BIG have been an all-German lineup again for a few months and their hard work as a unit is beginning to pay off. They finished in the top 16 at ESL Pro League Season 19 and are beginning to look a real force with their new stars Jon “JDC” de Castro and Florian “syrsoN” Rische.

With BIG set to kick off their CCT Global Finals 2024 campaign against Astralis shortly, we spoke with BIG captain Johannes “Tabsen” Wodarz about the team’s growth and his hopes for the event. 

“I'm looking forward to checking our own progress”

 

You play Astralis in your first game; how do you feel about them as opponents?

You play Astralis in your first game; how do you feel about them as opponents?

We're looking forward to playing against them. They have been one of the best teams recently and are fast rising, I'm looking forward to checking our own progress against them.

You have a decent history in CCT, what does the Global Final mean for the team?

It's a huge milestone for us just like it is for anyone else. Getting to the playoffs or further is a huge goal for us, especially if this calibre of team is also competing in it. 

Before we speak about the current team, what are your thoughts on seeing s1n do well on M80 so far?

I'm really, really proud of him. Seeing this kind of achievement come from a German player who was playing with us for a long time is a huge piece of positive feedback that we did something right and I'm really happy we accomplished that together. 

I think he will keep growing and become one of the best leaders, not only for himself but for the team as well, because they need him the most.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what he can accomplish in a few months or a year if he continues to be an IGL. At some point I'm going to have to hang my mouse up so if we have some other leaders out there in the German scene then I'll know we are covered. 

"JDC brings tonnes of positive vibes"

 

Now that this team has had time to gel, what is the biggest difference between this BIG team and the previous one?

For me, it's experience. The way we handle situations, the way we communicate, we can be more open with each other - these are some of the biggest differences. 

Oh, and also the vibes. JDC brings tonnes of positive vibes, he's a really good guy to have around who always has good energy and it's really fun to talk to him and play with him. This is something you need the most when you're in a huge disadvantage situation in a game because a guy like that, who really believes in the team, and has the voice and body language to do so can really push you back up.

syrsoN, for me, is the best German AWPer, so he brings a lot of experience that we can rely on. Krimbo and prosus don't have the most experience, even if Krimbo is the most skilled in our team, so we need to be the backup plan everyone can rely on. 

How much of a boost is it being able to communicate in German again?

To be fair, the language change was big, but at this point in CS you can't play speaking the perfect language or with perfect communication. At some point, the skill needs to be there even if you have no communication. Teamplay without communication is a really important skill to be had and this is something you can do without speaking.

Personally, it's more important outside of the game. When you hang out and you speak in your mother tongue, it's different when there is one guy who doesn't speak the language and you feel, not sad, but it's weird if there's one person who doesn't quite understand how you want to talk and behave. 

In general, I'm really happy that we get to speak in German and that we have skilled enough players that we can hopefully achieve the German dream of winning IEM Cologne or lifting the Major trophy.

JDC previously spoke to BLAST.tv about his maturity and how he grew after leaving MOUZ, what do you see from him in terms of his maturity?

I had never really spoken to him outside of playing games, but from the first time we spoke I could tell that he is someone who wants to take responsibility and have pressure on his shoulders.

He wants it to be that if he fucks up, he fucks up, but it's on him. He wants to have this standard and for me as an IGL and captain, it's really good to have a player like this. 

It's something that not everyone wants to have or can live up to, but he's the guy and I'm really grateful to have him to share responsibility and pressure with.

“He wants to be the best for himself whereas I want to be the best for the team”

 

You said the same thing to BLAST.tv about liking pressure and responsibility and that being why you hold the IGL role, does JDC remind you of yourself in that sense?

Not in that way, his responsibility is to win the game for himself, he wants to be the best for himself whereas I want to be the best for the team.

He wants to be the star and he wants to be the game-changer, which reminds me of back in the day when I was on NRG or first on BIG, I wasn't an IGL back then and I felt like I needed to be that guy. 

If you have that kind of mentality and you have the potential to be a star, combining that with hard work and belief, which is something he does, it's great. This mentality is something I look forward to having around myself, these types of people who are mentally strong and who blow me away in-game.

You had a decent run at Pro League and you have CCT now, how are you feeling about the development of this roster and what are your goals between now and the end of the year?

We did a boot camp before Pro League and everything clicked more after that; the vibes, the overview, the mindset, it's completely changed in the team. We are bonding as a team and this is something I look forward to doing more in the next few months. 

For us, the next few tournaments aren't life-changing but they are really important to us because we need to grind points for IEM Cologne. There will be a qualification spot as well, but we want to have it in our hands and the sooner the better. We start with CCT and then we have IEM Dallas and YaLLa Compass, these tournaments are really important to us in terms of getting closer to our biggest goal of playing in Cologne and hopefully, in front of the crowd.

Also, I want to show that we are a good team. We had a couple of rough months of years as a team, and I want to show that we can bounce back and be the best that we can be.