The first stage of the IESF World Championship has been completed with 12 teams being eliminated after the group phase. Most notable was the exit of Team USA. The Americans lost four out of five matches in a group with Serbia, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Indonesia, and Algeria.

The playoffs start today, where all the teams that ended 2nd or 3rd in the group stage will face each other, while the four group winners will start their playoff run in the quarter-finals.

If you want to see all the rosters at the tournament, you can visit [link:{"url":"https://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/IESF/World_Esports_Championships/2023","isNewTab":true,"text":"Liquipedia"}], where all the teams are listed.

faveN

The Germans from BIG will not have the luxury of having Josef "faveN" Baumann on the server at this week’s Brazy Party, an online event with a strong $333.000 prize pool.

Due to taking time off for his wedding, faveN is set to be replaced by the 20-year-old rifler David "prosus" Hesse, the organization reveals in a Tweet this Wednesday. prosus is already under contract with the German team as he normally represents BIG Academy.

This is not the first time BIG will have to play with a stand-in on the server throughout the last 12 months. Both Elias “s1n” Stein and now full-time member Niels “k1to” Gruhne have stepped in for the action when needed at big events such as BLAST Premier Spring Final and IEM Cologne last year, and also the Major in Rio de Janeiro.

BIG will field the following squad at Brazy Party:

{cflag:DE} Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz

{cflag:DE} David "prosus" Hesse (stand-in)

The faveN-less BIG squad will start their campaign at Brazy Party against 00Nation tomorrow at 20:00 (CET). 

prosus

In the IEM Rio Major 2022 CS:GO update, Valve introduced Josef “faveN” Baumann’s sticker to the game. But, the sidelined 22-year-old German BIG player didn’t participate with his team at the RMR and is even missing out on the Major in Brazil due to illness.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"big-miss-faven-iem-rio-major-blast-showdown","isNewTab":true}]

That has made CS:GO fans buy his stickers and raise the market price as many think that Valve will fix the mistake. However, they might be missing an important detail.

Before the RMRs, BIG submitted their roster with Elias “s1n” Stein as a substitute and faveN in the starting lineup. After playing the whole RMR event without faveN, BIG announced that they would also be utilizing s1n as a stand-in in the IEM Rio Major as well.

Currently, the Gold edition of faveN’s sticker goes for almost $800, while the normal sticker’s current price is approximately $3. The rest of the BIG squad is nowhere close to these prices.

Those fans who are purchasing the stickers like crazy are missing the fact that stand-ins at Majors never got stickers in the past. Even when a player is replaced before the start of the event. So, it’s very unlikely that this will be changed.

Do you think the prices of faveN’s stickers will fall down quickly again?

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The Germans from BIG have been heavily decimated before the important Major qualifier IEM Road to Rio RMR, with Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann missing out on the event due to a “medical situation that requires him to rest at home”.

The BIG Academy rifler Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein is set to fill out the void from faveN, the organization confirms on Twitter.

With faveN not attending the Regional Major Ranking, BIG will lack a lot of firepower on the server coming from the former Sprout player. Throughout the last 30 days, faveN has been the highest rated BIG member – something s1n also acknowledges.

- I will fill BIG shoes, let‘s give it everything and we will qualify together! So hyped to play this tournament, s1n wrote in a Tweet.

{cflag:DE} Elias "⁠s1n⁠" Stein (stand-in)

{cflag:DE} Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik (coach)

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Nils ' k1to' Gruhne will once again be playing with the main squad of BIG as Josef 'faveN' Baumann is still suffering from "abdominal influenza". 

'k1to' has been active with the main roster in a lot of different roles a lot recently as he has stood in for both 'Krimbo', 'faveN', and even 'gob b'. The 23-year-old averaged a 1.06 rating at the recent Roobet Cup where the German squad claimed the $150.000 first-place prize. He will now have to replicate this performance if the team wants a chance at the title at the biggest event of the season.

k1to

On HLTV's Confirmed, Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer talked about who ENCE had set their eyes on at the start of the year, where the team had to find a replacement for Joonas "doto" Forss.

During the interview, Snappi was asked about the selection of their new fifth member of the roster.

- The different names was Josef "faveN" Baumann, Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar, Pavle "maden" Bošković, and Dion "FASHR" Derksen. Those were the four names that were in the discussion. Some of them were not possible. With NEOFRAG, SINNERS just denied him to go. faveN went to BIG. I am not really sure we had a priority list, but I am just happy that we ended up getting Maden in the end.

After Maden's entry on ENCE, the team had made deep runs in ESL Pro League Season 15, PGL Antwerp, and IEM Dallas, and is currently ranked third in the world.

You can see the entire HLTV Confirmed in the video below. At about 19:10 the conversation about the new fifth player starts.

Snappi

Maden

NEOFRAG

FASHR

ENCE

SinnerS

Berlin International Gaming secured their first win of the Pinnacle Cup Championship in a comfortable 16-7 victory over MIBR on Nuke. That means the Brazilians find themselves in a tough situation as they have to face Heroic in a do-or-die matchup on Thursday. BIG, on the other hand, join Mezii’s side from fnatic in the Group A winners’ match to determine who will grab a spot in the upper bracket final.

BIG’s faveN delivered the best performance on the server and dropped 24 kills to help his team get their first victory at the event.

BIG – MIBR 1-0 | Nuke: 16-7 | Pinnacle Cup Championship 2022

{cflag:DE} Josef “faveN” Baumann | 24-12 K/D – 111.7 ADR – 1.60 Rating

MIBR

There is still hope for fans of ZywOo and Team Vitality to see them on the stage at PGL Antwerp. The star-studded team won their second consecutive match in a row to give themselves a chance to qualify for the Champions Stage tomorrow.

BIG was on the menu today for Vitality, who started the match perfectly on their own map pick, Mirage. The trio of ZywOo, Magisk, and dupreeh delivered on a high level for the roster, which had no problems winning Mirage after taking a huge 15-6 lead early on.

On Vertigo the game turned into a brawl with BIG performing much better. An 11-4 lead at the break was not enough for the Germans, that had to settle with going to overtime to find a winner of the second map after a huge Vitality comeback. It took two overtime series for BIG to finally get the better of the French/Danish roster and force the match to Nuke for a third decider.

The momentum carried over at the beginning of Nuke. BIG made it 7-1 completely stunning the Vitality roster. The two Danes on Vitality had a nightmare in the first half missing shots left and right, but still, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire managed to guide his team back into the game and actually ended the half by leading 8-7.

The second half was one big brawl! The two teams traded rounds back and forth in a half-filled with nerves and anxiety. It obviously had to end in overtime. The match entered the four-hour mark as the battle intensified in a fantastic exciting ending, where it was the biggest star on the server, that made the difference. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut made 38 kills during the map and secured Vitality another day on the server with a 19-17 win.

Vitality - BIG 2-1 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

16-9 (Mirage) | {cflag:FR} ZywOo - 1.54 Rating / 20-11 K-D / 97.5 ADR

19-22 (Vertigo) | {cflag:DE} faveN - 1.25 Rating / 34-28 K-D / 86.0 ADR

19-17 (Nuke) | {cflag:FR} ZywOo - 1.57 Rating / 38-24 K-D / 108.3 ADR

MVP: {cflag:FR} Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut - 1.36 Rating / 93-64 K-D / 90.5 ADR

ZywOo

Team Vitality

How good is BIG? With an excellent and flawless RMR tournament, the expectations have been sky-high for the Germans, who have not been performing like this for quite some time. But can they follow through? Today we got the first answer. Against Imperial in the opening round at the Legends Stage at PGL Antwerp, BIG proved to be the real deal. At least in the first half.

A stunning first-half against FalleN’s Imperial saw the Germans go 13-2 to completely shut down their Brazilian counterparts. A superb showing from the entire roster gave BIG every opportunity to seal the deal. But Imperial did not want to go down without a fight. The Brazilians made it all the way to 11-14 before BIG finally closed the match. 

BIG is now 1-0 up, while Imperial needs to do better if they want to make it to the stage at the PGL Antwerp Major. The second round of the Swiss Group Stage starts later tonight.

BIG - Imperial 1-0 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

16-11 (Nuke) | {cflag:DE} Josef 'faveN' Baumann - 1.24 Rating / 21-20 K-D / 85.1 ADR

Imperial

As the last match of the day at BLAST Premier Spring Groups we had FaZe versus BIG. Both teams have recently made one roster move to add in more firepower, FaZe adding "ropz" and BIG adding "faveN". Now, these two had to battle against one another for a spot in the Spring Finals.

With the first map pick BIG unsurprisingly chose to play their comfort pick of Dust2, but it was the CT-side of FaZe that got off to the best start taking a 3-0 lead. BIG then took two rounds for themselves, but that’s when “broky” started taking over, which led FaZe to take a five-round advantage. The Germans fought back hard and managed to erase a bit of the FaZe lead. At halftime, FaZe led 9-6.

The now T-side FaZe extended their lead after the break taking a commanding 12-6 lead, after “ropz” single-handedly won them the pistol round. “tabseN” and co. down six rounds, finally started showing why they picked Dust2, as they cleanly took six rounds in a row and equalized the score. Luckily for FaZe, they were able to stop the BIG-train and secure map point for themselves with two rounds to close it out. The Germans were almost able to push it into overtime but FaZe deny it and win the map 16-14.

FaZe had the second choice of map, and they decided to go with Overpass. A map on which they beat the new Vitality earlier in the tournament, where “ropz” had a superstar performance.

“syrsoN” had the highest rating of any player at the event coming into this match, and right from the get-go, he showed why, as he and his IGL “tabseN” carried BIG to a dominating 13-2 halftime score versus a stumbling FaZe.

The Germans didn’t waste any time, as they swiftly took another three rounds and dominantly closed out the map at 16-2.

Nuke was the map left over as the decider, and had BIG starting as the terrorists, while FaZe began as the CTs.

After the devastating loss on Overpass, you might think that FaZe were a little bit tilted, but that was definitely not the case as they came out scorching hot, taking the first seven rounds, while only giving up six deaths. BIG took back one round at this point, which was decisive and coordinated, but the rest of the half they simply looked lost. FaZe led 14-1 at halftime.

“karrigan” and co. closed it out in the fastest way possible by taking the two first rounds of the second half and thereby the game at 16-1.

The result sees FaZe secure their spot at BLAST Spring Finals, while BIG will have another chance tomorrow versus Astralis.

FaZe – BIG 2-1 | BLAST Premier Spring Groups

16-14 (Dust2) | faveN {cflag:DE} – 1.39 Rating / 23-13 K-D / 75.6 ADR

2-16 (Overpass) | syrsoN {cflag:DE} – 2.22 Rating / 24-7 K-D / 134.4 ADR

x-x (Nuke) | broky {cflag:LV} – 2.21 Rating / 21-1 K-D / 103.4 ADR

MVP: Florian "syrsoN" Rische {cflag:DE} – 1.21 Rating / 46-34 K-D / 74.4 ADR

broky

ropz

tabseN

syrsoN

FaZe

Gambit and BIG went head to head in the Upper Final for a spot in the Grand Final.

Gambit had the first pick, and with it they picked Ancient. The map started out wonderfully for Gambit who got a dream start, taking seven rounds before the Germans were able to get on the board with three rounds of their own. The CIS-squad managed to take a commanding 11-4 lead at halftime, with the only bright spot for BIG being a strong performance on the b-site, by newest addition “faveN”.

The second half was not any better for the Germans of BIG as they only managed to take one round before losing the map 16-5, a repeat scoreline from the last time they faced each other at V4 Future Sports Festival 2021.

With their pick, BIG chose to take it to the old classic of Dust2. The Germans got off to a good start as they went up 3-1 after losing the pistol round. An all-around well-performing Gambit squad answered back hard and managed to take nine of the last eleven of the half, sending BIG to halftime with only five rounds.

Gambit continued their streak of rounds, picking up the pistol, but were silenced in the next round by the force-buy of BIG that was getting desperate for round wins. The German squad started to look a bit more consistent than they had done the rest of the series, as they started to claw back rounds. In the end, it was all for naught as Gambit closed out the map at 16-10.

With the win, Gambit secures their spot in the Grand Final and a chance to win $150.000, while BIG will have to face Entropiq in the Consolidation Final.

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Gambit - BIG (2-0) | Funspark ULTI Finals

16-5 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le - 1.65 Rating / 23-13 K-D / 108.5 ADR

16-10 (Dust2) | {cflag:RU} sh1ro - 1.30 Rating / 19-12 K-D / 69.4 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov - 1.39 Rating / 36-19 K-D / 70.4 ADR

sh1ro

Ax1Le

Gambit Esports

Monday night BIG announced the transfer of 21-year-old Josef "faveN" Baumann and the benching of their only foreign player, Nicklas "gade" Gade.

After three years on the Sprout roster, the rifler makes the move to the rivals from BIG on a transfer of "unprecedented size in German Counter-Strike", according to BIG.

- I’m more than happy to finally become a part of BIG. Playing for the best German team was always a dream and now it has become reality! My goals with BIG are to first become a Top 10 team again, and to win big tournaments of course. I’m more motivated than ever and can’t wait to play the first games with my new team, the German player state in a press release.

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The CEO of BIG, Daniel Finkler also comments on the new signing and the benching of their Danish player Nicklas "gade" Gade.

- faveN has been in the international spotlight with his excellent performances over the last 12 months and has been on the shortlist of many clubs. In a historical context, the transfer is the most expensive deal for a German player. We are absolutely convinced that faveN, with his outstanding qualities and ambition to play at the world’s top level, is a perfect fit for BIG. At the same time, we would like to thank Nicklas “gade” Gade, who is transitioning to the bench for the time being, for his dedication and great work ethic over the past months. We are very excited about the start of the 2022 season and will kick off the year with intensive preparation in Berlin.

Josef "faveN" Baumann has been incredibly consistent in 2021 with an HLTV rating of 1.18 for Sprout.

gade

In a match from yesterday between Sprout and Anonymo at ESEA Premier Season 37, Josef "faveN" Baumann decided to bring some flashy and unique moves to the server. The 21-year-old German rushed ramp on Nuke, while bunnyhopping which clearly caught the Polish opponents off guard. 

faveN topped the impressive movement by presenting three stellar headshots, resulting in this epic highlight. 

Sprout – Anonymo (2-0) | ESEA Premier Season 37

16-7 (Inferno) | faveN – 1.48 Rating / 19-13 K-D / 94.8 ADR

16-1 (Nuke) | faveN – 2.08 Rating / 22-7 K-D / 117.2 ADR

Josef “faveN” Baumann – 1.72 Rating / 41-20 K-D / 104.3 ADR

Sprout

Anonymo

It was an all-German brawl at Flashpoint 3, where Berlin International Gaming (BIG) defeated Sprout in the lower bracket.

The match was hyped beforehand due to the upper hand, that the underdogs from Sprout have had against BIG lately. With three wins in a row, there were big expectations for Sprout, who eliminated FaZe from the tournament last week.

In the first half of the match, it seemed like Sprout lacked firepower. On Train Sprout never really had anything going for them. Instead BIG' Nils 'k1to' Gruhne did most of the dirty work and dropped 30 kills during the 24 rounds it took for BIG to silence their countrymen on their own map pick.

Dust2 continued in the same fashion. Again k1to popped off in the first half, where BIG managed to take double digits into their CT-side after the break. A big lead, that Sprout managed to equalize. The underdogs had fought their way back, and then they went on to win the overtime to force the match to Vertigo.

Again Sprout had to deal with a lackluster first half. This time BIG won the half 11-4 after a dominant performance from XANTARES, who went 26-7 in K-D during the first half! With an ADR of 169.9 the Turkish Rifler was the big difference between the two teams.

But then history repeated itself. Sprout fought their way back, and took advantage of an unfocused BIG team, who made several mistakes during the second half. At 12-12, the lead was gone. But then syrsoN woke up. The AWP'er had been quiet for most of the tournament but in the last rounds of Vertigo, he helped a struggling BIG team to 15-15 and another OT.

Here both teams had opportunities to take the win, but it was BIG who came out triumphantly after a huge brawl in the overtime

BIG will face the winner of Double Poney vs Anonymo in the next round, while Sprout is eliminated in the main tournament, and will now have to fight for extra RMR points in the 9th-12th decider bracket against FunPlus Phoenix, Complexity, and Double Poney/Anonymo.

16-8 (Train) | {cflag:DE} k1to – 1.77 Rating / 30-14 K-D / 124.4 ADR

17-19 (Dust2) | {cflag:DE} faveN – 1.51 Rating / 34-21 K-D / 93.3 ADR

19-17 (Vertigo) | {cflag:TR} XANTARES – 1.66 Rating / 39-22 K-D / 112.9 ADR

Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş – 1.38 Rating / 88-64 K-D / 101.8 ADR

XANTARES

The Germans from Sprout took down a big scalp yesterday, as they defeated the superstars from FaZe 2-1 at Flashpoint 3. The vital elimination match from the RMR event featured five strong Sproutlings, who all managed to get a positive rating at the end of the game.

The impressive display from Sprout means that that the underdogs advances to the next round where they will take on the winner of the mousesports-BIG matchup.

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Josef "faveN" Baumann from Sprout, yesterday’s highlight player with his 1.22 Rating, took his time talking with the desk following the great victory. In the post-match interview, the young rifler touched on Sprout’s goals and expectation going forward, and how it's just a matter of time before we see their top level.

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In a must-win, Bo3-series Sprout welcomed FaZe to a brawl. Going into the series the clear favorite was of course FaZe, however, after the signing of the new in-game leader “karrigan” FaZe have had issues finding their footing. Today was a showcasing of exactly that, a FaZe who looked nothing like their previous self. Going all three maps Sprout managed to defeat and eliminate the legends of FaZe with a 2-1 victory and advance further in the Flashpoint 3 event.

The first map of the series took place on Mirage. The map was the map pick of FaZe and when looking at the statistics it makes sense. FaZe has a 70% win rate on Mirage in the past 10 official matches played on the map. And despite Sprout giving it their all, today was no different. Due to a strong CT-sided performance in the second half of the map, FaZe could walk away with a 16-10 victory on Mirage.

The second map was picked by the Germans of Sprout. Unsurprisingly the map picked by Sprout was Dust 2. It is by far their most played map recently and they have an impressive 62% win rate in the past 26 official maps played. Dust 2 was a close match between two rosters eager to win. Trading rounds it was unclear as to who had the upper hand. In the end, it was the Germans of Sprout to have the slight edge over their opponents and they managed to close out the map at 16-14.

The third map was set to take place on the map of Train. Securing an 11-4 scoreline in the first half it was Sprout to start Train the strongest. The second half continued as the first had ended, with Sprout dominating FaZe. Sprout kept piling on the pressure and ended up securing the victory at a scoreline of 16-10.

16-10 FaZe (Mirage) | coldzera 1.37 Rating / 76.2 ADR / 22-13 K-D

16-14 Sprout (Dust 2) | broky 1.34 Rating / 94.5 ADR / 27-20 K-D

16-10 Sprout (Train) | faveN 1.38 Rating / 94.7 ADR / 21-16 K-D

Josef "faveN" Baumann | 1.22 Rating - 63-49 K/D - 83.7 ADR - 79.3% KAST

kressy

coldzera

Heroic is big favorites as they take on the German Sprout, Heroic has been in great form lately and has only lost two matches in the last two and a half months.

The German faveN has been in the best form lately for the German side, where he has a rating of 1.18, so he will be the player to keep an eye on. We will see if he can deliver the same numbers against one of the best teams in the world today.

Heroic

Heroic has only lost two times in the last two and a half months, and the two losses came against the Russian opponent so they should have a big chance of advancing to the Quarter-finals of the upper bracket and send Sprout to the lower bracket.

faveN is the player with the best rating in the last three months of the ten from the active roster in this game. All the Heroic players are around the rating of 1.10, and three of Sprout's roster have a rating under 1.00.

The bookmakers don't grant Sprout a big chance against the strong Heroic. A Heroic victory will only give 1.20 again and a Sprout victory will give you 6.50 again. 

Watch some highlights from the two teams last game here:

The Complexity player Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke has been on fire at the closed Flashpoint 3 qualifier. The "Juggernaut" secured a spot in the main event with a strong showing at the tournament, where especially 'k0nfig' showed up in style. On the first day of the tournament, he delivered not just one but three aces during the two matches.

The best players at the closed qualifier for Flashpoint 3.

1. {cflag:DK} k0nfig - 1.42 rating / +91 K-D

2. {cflag:DE} faveN - 1.32 rating / +90 K-D

3. {cflag:PL} KEi - 1.26 rating / +51 K-D

4. {cflag:DK} blameF - 1.24 rating / +58 K-D

5. {cflag:GB} mezii - 1.23 rating / +41 K-D

Complexity, mousesports, Sprout, and Anonymo have qualified for the main event, while HAVU and DBL Poney face each other in the fight for the last ticket.

k0nfig

blameF

mezii

compLexity Gaming

mousesports

A strong showing from kressy and company in the semi-final at EDC resulted in a victory over Sinners to secure a Grand final spot. The German-side are set to face off against smooya and company from Movistar Riders in the Grand final on Thursday at 15:00 (CET).

Train: 5-16 | NEOFRAG – 1.77 Rating | 104.2 ADR | 23-10 K/D 

Vertigo: 16-13 | faveN – 1.37 Rating | 98.0 ADR | 29-18 K/D 

Mirage: 16-9 | kressy – 1.83 Rating | 123.2 ADR | 29-16 K/D

It was a rough start for Sprout at the semi-final as their opponent came out strong with NEOFRAG in charge to quickly end the map 5-16. The Germans bounced back on Vertigo where they turned things upside down after being down 2-8 to take the game to the decider. Kressy and company put together a solid offence in large part on Mirage thanks to impact plays from kressy, which helped the German-side to claim the series and book a ticket to the Grand final.

Josef “faveN” Baumann – 1.35 Rating | 90.8 ADR | 67-46 K/D

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

faveN

Player stats

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