BIG player Jon "JDC" de Castro shared his thoughts on the team’s tough match and his personal performance. In an interview with Bo3.gg, he reflected on what went wrong during the game on Ancient, addressed FaZe’s strategies, and highlighted his support system, as well as the current issues in CS2, including performance optimization and balancing mechanics like wide-strafing.

Hello, JDC. Tough match for you. What went wrong?

I think the main problem was Ancient. We lost our pick because I completely choked. I didn’t play well at all, and I needed to perform on that map to win. Other than that, we played a very good game and could have won. But, like I said, my performance on Ancient cost us the series.

How difficult was the match on a scale from 1 to 10?

I’d say 7 out of 10. They are great players, they know the game well. They’re the big boys, but it still felt winnable. One of the maps was one-sided, they smashed us there, but on Ancient and Mirage, we had control. It just didn’t go our way.

Did FaZe surprise you with anything? Maybe they studied your demos?

Yeah, they definitely prepared for me on Ancient, especially mid. I expected it, but I just couldn’t handle it the way I wanted. My T-side was bad, but the real problem was our CT-side. We lost rounds because I missed duels or we made small mistakes. But no, they didn’t surprise us, we were ready for what they brought.

Let’s move on. Who supports you the most—fans, family?

My family is very supportive, but my biggest support comes from my team. And my girlfriend, she’s always there for me, has my back in every moment. Huge thanks to her. The fans have been great too. Sometimes I wish they supported us more in tough times, but right now, it’s in a good place. Thanks to everyone cheering for us.

Do fans message you a lot?

Oh yeah, definitely. I get a lot of positive feedback, but also some negativity—it’s just how it is. We have a lot of fans, and they are very interactive, which I like.

What’s the biggest issue in CS2 right now?

Performance. The game runs really bad, it’s very unoptimized, laggy. Ping makes a huge difference. On LAN, it feels fine, but if you play with 10 or 50 ping, it’s almost unplayable. They need to fix the optimization ASAP.

What do you think about jumping and shooting with Tec-9, MP9, or Mac-10? Is it a big problem?

We’ve adjusted to it, but wide-strafing is really OP. You can just peek everything, so AWPers have to be on point. For riflers, it’s not that bad, but for AWPers, it’s a huge issue.

What’s your opinion on the new ranking update? Will it help or hurt tier-one teams?

I haven’t thought about it much, but I don’t think it will change too much.

I meant the removal of open qualifiers for the Major.

Oh, I misunderstood. Yeah, the ranking system is unbalanced. It favors top teams, while smaller teams have little chance to qualify. You can still qualify online, but with the current ELO system, since there was no reset, it’s unfair for smaller orgs. They need to adjust the point system to make it better.

BIG lost to FaZe and dropped to the lower bracket, where they will face 3DMAX. You can follow the news, schedule, and tournament results at the link.