappointment at IEM Cologne, the future of BIG, and their recent roster change in an interview with Pley.
Last month’s IEM Cologne was the perfect opportunity for BIG to showcase themselves and relish the moment of playing in front of thousands of German fans on home turf in the iconic LANXESS arena.
However, it ended up being quite the letdown as they were eliminated even before the actual main event, falling short to Astralis in the Play-in stage.
A result that hit BIG captain, and native Cologne citizen, Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz especially hard.
To be fair it’s still very disappointing to look back at the results we’ve had at Cologne, tabseN says to Pley. “I’m born in Cologne; I have family in Cologne. Like for me, I would say it means a little bit more for me than for the others. So, it definitely hurts the most, but it’s just more motivation going forward
The German identity of BIG
Being a German organization and playing with a fully-German roster clearly means a lot for BIG – but not at all cost, tabseN explains.
We created BIG back in the days to have a team for the German nation that people could support and identify with. I believe the organization can be really proud of what they have done for the German scene. But it’s not enough.
(…) We want to achieve a lot of things and we want to go the road with German players, but at some point if we’re not able to do so, we will maybe go for an international roster. Because we want to lift trophies, and that’s something we look up to, tabseN said and continued talking about his own goals:
I want to be the best in-game leader in the world, I want to be the best player in the world with my team.
Earlier this month it was announced that Nils “k1to” Gruhne would rejoin the BIG roster after a stint on their academy team. The 23-year-old rifler replaced Tizian "tiziaN" Feldbusch. We asked tabseN to explain the decision.
We came to a point where we meant that we needed a change outside of the server.
We said to k1to [when he was demoted back in March] that he needed to step down a bit and go back to the academy team, and try to work his ass off again. Which he did. So, it’s really a huge motivation for us that he kind of accepted the challenge. He did his very best, became an in-game leader on his own, and took some responsibility for the entire team – something I really look up to because most players don’t really want to have responsibility.
BIG will be in action tomorrow when tabseN and company are set to continue their campaign at BLAST Premier Fall Groups. Here the Germans will battle G2 for a spot in the next round at the $177.500 tournament.
